Reliable programming from STK500

Hi,

Can someone assist in telling how to program the Orangutan reliably from the STK500 and AVR Studio (the same issue may exist with AVRISP - but I don’t have one to compare it with).

I am able to get a fresh program in about 1/4 of the time through AVR Studio, through a combination of pressing the reset, applying power via batter and/or the ISP. 3/4 of the time I get “Entering Programming Mode Failed” as an error message in AVR Studio.

There’s clearly a step/setup/procedure that I am doing inadvertently that sometimes works - but it is frustrating that it doesn’t work all the time.

thanks, hb

AVR Studio 4.12 release 4.52
6V of 4x1.5v AAA batteries
STK500 with 2.04 firmware

Hi -

I’ve also tried both build 401 and 411 of AVR Studio, no difference.

Hi -

The inability to enter programming appears not infrequently on various AVR boards/messages. The most common suggestion to fix is to reduce ISP frequency - I’ve tried that with no success (all the from 28 khz to 2khz).

thanks, hb

Hi, response from Jan @ Pololu on this:

I’ve notice that holding down ‘reset’ on the Orangutan makes it at least possible that the STK500 will work - without doing that it never programs successfully from the STK500’s ISP.

Here is an update on this topic:

We got an STK500, and we have the same results as hb (i.e. it does not work). The programming lines on the mega8 are connected to the pushbuttons and the LCD, which causes problems with the STK500. We are trying to determine if there is a simple solution to the problem, but in the meantime, we recommend using the AVRISP programmer.

The STK500 works with the Baby Orangutans since there is no LCD or pushbuttons.

- Jan