optiLoader success first time

Using Arduino Microcontrollers
1

I'm a newbie. Success first try!

Details:

Chips = ATMEGA328P-PU. I bought these blank chips from Mouser specifically because it's what came on my UNO. (I have not tried any others). http://www.mouser.com/ProductDetail/Atmel/ATMEGA328P-PU/?qs=K8BHR703ZXguOQv3sKbWcg%3D%3D

Wiring: exactly like this http://arduino.cc/en/Tutorial/ArduinoToBreadboard (except I'm not using the IDE at all, just the diagram at the top showing how to hook things up).

Downloaded WestfW's optiLoader from GitHub - WestfW/OptiLoader: Arduino sketch for burning new bootloaders

Loaded sketch in UNO, stuck blank chip in ZIF socket on the breadboard, and it worked first time no problems.

I did have the UNO hooked up to USB on the computer (not required) just to read the mesages.

Took chip over to my Arduino-on-a-breadboard tester and uploaded Blink pgm just fine.

It took me awhile to try this as I had read a lot of posts where some were having troubles burning the bootloader onto a blank chip.

Thank all of you great contributors who answer questions, and especially Bill Westfield for optiLoader!

2

Excellent!

3

It took me awhile to try this as I had read a lot of posts where some were having troubles burning the bootloader onto a blank chip.

Thank all of you great contributors who answer questions, and especially Bill Westfield for optiLoader!

The is great. Many do have problems trying to burn their first bootloader, as there are many things that have to be done in the correct sequence with the correct wiring using the correct IDE settings, etc, etc.

Bill's optiLoader is a great gift to the community for making it about as simple and straight forward as is physically possible. About the only thing simpler is to buy a chip with the bootloader already installed. :wink:

Lefty

4

Thanks to both of you CrossRoads and Lefty. I was helped by some of your own posts and many others.

Just for my add'l 2 cents. I studied this forum and the Arduino Tutorial pages on this subject for quite awhile, gathered the req'd components, read everything about optiLoader, and THEN did the bootloading. In my limited experience, if I've studied all the details first, I usually end up not getting frustrated because I missed a step or I'm doing something stupid w/o knowing it!

5

You are very fortunate - I have not been successful with my UNO. I keep getting the out of sync error message with optiloader, the yikes message with optifllex and despite changing the signature from 'of' to '14' AVRISP does not work . However I will keep trying for a little bit longer before buying another chip.

6

@pnal,
What is your hardware set up, and what is the part number you are trying to program?

7

Atmega328P-PU on the UNO and an Atmega328 PU on the breadboard. Setup as per Arduino website with Crystal and 2 22pf caps. Using Arduino 1.0

8

Hi

Rewired and checked everything again. Ran Optiboot and got the out of sync message at the end after all the other info. On a whim I took the 328 out of the UNO and replaced it with the 328 from the breadboard. Upoaded Blinktrial and lo and behold it worked. Will run my photographic laserprogram later to see if it also works.
Thanks for all you guys' input on the forum.

9

Thanks for this...

Just burned 10 Atmega328's. The serial monitor was just a bunch of chars but it seemed to work because I was able to load blink on all of them and it worked.

10

The serial monitor was just a bunch of chars but it seemed to work because I was able to load blink on all of them and it worked.

If you mean that the feedback from Bill Westfield's optiLoader is garbage in the Serial monitor, make sure you are selecting the correct baud - his code says Serial.begin(19200);

11

All the programs work - once again thanks to all