Pocket AVR Programmer not working

Components & Accessories
1

Hello I used the Pocket AVR Programmer for a while a few years ago, now I get errors. I am on a win10 machine. I tried with arduino ide version 1 and 2 latest standard versions. I am trying to program a standard uno and also tried a mega2560. I am following the Hook up guide for the programmer. I tried the AVRDUDE test command and got:

C:\Users\perigalacticon>avrdude -c usbtiny -p atmega328p

Error: Invalid argument
Error: initialization failed  (rc = -1)
 - double check the connections and try again
 - use -B to set lower the bit clock frequency, e.g. -B 125kHz
 - use -F to override this check

USB access errors detected; this could have many reasons; if it is
USB permission problems, avrdude is likely to work when run as root
but this is not good practice; instead you might want to
check out USB port permissions on your OS and set them correctly

Avrdude done.  Thank you.

When I plug the programmer into a usb port (tried many) the folowing leds light: Power, D-, stat1. I tried 3 usb cables. When I check device manager It is shown as USBtiny under “libusb-win32 devices”. I reinstalled the driver with zadig and nothing changed. There is nothing shown in any of the Ports or USB controllers lists. I can upload using the std usb cable port on both boards. When using the programmer in the IDE I select the USBtinyISP programmer, and “Upload using programmer” options. The error I get from the upload is:

Sketch uses 1536 bytes (0%) of program storage space. Maximum is 253952 bytes.
Global variables use 9 bytes (0%) of dynamic memory, leaving 8183 bytes for local variables. Maximum is 8192 bytes.
"C:\Users\perigalacticon\AppData\Local\Arduino15\packages\arduino\tools\avrdude\8.0.0-arduino1/bin/avrdude" "-CC:\Users\perigalacticon\AppData\Local\Arduino15\packages\arduino\tools\avrdude\8.0.0-arduino1/etc/avrdude.conf" -v -V -patmega2560 -cusbtiny  "-Uflash:w:C:\Users\perigalacticon\AppData\Local\arduino\sketches\39A5D22CB7D0C77025FC3D62265AE382/Blink.ino.hex:i"
Avrdude version 8.0-arduino.1
Copyright see https://github.com/avrdudes/avrdude/blob/main/AUTHORS

System wide configuration file is C:\Users\perigalacticon\AppData\Local\Arduino15\packages\arduino\tools\avrdude\8.0.0-arduino1\etc\avrdude.conf

Using port            : usb
Using programmer      : usbtiny
AVR part              : ATmega2560
Programming modes     : SPM, ISP, HVPP, JTAG
Programmer type       : USBtiny
Description           : USBtiny simple USB programmer
Using SCK period of 10 usec

Error: Invalid argument
Error: initialization failed  (rc = -1)
 - double check the connections and try again
 - use -B to set lower the bit clock frequency, e.g. -B 125kHz
 - use -F to override this check

USB access errors detected; this could have many reasons; if it is
USB permission problems, avrdude is likely to work when run as root
but this is not good practice; instead you might want to
check out USB port permissions on your OS and set them correctly

Avrdude done.  Thank you.
Failed programming: uploading error: exit status 1

I tried to follow the instructions to use the AF driver but I cannot open the driver zip file. I left an issue for that repository. I’d like to use the programmer to program some raw ATTiny841 chips and I did it before, I don’t know why it’s not working now.

PS I used a USB-Serial converter with the same cables and it is recognized as a port each time and works fine. Is she dead, Jim?

2

If memory serves, I recall the pocket and tiny programmers not being able to program a mega2560 chip but I could be wrong about that.

I have seen these have issues with USB 3 ports, the solution I’ve seen work in the past was to connect a USB 2.0 hub to your USB 3 port and connect the programmer to the hub.

You might test the programmer on an older pc and verify its functional, if it is, then try a USB 2 hub.

3

The thing is it worked well for a long time doing this with the same PC and hardware but 6 years ago. Arduino as ISP seems to work.

4

So it works on my other computer, a win10 laptop. I reprogrammed the uno with it. The entry in device manager still says unknown device but it lists the driver as libusb-win32 v1.2.6.0.

Interestingly, from my first computer that it didn’t work from, it will not program the Uno, but it does program the 841. How about that? There is a difference in USBtinyISP programmer options between the 2 board options; when I program the 841 the programmer options are from the ATTinyCore core.