Uploads keep failing

Support
#1

This is an updated version of my two recent deleted posts, since I now have a better (but still insufficient) understanding of the problem.

I have no problem uploading to the developer blink.

When I try to upload to any other blink, I attach the publish tool, the blink lights up, but the upload fails with the following error messages:

Programmer Type : USBtiny 
     Description     : USBtiny simple USB programmer, https://learn.adafruit.com/usbtinyisp

avrdude: programmer operation not supported

avrdude: Setting SCK period to 5 usec

avrdude: AVR device initialized and ready to accept instructions

Reading | ################################################## | 100% 0.00s

avrdude: Device signature = 0x1e9516 (probably m328pb)

avrdude: Expected signature for ATmega168PB is 1E 94 15

     Double check chip, or use -F to override this check.

avrdude done. Thank you.

What should I do?

Upload failing and blinks not turning on after upload
#2

We’ll update the getting started to include these new Blinks.

#3

I appreciate the prompt and very clear instructions, but they lead to a new problem: I was able to do the upload, and everything appeared to go smoothly — except that once the upload was finished the blink apparently died (it won’t light up, either when connected to the publisher or when i re-insert the battery). So I tried again with a different blink, and got the same result. I have 24 blinks, so can do some more experiments, but this particular experiment seems like I probably shouldn;t repeat it again. Is there enough info here for you to guess what’s wrong now?

Edited to add: I believe I’ve fixed this. I noticed that the file blink-bios.hex was identical to blink-bios-168pb.hex. I replaced it with a copy of blink-bios-328pb.hex, published to a third blink, and it seems to work fine.

Is there a way to repair the two blinks I hosed?

#4

You should simply be able to Upload to them with the now correct settings.

1 Like
#5

No, they are entirely nonfunctional. They don’t light up (either with batteries or with the publishing tool), and if I try to write to them I get a message that says “A device attached to the system is not functioning”. My guess is that this is because the bios got overwritten.

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#6

This just happened to one of mine after following the above instructions. Completely nonfunctional with battery or publishing tool.

Received this error before it happened:


Reading | ################################################## | 100% -0.00s



avrdude: verifying ...

avrdude: verification error, first mismatch at byte 0x3900

         0x04 != 0x16

avrdude: verification error; content mismatch



avrdude done.  Thank you.



the selected serial port 

 does not exist or your board is not connected

Super new to all of this, but now I’m hesitant to attempt anything if it makes me lose one of my blinks.

#7

josh: I am surely no expert here, but I think you don’t need to worry about losing your blinks.

I thought I had destroyed two blinks because they refused to light up — and I was pretty sure that the reason for this was that I had overwritten the bios. But I learned from another post on this forum somewhere (I forget where) that if the blinks won’t light up, you should just go ahead and write to them anyway, and then they’ll be fine again. I tried that and it worked.

As far as “the selected serial port does not exist”, my own experience is that this message comes up at random times and that the fix is to disconnect the hardware from your USB port and then to reconnect it. Sometimes this doesn’t work, but disconnecting again and then reconnecting to a different USB port works. I’m not sure whether that’s just because it sometimes takes a few tries or whether switching ports actually matters.

Again, I don’t actually know what I’m doing so for anything that matters, I am not the person you should listen to. But the above is my experience.

1 Like
#8

Thanks for the response, Will! Maybe I just need to try again on a different port. Happy to hear they’re worth experimenting with!

#9

@WillO You were right! Just was a combination of restarting my computer, swapping ports, and re-enabling the Programmer: Blinks USBtinyISP and the Blink328 Board. The “off” blink is now running Zenflow perfectly fine.

Appreciate the response!

1 Like
#10

This matches my experience. I’m glad it worked for you too!

#11

Yeah if I leave my dev blink plugged in for a while without uploading anything then it will give me an error the next time I try. Unplug/replug fixes it for me.

I’m guessing some piece of hardware is timing out.