FTDI basic with Arduino breadboard

Other Miscellaneous
1

Hello, I am going through the Arduino Workshop book by Boxall and I am on project 37 with an Arduino built on a breadboard. I have a working breadboard by loading the sketch onto the chip while it is was on an Uno. But I cannot get the sketch to upload through the FTDI basic board (5 V). The TX light blinks but that is about it. I have downloaded the FTDI drivers. I have tried swapping the TX/RX hookup to no avail.

2

Hi purlwind.

A quick test you can do to check the FTDI is to connect RX and TX together with a wire, then go into the IDE and open the serial monitor on the same port as the FTDI and send some text. It should show up in the lower portion of the serial monitor when you do that if the FTDI is working.

If you’ve gotten that far, verify you have a 10K resistor connected between +5 volts and reset and a 0.1uF capacitor between your FTDI’s RTS pin and reset.

If you’re still having trouble, post a couple of clear pictures showing how things a re connected together so we can all see what you have.

3

Hi TS-Chris,

Thank you for the reply. The TX/RX test worked. For the FTDI RTS pin- do you mean the DTR pin? Also you state connecting this to reset via 0.1uF capacitor. So this would be different than the attached schematic, correct? I have attached 2 photos, hopefully they are clear enough.

breadboard_arduino_schematic.png

breadboard_arduino_photo1.jpg
breadboard_arduino_photo1.jpg432×768 59.7 KB

breadboard_arduino_photo2.jpg
breadboard_arduino_photo2.jpg432×768 66.1 KB

Thanks,

Purlwind (Scott)

4

do you mean the DTR pin?

Yes, that was a typo on my part. Sorry about that!

Does pressing the reset button cause your D13 LED to blink a few times? If so, the reset circuit is working OK. You might try a different cap and see if maybe that’s the issue.

5

Hi Chris,

I tested the reset button and it works. I tried a different cap and it still does not work. Note that when I attempt to upload, the D13 LED blinks like a reset then it goes to original program. The IDE is stuck “uploading” and if I hit an upload again it states it cannot open the device on the COM port. Please advise.

Thanks,

Scott

6

Hi Scott.

Other than making sure that TX connects to pin 2 and RX connects to pin 3, the only other thing I can think to check would be that your crystal is 16MHz. If it’s another speed, the IDE isn’t going to sync up with the chip.

7

Well, I got it working. I changed the board setting from Duemilanove as in the instructions to Nano and it worked. It also works set at Uno. Sorry to trouble you, but the troubleshooting has been educational on my end.

Thanks,

Scott