New USBtinyISP won't load bootloader to ATTiny85

[papakpmartin]

System: MacBook Pro (retina), 10.9.5
IDE: Arduino 1.6.2 (with attiny hardware loaded and Adafruit_NeoPixel library added)

My son and I just built a new USBtinyISP kit. I think we did OK. Pictures here:

• https://www.flickr.com/photos/49817980@ ... otostream/
• https://www.flickr.com/photos/49817980@ ... otostream/
• https://www.flickr.com/photos/49817980@ ... otostream/

Plugged it in to my Mac and the green light came on. Ran "System Information" and saw that "USBtiny" was available. This was true both with and without a USB 2.0 hub in the mix. This screenshot is with the hub: https://www.flickr.com/photos/49817980@ ... otostream/

Attempted to wire the programmer to a brand new from DigiKey ATTINY85-20PU by following these instructions (http://www.instructables.com/id/Use-a-1 ... rogrammer/) and here's what it looked like as we tried to use it: https://www.flickr.com/photos/49817980@N08/16400890404/

• Blue is reset (on the USBtinyISP side, this was the slot with the triangle pointing to it)
• Black is GND
• Red is VCC
• Greens are PWMs
• Yellow is ADC1

Opened Arduino.app and attempted to set things up properly:

• Board: https://www.flickr.com/photos/49817980@N08/16997292386/
• Processor: https://www.flickr.com/photos/49817980@ ... otostream/
• Clock: https://www.flickr.com/photos/49817980@ ... otostream/
• Port: https://www.flickr.com/photos/49817980@ ... otostream/
• Programmer: https://www.flickr.com/photos/49817980@ ... otostream/

Then tried to "Burn bootloader" only to get this...

Code: Select all

avrdude: initialization failed, rc=-1
         Double check connections and try again, or use -F to override
         this check.

Error while burning bootloader.

Screenshot here: https://www.flickr.com/photos/49817980@ ... otostream/

Miscellaneous notes:

• I tried multiple clock speeds with no difference
• I tried testing voltage coming out of the USBtinyISP and got 5V only when JP3 was on. Sadly I left the jumper on when I set the ATTiny85 back up and it got nice and toasty. I expect it's dead, but I ordered a few as spares because I figured I'd do something stupid.
• I did not do any of the AVRDUDE to AVRStudio setup as I didn't think it was necessary if I was using Arduino.app
• I really did nothing other than described above... I mean that I performed no steps that I didn't document above

Can anyone help?

[adafruit_support_rick]

I think you've got the wrong pin mappings on your jumpers. You should be using this pinout:

ICSP pinout.png (9.88 KiB) Viewed 2663 times

Your blue wire is on pin 1 and should go to MISO. Follow the diagram for the rest of the pins

[papakpmartin]

I see that I didn't know how to read that pinout... I was looking at the holes facing me. OK, I've rewired to...

• Red: ICSP Pin 2 (+V) to ATTINY85 Pin 8 (+V)
• Black: ICSP Pin 6 (GND) to ATTINY85 Pin 4 (GND)
• Blue: ICSP Pin 5 (RESET) to ATTINY85 Pin 1 (RESET)
• Yellow: ICSP Pin 3 (SCK) to ATTINY85 Pin 7 (ADC1)
• Orange: ICSP Pin 1 (MSIO) to ATTINY85 Pin 6 (PWM1)
• Green: ICSP Pin 4 (MOSI) to ATTINY85 Pin 5 (PWM0)

Pictures:

• https://www.flickr.com/photos/49817980@N08/16411150463/
• https://www.flickr.com/photos/49817980@N08/17029861002/
• https://www.flickr.com/photos/49817980@N08/16845099379/

For the first time we've seen the red light flash briefly (yay) but we still saw the same message. Except for once... I plugged in my presumed-toasted ATTINY85 (see above) and Arduino.app gave me a note that I failed to copy that said something along the lines of the chip not being the ATTINY85 it expected... it didn't match the ID or signature or something.

In all cases now I'm getting the message noted in the first post.

Does my pinout look right now? Anything I can try next?

I only have one pristine ATTINY85 left... I'm getting worried. :)

[Franklin97355]

According to your pictures you are setting the clock to 8mhz external but I see no external clock source.

[papakpmartin]

Thrashing, I'm sure. I think I started with 8MHz Internal per the Instructables linked above. However, I've also read that fresh ATTINYs need 1MHz for first boatloader.

Do you have a recommendation?

[papakpmartin]

Yep... tried again using 8MHz Internal. Same result.

Also, with the now-correct (I think) wiring, I've retried with and without USB 2 hub. No joy.

[papakpmartin]

A couple more observations:

• I'm not providing any additional power anywhere and I've tried having JP3 open and closed
• We assembled it without R4 and R7 because we don't have/use the SpokePOV kit... so just jumpers there (prob obvious from photos, but just in case not noticed)

[adafruit_support_rick]

The USBtiny is working. The rc = -1 error means that the USBtiny can't communicate with the target ATtiny85. Hard to say exactly what the problem is. Can you post a picture with your current wiring?

[papakpmartin]

Hopefully this shows enough. Thanks very much for looking.

• https://www.flickr.com/photos/49817980@N08/17042292232/
• https://www.flickr.com/photos/49817980@N08/17043768575/

[papakpmartin]

It would also be great to have advice concerning clock speed, JP3, etc.

I think I should do a pristine chip at 1Hz with JP3 closed.

[adafruit_support_rick]

That looks right.
The default clock setting is 1MHz, I think.
You definitely want JP3 installed.

[Franklin97355]

There are a lot of articles on programming the ATtiny85 with and without an Arduino.

[papakpmartin]

Thanks Rick, I'll give it another run. And thanks Franklin... many of those links showed up as "visited" already but I'll keep reading. :)

[papakpmartin]

JOY! We just had to take the plunge and use our last ATTINY... all worked exactly as expected, and we got our NeoPixel ring up and rocking as easy as could be.

Thanks!

[adafruit_support_rick]

Congrats!