Board looks good, power to rails, LED not on?

USB AVR Programmer and SPI interface. Adafruit's USBtinyISP.

Moderators: adafruit_support_bill, adafruit

Please be positive and constructive with your questions and comments.
Locked
User avatar
frontispiece
 
Posts: 6
Joined: Mon Aug 22, 2011 10:22 pm

Board looks good, power to rails, LED not on?

Post by frontispiece »

Hi, I've put together my USBtinyISP (attached pics below), and I get 5V at various points on the board when plugged in, but it seems that pin 12 on the ATTINY2313, which is the only thing that could be powering that LED if I follow the traces, is at 0V.

More importantly, though - it doesn't show up in the device list, and avrdude has no idea it's plugged in.

I'm using Mac OS X 10.6.8 and avrdude version 5.8cvs, and tried to write out to it to get the LED to turn on, but it either gives me the no device prompt or when I go to check for it with "ls -l /dev/cu.*", I only get the following (screenshot):

Board Top
Image

Board Bottom
Image

Device List
Image

adafruit
 
Posts: 12151
Joined: Thu Apr 06, 2006 4:21 pm

Re: Board looks good, power to rails, LED not on?

Post by adafruit »

Why is there no Serial/COM/port (or /dev/ttyXX device) ?

USBtiny is not a USB-Serial dervice, it is its own USB protocol which is understood by Avrdude. You will not see a COM port or Serial port created when you plug it in
http://www.ladyada.net/make/usbtinyisp/faq.html

User avatar
frontispiece
 
Posts: 6
Joined: Mon Aug 22, 2011 10:22 pm

Re: Board looks good, power to rails, LED not on?

Post by frontispiece »

Sorry, I posted the wrong screenshot - avrdude is not finding the USBtinyISP at all:

Image

User avatar
scott_42
 
Posts: 130
Joined: Mon May 30, 2011 10:46 am

Re: Board looks good, power to rails, LED not on?

Post by scott_42 »

Use System Profiler and see if the USB bus recognizes the device. Hold down option key while selecting the Apple menu to quickly get to System Profiler (the first item in the menu).

User avatar
frontispiece
 
Posts: 6
Joined: Mon Aug 22, 2011 10:22 pm

Re: Board looks good, power to rails, LED not on?

Post by frontispiece »

Hi Scott-42,

No, it doesn't recognize it in System Profiler - but as adafruit said,
USBtiny is not a USB-Serial dervice, it is its own USB protocol which is understood by Avrdude. You will not see a COM port or Serial port created when you plug it in
, so I don't think it would show up there anyway? It doesn't light up on Linux either, so I know it's not just the documented OSX trick with the LED.

adafruit
 
Posts: 12151
Joined: Thu Apr 06, 2006 4:21 pm

Re: Board looks good, power to rails, LED not on?

Post by adafruit »

go back and touch up all the solder points, in case thats the problem

User avatar
scott_42
 
Posts: 130
Joined: Mon May 30, 2011 10:46 am

Re: Board looks good, power to rails, LED not on?

Post by scott_42 »

frontispiece wrote:No, it doesn't recognize it in System Profiler - but as adafruit said, … , so I don't think it would show up there anyway?
You would be wrong then. System Profiler will list all of the working devices attached to the USB buses. This would include the USBtiny if it were working correctly. If it is not showing up under the USB hardware section attached to one of the USB Buses, then your device is not working.

Have you used System Profiler before and are you familiar with how it works? Do you see the other USB devices listed on the various USB buses attached to your computer?

User avatar
frontispiece
 
Posts: 6
Joined: Mon Aug 22, 2011 10:22 pm

Re: Board looks good, power to rails, LED not on?

Post by frontispiece »

Hi, thank you both for your help. I took your advice and

- went through to resolder anything that might've been a cold-joint or rough/frosted or not flowed onto the pad properly, and it's still not working
- double checked System Profiler (yes, I've used it before), and it's not showing up, but I'll look forward to seeing it there when it finally gets working. And yes, all other USB devices show up as expected when plugged in.

Here's a high-res shot of the board after touching up, if you've got any ideas left I'd love to try them...

Image




Thanks again,

User avatar
brucef
 
Posts: 215
Joined: Tue May 03, 2011 4:51 pm

Re: Board looks good, power to rails, LED not on?

Post by brucef »

Just for reference, my known good USBtinyISP shows up in System Information (OS X 10.7 'Lion') like so:

Code: Select all

USBtiny:

  Product ID:	0x0c9f
  Vendor ID:	0x1781
  Version:		1.04
  Speed:		Up to 1.5 Mb/sec
  Location ID:	0x06200000 / 4
  Current Available (mA):	500
  Current Required (mA):	Unknown (Device has not been configured)
To get it to show up I have to start System Information *after* connecting the USBtinyISP, but I do not have to have already talked to it with avrdude.

User avatar
frontispiece
 
Posts: 6
Joined: Mon Aug 22, 2011 10:22 pm

Re: Board looks good, power to rails, LED not on?

Post by frontispiece »

Thanks, I double checked (checking after plugging in ) just to be sure, but still no luck. Thanks for the reference info though!

User avatar
frontispiece
 
Posts: 6
Joined: Mon Aug 22, 2011 10:22 pm

Re: Board looks good, power to rails, LED not on?

Post by frontispiece »

Hi, sorry to bump this, but after working on more projects and coming back to this assembly, I'm still wondering about my board - I've made sure all solder points are good, and it doesn't show up in System Profiler when it's plugged in, but the rails show power. Is there a chance I have a faulty chip?

User avatar
adafruit_support_bill
 
Posts: 88097
Joined: Sat Feb 07, 2009 10:11 am

Re: Board looks good, power to rails, LED not on?

Post by adafruit_support_bill »

It is possible you got a bad or unprogrammed chip. Contact [email protected] about a replacement USBTinyISP microcontroller & link this thread in your message.

Locked
Please be positive and constructive with your questions and comments.

Return to “USBtinyISP”