Feather 328P "avrdude: stk500_recv(): programmer is not responding"

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ja_berlin
 
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Feather 328P "avrdude: stk500_recv(): programmer is not responding"

Post by ja_berlin »

Hi all,
I very recently started my journey with Adafruit microcontrollers ordering a Trinket M0, a Gemma M0 and a Feather 328P from Berrybase in Berlin, Germany (their support asked me to mention this here). While the Trinket M0 worked well with both Circuit Python and Arduino IDE, programmed and running as intended, I have a serious issue with the Feather 328P.
When I connect the Feather to my laptop, using the same cable and USB port as with the Trinket, the yellow LED (charging) is flickering, and the red LED is constantly blinking 3 times, pauses for maybe a second, and blinks again. A USB port "Silicon Labs CP210x UART Bridge" is opened. In Arduino IDE 2.0.1 (linux AppImage) a devices is found "Unknown". I change this to "Adafruit Feather 328P" and try to upload an empty sketch and get the error

avrdude: stk500_recv(): programmer is not responding
avrdude: stk500_recv(): programmer is not responding
avrdude: stk500_initialize(): failed
avrdude: initialization failed, rc=-1

Plus the double check connections etc., which I tried. From some internet search it seems the bootloader is wrong, as the same Arduino IDE, cable and port are working fine with the Trinket M0.
Is there something I can do to get this working? I do have some experience with no-name Arduino Uno boards, and have these at hand, as well as cables, but have no experience in rewriting bootloaders.

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mikeysklar
 
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Re: Feather 328P "avrdude: stk500_recv(): programmer is not responding"

Post by mikeysklar »

The Feather 328p requires the reset button to be pressed (just once) 1-2 seconds before the upload from the Arduino IDE is supposed to start. I normally let the code finish compiling, press reset, then press the upload button from the Arduino IDE.

The timing is much easier on the M0 boards as the bootloader sits waiting patiently for the code to upload. It is not limited to a small time window.

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ja_berlin
 
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Re: Feather 328P "avrdude: stk500_recv(): programmer is not responding"

Post by ja_berlin »

I now tried several times with different timings of resetting and uploading, the error remains the same. Any other ideas?

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mikeysklar
 
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Joined: Mon Aug 01, 2016 8:10 pm

Re: Feather 328P "avrdude: stk500_recv(): programmer is not responding"

Post by mikeysklar »

While it could be other things in this case it is still most likely reset button timing.

Here is another way to figure out the reset press.

In the Arduino IDE turn on verbose output File --> Preferences --> Upload.

You will now be able to see avrdude sending packets that look like:

avrdude: Send: 0 [xx][xx]

You need to hit reset just before those packages start flying.

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ja_berlin
 
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Re: Feather 328P "avrdude: stk500_recv(): programmer is not responding"

Post by ja_berlin »

Thanks for that tip, the upload output did not contain avrdude send, but I manage to upload the sketch with something like a 50% chance by repeated press of the button. Difficult to get the timing right, not good, but seems to be ok. Thanks again!

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mikeysklar
 
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Re: Feather 328P "avrdude: stk500_recv(): programmer is not responding"

Post by mikeysklar »

Thank you for the feedback. Glad to hear you were succesfful in getting an upload to take.

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