Can I suggest a firmware upgrade part to this forum. I don't know about others but I am struggling to make the avrdude work. I have the cable from Cliff. I have a laptop with xp and a pcmcia card with parallel d25 out and a partially corrupted 324p which just wont flash. I have installed 5.01 and 5.10 to try both versions and written the flash.cmd and saved to main part of folder, and all I get on running is a quick flash on screen - something is happening but I have no idea what. I have read the other threads to see if I am doing anything wrong and have come to the conclusion I must be, but what? I could try the original chip but am loath to do anything to it in case I zap it fatally. I did threaten Cliff with Skype but I don't think he is ready for that yet!

AAAAAhhhhhhhaaaaaa:-

C:\WinAVR-20100110\bin>avrdude -u -p m324p -c abcmini -e -E noreset -U lfuse:w:0
xE7:m -U hfuse:w:0xDF:m -U flash:w:My16M_32.hex -U lock:w:0x3C:m

avrdude: AVR device not responding
avrdude: initialization failed, rc=-1
         Double check connections and try again, or use -F to override
         this check.


avrdude done.  Thank you.


C:\WinAVR-20100110\bin>pause
Press any key to continue . . .

Yup.
I have had this feeling / "gaelic intuition" that I have had a comms problem all along however the pump cycles once when I apply the lead - so I am assuming (sucking through teeth sound) that my parallel port is working via LPT1. However this screen dump suggests it isn't or something else is bolloxed. Open to suggestions chasps.

I take it there is no simple way to check the avrdude comms integrity. I now remember why I moved to Mac OS 10 years ago! Oh well BIOS it is.

Cliff,
what are you using when upgrading fimware, PC or Mac?

I`d also appreciate a step-by-step upgrading firmware instruction.

YaBB Administrator wrote on 03/03/11 at 13:21:56:

There is some text about creating a backup chip. I always thought I would have to buy such chip from you because there is some copyright protection things somewhere, so you (as in Cliff) would have to pre-program it the first time. Is that true? If it is, I think it should be stated. If it's not, I have no idea where I got the idea from.

I have managed (f*c£ nose how) to get the chip flashed BUT.....
avrdude: AVR device initialized and ready to accept instructions
Reading | ################################################## | 100% 0.00s
avrdude: Device signature = 0x1e9508
avrdude: erasing chip
avrdude: reading input file "0xE7"
avrdude: writing lfuse (1 bytes):
Writing | ################################################## | 100% 0.00s
avrdude: 1 bytes of lfuse written
avrdude: verifying lfuse memory against 0xE7:
avrdude: load data lfuse data from input file 0xE7:
avrdude: input file 0xE7 contains 1 bytes
avrdude: reading on-chip lfuse data:
Reading | ################################################## | 100% 0.00s
avrdude: verifying ...
avrdude: 1 bytes of lfuse verified
avrdude: reading input file "0xDF"
avrdude: writing hfuse (1 bytes):
Writing | ################################################## | 100% 0.00s
avrdude: 1 bytes of hfuse written
avrdude: verifying hfuse memory against 0xDF:
avrdude: load data hfuse data from input file 0xDF:
avrdude: input file 0xDF contains 1 bytes
avrdude: reading on-chip hfuse data:
Reading | ################################################## | 100% 0.00s
avrdude: verifying ...
avrdude: 1 bytes of hfuse verified
avrdude: reading input file "My16M_32.hex"
avrdude: input file My16M_32.hex auto detected as Intel Hex
avrdude: writing flash (32764 bytes):
Writing | ################################################## | 100% 29.41s
avrdude: 32764 bytes of flash written
avrdude: verifying flash memory against My16M_32.hex:
avrdude: load data flash data from input file My16M_32.hex:
avrdude: input file My16M_32.hex auto detected as Intel Hex
avrdude: input file My16M_32.hex contains 32764 bytes
avrdude: reading on-chip flash data:
Reading | ################################################## | 100% 27.83s
avrdude: verifying ...
avrdude: verification error, first mismatch at byte 0x0000
         0x0c != 0xff
avrdude:

I spent some time looking at the comms port set up on my laptop and changed the i/o settings in the device manager to that suggested by the pcmcia device. It didnt work immediately but luckily being Scottish I plodded on and bingo. Razs "pause" was v useful! I may write an essay on my travails. So.... need to keep at the chip do I? Had a stab at the Optimiser too, but its not playing ball either. I'll send the error message via email on that one tomorrow if you want.