USBTiny ISP Programmer: No LED power light upon hookup

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

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parallel pilgrim
 
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USBTiny ISP Programmer: No LED power light upon hookup

Post by parallel pilgrim »

Recently when I hook up my USBTiny ISP programmer I don't get a power indicator lighting up (the green LED doesn't come on).
I've used this programmer before to upgrade my ice tube clock firmware to use GPS and was about to upgrade it with the xmas firmware now that my 320p-pu is installed.

My hypothesis is that the amtel attiny-2313-20pu might have burnt out somehow so I ordered 5 more from mouser in case it happens again.

Because I'm not getting any power indicator lighting up (the green LED) upon hookup it seems like a dead chip, I've tried one other USB cable and other computers/USB ports with no luck.

Anyone ever experience this before or have any suggestions I can try?

Thanks

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adafruit_support_rick
 
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Re: USBTiny ISP Programmer: No LED power light upon hookup

Post by adafruit_support_rick »

A bare attiny chip from mouser won't help much if you have no way to program it. We stock replacement chips preloaded with the USBtiny firmware
If you'd like to post some pictures, we'd be happy to look at the assembly- maybe we can spot a problem

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parallel pilgrim
 
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Re: USBTiny ISP Programmer: No LED power light upon hookup

Post by parallel pilgrim »

Cool, I ordered that chip too and I'll burn the ones coming from mouser when they get here as well so I'll actually have 5 functioning backups just in case.

I'll post a pic of the board later this weekend but I doubt it could be something with the assembly as its been working for weeks before this suddenly happened but you never know.

Thanks.

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Re: USBTiny ISP Programmer: No LED power light upon hookup

Post by adafruit_support_rick »

Did you do anything which could have damaged the chip? Hard to imagine what could do that. Often, spontaneous failures like this are the result of a cold-solder joint.

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parallel pilgrim
 
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Re: USBTiny ISP Programmer: No LED power light upon hookup

Post by parallel pilgrim »

The programmer has stayed in its case the entire time, I suppose I could have a few cold-solder joints on there and It's probably worth my time reviewing proper technique and joint composition in case I missed anything.

I really hope nothing is improperly soldered as that prospect means its possible I might have done the same thing to my ice tube clock even though it works fine atm.

I went out to my local electronics shop and bought a programmer shield for my arduino uno to program the 328p-pu's I needed for my clock.

Before using the shield I decided to hook up the usbtiny isp one last time just in case and it magically worked (green light came on)! Not wasting any time I hooked it up and sent the xmas firmware to my clock and now everything is set up.

I still don't really know why my usbtiny programmer wasn't behaving last night but it seems there may be something in the assembly causing intermittent functionality so I will probably do some touch up on it with my soldering iron to see if that helps. Looking at the photos now it appears maybe there are some areas that are cold-joints and could use some re-work but well see.

Attached are some pictures from my phone, maybe you can spot something I missed. Sorry for the poor resolution my camera isn't that good.
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parallel pilgrim
 
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Re: USBTiny ISP Programmer: No LED power light upon hookup

Post by parallel pilgrim »

Oh also since I did mention I got it working, here is a pic of my ice tube clock. I used a flora GPS module since it was the only thing that was in stock at the time I placed the order and it works perfectly.
The wire length for the GPS module is longer than it needs to be but I think that adds "character" a.k.a it fits in the case and I'm not messing with it.
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Re: USBTiny ISP Programmer: No LED power light upon hookup

Post by adafruit_support_rick »

Thanks for the pictures. Looks like you know your way around a soldering iron. Don't think you have to worry about cold joints. Maybe you just have a flaky USB cable?

And hey - the GPS just make the clock look like its doing something! :wink:

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parallel pilgrim
 
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Re: USBTiny ISP Programmer: No LED power light upon hookup

Post by parallel pilgrim »

Yeah the UBS A-B cables I have lying around are kinda old so I'll also choose to believe their just faulty as well. Now that I have an AVR programmer shield for my uno and a evil-scientist programmer board put together I'll have more options should something like this happen again.

Cheers,
||_Pilgirm

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