FTDI Friend

[ryanmcgreevy]

I recently bought a FTDI friend to program a perfboard based arduino I built. After having issues getting the code to upload, I hooked the FTDI friend up to an actual arduino uno and have the same problems. On windows when I try to upload, I get:

avrdude: stk500_getsync(): not in sync: resp=0x00

I wanted to make sure it wasn't my driver (using the latest from ftdi site), so I tried the same thing in Ubuntu and got:

avrdude: stk500_recv(): programmer is not responding

When shift+uploading on either OS I get:

avrdude: usbdev_open(): did not find any USB device "usb"

The FTDI friend successfully provides power to the arduino and when I click upload, TX on the FTDI friend blinks 3 times. This happens on both the real arduino and the perfboard one (along with all the same errors). Any suggestions?

[ryanmcgreevy]

Oh and yes I'm sure that I'm using the right COM ports, and I just double checked with a different USB cable, so that's not the issue either.

[jpbot]

Did you choose the correct "Board" for the boot loader you're using? I saw the same error you're reporting from Linux on Mac OS X when I picked up an Ethernet Arduino and didn't choose UNO instead of Duemilanove for the board type.

As a test right now I just choose UNO and tried to upload to a Evil Mad Science Diavolino and see:

Code: Select all

avrdude: stk500_recv(): programmer is not responding

If I switch to Duemilanove w/ATMega328 it works just fine.

[adafruit_support_bill]

avrdude: usbdev_open(): did not find any USB device "usb"

What command line are you using? And what operating system?
It is looking for a device called "usb". FInd out what name the system assigned to your FTDI friend when you installed it.

[ryanmcgreevy]

Did you choose the correct "Board" for the boot loader you're using?

Yeah, I switched the board type on each OS to Duemilanove w/ATMega328 . In fact to rule it out, I had tried it with EVERY board type that has an ATMega328 with no luck.

What command line are you using? And what operating system?

Nothing from the command line, that is the output in the Arduino IDE at the bottom when I click shift+upload. This is happening on both Ubuntu (using built in kernel drivers) and Windows (using latest drivers from FTDI site). What do you mean by it's "name"/how do I find that out (on either windows or linux?). Is this different form the COM port assignment?

[ryanmcgreevy]

Also, when I upload, the FTDI friend does seem to reset the arduino. It resets, the TX light on the FTDI board blinks 3 times, and then it just hangs for about 10 seconds before resetting again and failing. I don't know if the TX/RX lights are supposed to blink on the arduino like they do when you upload over USB, but they aren't with the FTDI. Also, I made a loopback on the FTDI Friend and sent some test sequences across and received them back, so the tx/rx seem to be working properly....

[ryanmcgreevy]

It looks like I sort of figured out the problem. I tried using an older version of the Arduino IDE (was using 1.0, now tried 0022) and it seems to be working fine now (only on 0222 though). It looks like something changed in 1.0...should be something you guys could easily reproduce over there.

[ryanmcgreevy]

I recently wanted to use this perfboard arduino again and so I faced this problem yet another time. I didn't want to keep using my version 0022 workaround, so I tried appending the entry from the 0022 boards.txt to the latest version (1.0.1) boards.txt:

##############################################################

atmega328.name=FTDI

atmega328.upload.protocol=stk500
atmega328.upload.maximum_size=30720
atmega328.upload.speed=57600

atmega328.bootloader.low_fuses=0xFF
atmega328.bootloader.high_fuses=0xDA
atmega328.bootloader.extended_fuses=0x05
atmega328.bootloader.path=atmega
atmega328.bootloader.file=ATmegaBOOT_168_atmega328.hex
atmega328.bootloader.unlock_bits=0x3F
atmega328.bootloader.lock_bits=0x0F

atmega328.build.mcu=atmega328p
atmega328.build.f_cpu=16000000L
atmega328.build.core=arduino

Now I can simply use that board entry in the IDE when uploading using the FTDI friend. I don't know enough about arduinos to know what difference the variables make, but if anyone else happens across this problem, hopefully this solution will help you.