Help

by shouldice on Fri Sep 13, 2019 9:13 pm

Hi there!

I just received my Feather 328P and I'm trying to upload a blink sketch. When I plug the board into my mac, the yellow CHG led flashes very quickly. Trying to upload a sketch gives the following error:

avrdude: stk500_recv(): programmer is not responding

(I'll include the full verbose report at the end of this post)

Things I've done:

Installed the SiLabs drivers
Set the board to "Arduino Pro or Pro Mini"
Set the chip to ATmega328P 3.3v, 8MHz
Set the port to /dev/cu.SLAB_USBtoUART

I also installed the actual Adafruit 328 BSP with similar results. I tried a few different USB cables; no dice.

If I press the button on the board, the red led flashes three times. The yellow CHG led continues to blink quickly.

If my board dead? What does the fast-flash CHG led mean? Do I need to select a particular programmer from the Tools menu? Am I just missing something?

Thanks in advance for your help! :)

Code: Select all | TOGGLE FULL SIZE: avrdude: Version 6.3-20190619 Copyright (c) 2000-2005 Brian Dean, http://www.bdmicro.com/ Copyright (c) 2007-2014 Joerg Wunsch System wide configuration file is "/private/var/folders/9w/2cw1h2jd35vdmqypqxclqfvm0000gn/T/AppTranslocation/54A80747-AA6A-4D04-A0F2-AC56C2AE9A64/d/Arduino.app/Contents/Java/hardware/tools/avr/etc/avrdude.conf" User configuration file is "/Users/andrewshouldice/.avrduderc" User configuration file does not exist or is not a regular file, skipping Using Port : /dev/cu.SLAB_USBtoUART Using Programmer : arduino Overriding Baud Rate : 57600 AVR Part : ATmega328P Chip Erase delay : 9000 us PAGEL : PD7 BS2 : PC2 RESET disposition : dedicated RETRY pulse : SCK serial program mode : yes parallel program mode : yes Timeout : 200 StabDelay : 100 CmdexeDelay : 25 SyncLoops : 32 ByteDelay : 0 PollIndex : 3 PollValue : 0x53 Memory Detail : Block Poll Page Polled Memory Type Mode Delay Size Indx Paged Size Size #Pages MinW MaxW ReadBack ----------- ---- ----- ----- ---- ------ ------ ---- ------ ----- ----- --------- eeprom 65 20 4 0 no 1024 4 0 3600 3600 0xff 0xff flash 65 6 128 0 yes 32768 128 256 4500 4500 0xff 0xff lfuse 0 0 0 0 no 1 0 0 4500 4500 0x00 0x00 hfuse 0 0 0 0 no 1 0 0 4500 4500 0x00 0x00 efuse 0 0 0 0 no 1 0 0 4500 4500 0x00 0x00 lock 0 0 0 0 no 1 0 0 4500 4500 0x00 0x00 calibration 0 0 0 0 no 1 0 0 0 0 0x00 0x00 signature 0 0 0 0 no 3 0 0 0 0 0x00 0x00 Programmer Type : Arduino Description : Arduino avrdude: stk500_recv(): programmer is not responding avrdude: stk500_recv(): programmer is not responding avrdude: stk500_recv(): programmer is not responding avrdude: stk500_recv(): programmer is not responding Hardware Version: 62563643 Firmware Version: -335003808.32766 Topcard : STK502 avrdude: stk500_recv(): programmer is not responding avrdude: stk500_recv(): programmer is not responding avrdude: stk500_recv(): programmer is not responding avrdude: stk500_recv(): programmer is not responding avrdude: stk500_recv(): programmer is not responding Vtarget : 3267.1 V Varef : 3.2 V Oscillator : 0.001 Hz SCK period : 35553.4 us avrdude: stk500_recv(): programmer is not responding avrdude: stk500_recv(): programmer is not responding avrdude: stk500_recv(): programmer is not responding avrdude: initialization failed, rc=-1 Double check connections and try again, or use -F to override this check. avrdude: stk500_recv(): programmer is not responding avrdude done. Thank you. Problem uploading to board. See http://www.arduino.cc/en/Guide/Troubleshooting#upload for suggestions.

by shouldice on Mon Sep 16, 2019 6:18 pm

Followup with some extra information:

I got ahold of the distributor, Elmwood Electronics, who suggested we wait for official Adafruit support to take a look. (This thread.)
This seems to be a something of a known issue, or at least a preexisting one — the behaviour I'm seeing is the same as in this video.

by millercommamatt on Mon Sep 16, 2019 6:32 pm

The rapidly flashing yellow LED just means there isn't a battery connected.

What's your OS? The Port is different from what I usually see. I usually see COM# (where # is a number).

by shouldice on Mon Sep 16, 2019 6:37 pm

Thanks for the reply, and for the info about the yellow LED.

millercommamatt wrote:What's your OS? The Port is different from what I usually see. I usually see COM# (where # is a number).

I'm running macOS Mojave (10.14.6).

by mikeholczer on Wed Sep 18, 2019 7:27 pm

I am having the same symptoms, though I have found that if keep try some time I am able to get a successful upload to the board by pressing the reset button right after the first "programmer is not responding" message. I have verbose logging when uploading enabled.

I'm on macOS 10.14.6, using the 1.8.10 Arduino IDE

by shouldice on Thu Sep 19, 2019 9:07 am

mikeholczer wrote:though I have found that if keep try some time I am able to get a successful upload to the board by pressing the reset button right after the first "programmer is not responding" message

Thanks for the help Mike. I've been able to upload some sketches now too, but it requires some delicate timing. If I just try to upload, I now get this:

Code: Select all | TOGGLE FULL SIZE: avrdude: stk500_getparm(): (a) protocol error, expect=0x14, resp=0xe0 avrdude: stk500_getparm(): (a) protocol error, expect=0x14, resp=0xe0 avrdude: stk500_getparm(): (a) protocol error, expect=0x14, resp=0x00 avrdude: stk500_getparm(): (a) protocol error, expect=0x14, resp=0x00 Hardware Version: 248706363 Firmware Version: -521146320.32766 Topcard : STK502 avrdude: stk500_getparm(): (a) protocol error, expect=0x14, resp=0x00 avrdude: stk500_getparm(): (a) protocol error, expect=0x14, resp=0xe0 avrdude: stk500_getparm(): (a) protocol error, expect=0x14, resp=0x00 avrdude: stk500_getparm(): (a) protocol error, expect=0x14, resp=0xe0 avrdude: stk500_getparm(): (a) protocol error, expect=0x14, resp=0xe0 Vtarget : 3268.9 V Varef : 3.2 V Oscillator : 0.001 Hz SCK period : 35553.4 us avrdude: stk500_getparm(): (a) protocol error, expect=0x14, resp=0xe0 avrdude: stk500_getparm(): (a) protocol error, expect=0x14, resp=0xe0 avrdude: stk500_initialize(): (a) protocol error, expect=0x14, resp=0x00 avrdude: initialization failed, rc=-1 Double check connections and try again, or use -F to override this check. avrdude: stk500_disable(): protocol error, expect=0x14, resp=0xe0 avrdude done. Thank you. the selected serial port does not exist or your board is not connected

but if I

hold the reset button on the board
click upload in the IDE
wait for about 5 seconds and release the reset button on the board

then the sketch will upload. It seems like the some part of board reset sequence and some part of the upload sequence need to sync up just right for it to work.

If I wait too short a time before releasing the button, I get the following error:

Code: Select all | TOGGLE FULL SIZE: avrdude: stk500_getsync() attempt 1 of 10: not in sync: resp=0xe0 avrdude: stk500_getsync() attempt 2 of 10: not in sync: resp=0xe0 avrdude: stk500_getsync() attempt 3 of 10: not in sync: resp=0x00 avrdude: stk500_getsync() attempt 4 of 10: not in sync: resp=0x00 avrdude: stk500_getsync() attempt 5 of 10: not in sync: resp=0x00 avrdude: stk500_getsync() attempt 6 of 10: not in sync: resp=0xe0 avrdude: stk500_getsync() attempt 7 of 10: not in sync: resp=0x00 avrdude: stk500_getsync() attempt 8 of 10: not in sync: resp=0xe0 avrdude: stk500_getsync() attempt 9 of 10: not in sync: resp=0xe0 avrdude: stk500_getsync() attempt 10 of 10: not in sync: resp=0xe0 avrdude done. Thank you. An error occurred while uploading the sketch

if I wait too long, then I get this:

Code: Select all | TOGGLE FULL SIZE: avrdude: stk500_recv(): programmer is not responding avrdude: stk500_getsync() attempt 1 of 10: not in sync: resp=0x00 avrdude: stk500_recv(): programmer is not responding

... and releasing the reset button at that point immediately runs through the rest of the getsync attempts and fails.

I hope this extra information helps troubleshoot the problem, thanks!

by adafruit_support_carter on Thu Sep 19, 2019 3:13 pm

I also installed the actual Adafruit 328 BSP with similar results

When you did this, did you switch to selecting Feather 328P from the boards list?
https://learn.adafruit.com/adafruit-fea ... setup-5-13

For testing, use the basic blink example:
File -> Examples -> 01.Basics -> Blink
and see if you can upload that OK. If you get the same behavior during upload, try pressing the reset button after starting upload. Similar to this sequence:
https://learn.adafruit.com/adafruit-fea ... aq-2704880

What SiLabs drivers did you install? Where did you download them?

by mikeholczer on Thu Sep 19, 2019 3:18 pm

I have the correct board selected and can replicate the issue with the example blink sketch. Hitting the reset button during upload sometimes makes it work. Is it expected that one would need to time hitting the reset button in order to upload? If so, that should be included in the Learn guide for the board.

by adafruit_support_carter on Thu Sep 19, 2019 6:13 pm

What SiLabs drivers did you install? Where did you download them?

by mikeholczer on Thu Sep 19, 2019 6:23 pm

Not at my computer right now, but I believe I downloaded the latest 64bit macOS driver from the site linked in the learn guide.

by mikeholczer on Thu Sep 19, 2019 6:35 pm

I’ll try to get the version number when I get home.

by shouldice on Thu Sep 19, 2019 6:51 pm

Hello, original poster here:

I'm using the correct board selection, yes. ("Adafruit Feather 328P" in the "Board" menu)
I'm using the SiLabs driver version 5.2.1 from here, as directed on Adafruit's "Arduino IDE Setup" page.
When uploading a blink sketch as you described, I see the behaviour in my post above.
When I try double-tapping the reset button during upload (as described in the help page you linked), the board seems to more reliably receive the blink sketch, but I suspect it might just be because more taps are more likely to catch the upload retry at the right time — it seems like I need to have released the button just before the next "avrdude: stk500_recv(): programmer is not responding" shows up.

At this point I'm resigned to hitting the reset button every time I upload new code, but am I correct in assuming this is not intended behaviour? If I attach a featherwing and make the reset button harder to access, will I have to attach an external switch to the reset pin in order to upload new code? Is this a problem with all Feather 328Ps?

Thank you in advance!

by mikeholczer on Thu Sep 19, 2019 9:26 pm

From the release notes of the SiLabs drivers I downloaded I have version "CP210x Macintosh OS X VCP Driver v5". Inside the installer it's says 5.2.1

by adafruit_support_carter on Fri Sep 20, 2019 2:27 pm

Oops. Didn't realize there was a double post going on here. @mikeholczer Can you please start a new thread for your issue. You can link to this one for reference if you want.

by adafruit_support_carter on Fri Sep 20, 2019 2:31 pm

@shouldice Sometimes the board can get in a weird state with the user program that is running which prevents the IDE from being able to reset it for reprogramming. So that recovery process above has you use Blink and a manual reset to get back to known good state. But after that it should *hopefully* work again. After doing the recovery steps, try just changing the blink rate and then re-uploading the Blink sketch but this time without the manual reset. Does it behave better then?

Feather 328P, fast yellow blink, programmer is not respondin Moderators: adafruit_support_bill, adafruit

Feather 328P, fast yellow blink, programmer is not respondin
Moderators: adafruit_support_bill, adafruit