AVR-IO-M16 Fuses Fine, But Stopped Programming

Development Boards MicroMod
1

I bought an AVR-IO-M16 and was working on a program for it. Everything was going fine and I was compiling and downloading programs to the board, testing etc. Then, it suddenly stopped programming. The fuses are should all be fine since it was programming before and all I was doing was downloading programs to flash, not changing fuses. I’m using an STK-500 to program. I’ve verified that the STK-500 is still fine by programming an AVR-P28 that I also bought. Programming it with the same cable, same program, same STK-500 works without problems.

So…any suggestions about what might have happened? The chip continues to run when I apply power so the Atmega16 isn’t fried. Is it possible for the ISP programming part of the chip to fry while the rest still works? Unfortunately, the Atmega16 is SMT soldered to the board or I’d take the chip out and try to program it directly in the STK-500. Because of that I also can’t high voltage program the chip, or at least I can’t think of a workable way to do that. Any advice about how to get it to program again? There is a JTAG port on the board. Might using JTAG work? (I don’t have a JTAG device, but maybe I can find someone who does if that might help.)

Any and all suggestions appreciated.

Thanks,

Eric

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Quick update. Though trying different things I have been able to program the chip again, but there is still a problem.

I removed the VTarget jumper to remove power from the target board and I was able to read fuses and download a program to flash. But – only the FIRST operation to the board works. Every subsequent operation fails until power to the STK-500 is turned off and then on again. Then one operation and every operation after that fails until power is cycled again.

I can read fuses once after turning the STK-500 on, then I get garbage when reading fuses the next time. After reading fuses, programming also fails. If I read fuses, turn off STK-500, turn on STK-500 then program, it works. If I try to read or verify program, it fails. If I turn power to STK-500 off and then on it works the first time and fails after that.

Any suggestions what might be going on ?

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I’m sure you’ve checked this: is there a good common ground between the two?

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stevech:
I’m sure you’ve checked this: is there a good common ground between the two?

Yes, I’m using the 10 pin programming header from the stk-500 through the cable that came with the stk-500 to the olimex board. Vcc and Gnd are coming from the stk-500 through the cable.