Cannot program or read fuses of new 3pi

MrOnak · November 27, 2015, 8:27am

Hey all,

my 3pi came in the mail the other day. I can’t seem to program it at all through the Arduino IDE.

Detailled error log is this:

     System wide configuration file is "D:\Development\Programme\Arduino\hardware\tools\avr/etc/avrdude.conf"

     Using Port                    : usb
     Using Programmer              : usbtiny

avrdude: usbdev_open(): Found USBtinyISP, bus:device: bus-0:\.\libusb0-0001–0x1781-0x0c9f
AVR Part : ATmega328P
Chip Erase delay : 9000 us
PAGEL : PD7
BS2 : PC2
RESET disposition : dedicated
RETRY pulse : SCK
serial program mode : yes
parallel program mode : yes
Timeout : 200
StabDelay : 100
CmdexeDelay : 25
SyncLoops : 32
ByteDelay : 0
PollIndex : 3
PollValue : 0x53
Memory Detail :

                              Block Poll               Page                       Polled
       Memory Type Mode Delay Size  Indx Paged  Size   Size #Pages MinW  MaxW   ReadBack
       ----------- ---- ----- ----- ---- ------ ------ ---- ------ ----- ----- ---------
       eeprom        65    20     4    0 no       1024    4      0  3600  3600 0xff 0xff
       flash         65     6   128    0 yes     32768  128    256  4500  4500 0xff 0xff
       lfuse          0     0     0    0 no          1    0      0  4500  4500 0x00 0x00
       hfuse          0     0     0    0 no          1    0      0  4500  4500 0x00 0x00
       efuse          0     0     0    0 no          1    0      0  4500  4500 0x00 0x00
       lock           0     0     0    0 no          1    0      0  4500  4500 0x00 0x00
       calibration    0     0     0    0 no          1    0      0     0     0 0x00 0x00
       signature      0     0     0    0 no          3    0      0     0     0 0x00 0x00

     Programmer Type : USBtiny
     Description     : USBtiny simple USB programmer, http://www.ladyada.net/make/usbtinyisp/

avrdude: programmer operation not supported

avrdude: Using SCK period of 10 usec
avrdude: initialization failed, rc=-1
Double check connections and try again, or use -F to override
this check.

avrdude done. Thank you.[/code]

Following conditions:

3pi is new. It arrived with a demo program loaded, which works fine.
3pi is powered by batteries at the time or programming (I did run a test with 3pi being powered through the programmer, same result)
programmers are 2 different USBTinyISP devices. One commercial, one home-made. Both are known to work.
Environment is 64bit Windows 7, IDE is Arduino IDE 1.6.6
The add-on for the 3pi is the one linked in Programming Orangutans and the 3pi Robot from the Arduino Environment PDF - direct link to the addon
Board selected in the ArduinoIDE is "Pololu Orangutan or 3pi robot w/ ATmega328P
programmer selected in the ArduinoIDE is USBtinyISP

I did try to read the fuses of the chip on the 3pi after seeing
this thread on your forums - without success - by running this on the windows commandline:

the result is this:

avrdude: Version 5.10, compiled on Jan 19 2010 at 10:45:23
         Copyright (c) 2000-2005 Brian Dean, http://www.bdmicro.com/
         Copyright (c) 2007-2009 Joerg Wunsch

         System wide configuration file is "D:\Development\Programme\WinAVR\bin\avrdude.conf"

         Using Port                    : Com3
         Using Programmer              : usbtiny
         Overriding Baud Rate          : 19200
         AVR Part                      : ATMEGA328P
         Chip Erase delay              : 9000 us
         PAGEL                         : PD7
         BS2                           : PC2
         RESET disposition             : dedicated
         RETRY pulse                   : SCK
         serial program mode           : yes
         parallel program mode         : yes
         Timeout                       : 200
         StabDelay                     : 100
         CmdexeDelay                   : 25
         SyncLoops                     : 32
         ByteDelay                     : 0
         PollIndex                     : 3
         PollValue                     : 0x53
         Memory Detail                 :

                                  Block Poll               Page                       Polled
           Memory Type Mode Delay Size  Indx Paged  Size   Size #Pages MinW  MaxW   ReadBack
           ----------- ---- ----- ----- ---- ------ ------ ---- ------ ----- ----- ---------
           eeprom        65     5     4    0 no       1024    4      0  3600  3600 0xff 0xff
           flash         65     6   128    0 yes     32768  128    256  4500  4500 0xff 0xff
           lfuse          0     0     0    0 no          1    0      0  4500  4500 0x00 0x00
           hfuse          0     0     0    0 no          1    0      0  4500  4500 0x00 0x00
           efuse          0     0     0    0 no          1    0      0  4500  4500 0x00 0x00
           lock           0     0     0    0 no          1    0      0  4500  4500 0x00 0x00
           calibration    0     0     0    0 no          1    0      0     0     0 0x00 0x00
           signature      0     0     0    0 no          3    0      0     0     0 0x00 0x00

         Programmer Type : USBtiny
         Description     : USBtiny simple USB programmer, http://www.ladyada.net/make/usbtinyisp/
avrdude: programmer operation not supported

avrdude: Using SCK period of 10 usec
avrdude: initialization failed, rc=-1
         Double check connections and try again, or use -F to override
         this check.


avrdude done.  Thank you.

Sequence of me doing things:

connect programmer to PC
power up the 3pi
connect programmer to 3pi
attempt to write program

Some things I’ve noticed:

when I plug in the commercial USBTiny, the LCD display gets garbled and the buzzer sounds once. Neither happens with my home-made programmer
if I connect the programmer to the 3pi first, and then to the PC, Arduino IDE doesn’t recognize the programmer at all

Everything tested with multiple different sets of freshly charged batteries, on multiple USB ports with 2 seperate cables. With that, I’m out of ideas. Any advice?

Thanks a ton in advance.

MrOnak · November 27, 2015, 4:50pm

Nevermind, the culprit was a faulty ISP cable.

Derrill · November 27, 2015, 8:52pm

Hello,

I am glad you found the problem; thank you for letting us know. Just to be clear, it sounds like the bad ISP cable was from one of your USBTinyISP devices, not from us. Is that correct?

-Derrill