Stand alone arduino help

Development Boards Arduino
1

Hello. I currently have a working standalone arduino with the ATmega168. I wanted to use the sd card and lcd libraries at the same time, but the limited memory of the 168 did not let me do much. I searched around and got [one of these. I figured that it would be as simple as popping the 168 out of the breadboard and replacing it with the 328 and telling the arduino IDE that it is now connected to a Duemilanove with a 328 instead of a 168. My problem is that I am getting the stk500_getsync(): not in sync: resp=0x00 error which means the 328 is not responding. I’m pretty sure it isn’t a wiring issue because I put the 168 back in and it worked like it did before. Any advise?](http://www.sparkfun.com/products/9217)

2

A few possibilities come to mind.

  1. you need to change the board defined in the IDE (Yeah I know, obvious right?)

  2. your part actually doesn’t have a bootloader on it. (sounds impossible, but hey we’re only humans, mistakes happen)

  3. Check your pins… one might have “folded under” when being inserted.

3

  1. I did change the board in the ide

  2. The product page claimed that it has a bootloader. After looking at it today, it turns out that it was recently replaced with a 328 that has the uno bootloader, but I don’t see why this wouldn’t have one.

  3. No bent pins here.

My usb to serial converter uses an FTDI chip, could this be the problem? Although this seems unlikely because the 168 still works fine.

4

Well… my friend has an actual arduino board and offered to test my 328. There is nothing wrong with it. He was able to upload the “hello world” of arduino (blink led on pin 13) and it worked fine on his board. The strange part is that when I put it back into my breadboard and wired an led to pin 13, it doesn’t work. I’m still convinced that my wiring is accurate, but I could be wrong.

5

Did you burn the bootloader onto the 328 chip?

Dan

6

dkulinski:
Did you burn the bootloader onto the 328 chip?

Dan

Wouldn't matter. The chip worked in another board. You could check to make sure the board has no shorts(Probe the 12v input and the 5v supply actually on the board). Then plug your board in WITHOUT THE CHIP and make sure you have voltage running through you board. Assuming all the above passed, make sure the FTDI chip still operates by probing the TX/RX lines with an Oscilloscope or whatnot if available, or open Hyperterminal and start activating some flow control pins. If all else fails, it may be time to contact tech support.
7

Ah I misinterpreted what I read. I thought another 328 chip from an arduino ran in his board, not the other way around.

Dan

8

Just to confirm - you took the chip, programmed it on your friend’s board, and it blinked the LED on his board. You then put it in your board, powered it up, and the LED didn’t blink. If so, things to check are:

  • Do you have power on both Vcc and AVcc?

  • Do you have both ground pins tied to ground?

  • Do you have 100nF (0.1uF) capacitors between Vcc and GND, and AVcc and GND, located close to the Vcc and to AVcc pins?

  • Do you have a crystal and loading capacitors (or a resonator) hooked up?

  • Is reset pulled up (preferred - sometehing in the 4.7K to 10k range), tied hi, or floating?

  • Is the LED facing the right direction, has a current-limiting resistor in series, with the cathode to ground?

If the blink test works, but the bootloader doesn’t, check the above and in addition, make sure that TX, RX, and GND are connected properly between the FTDI and breadboard, and the reset circuit is correct.

/mike

9

From what he is explaining it is a board defect most likely. Just start probing around for non expected values.