AsyncLabs Forums

[SirPoonga]

I haven't used my yellowjacket in a couple of weeks. I plugged the usb cable into it to program it. The software says
avrdude: stk500_recv(): programmer is not responding

The red pwr led and green spi led stay on. The avr is really hot. Voltage regulator fail?

[GregEigsti]

avrdude: stk500_recv(): programmer is not responding

I have seen this on an Arduino that is fond of losing its boot loader Reflashing the bootloader takes care of the problem for me (on the Arduino). I have not noticed any heat issues though...
You might be able to detect a power regulator problem by poking around the board with a multimeter.

Greg

[SirPoonga]

Alright since I don;t know much about hardware how to I reload the bootloader on the yellowjacket?

[GregEigsti]

Dunno, don't see an "In Circuit Serial Programming (ICSP)" header on the YJ - this is where you would connect a separate programmer device to burn the bootloader. It may be possible to add an ICSP (or equivalent) to the YJ; you would have to figure out how similar ICSP headers are "wired up" and refer to the datasheet for the Atmel ATmega328P MCU on the YJ to get it just right. You may be able to take advantage of some/all of the YJ's FTDI board connector - don't know. Then you would also need to have a programmer to connect to the ICSP header.

Though overheating sounds like it could be a completely different problem; does one side of the board get hotter than the other, which component is getting hot?
Have you probed around with a multimeter?

Greg

[SirPoonga]

I will check it out in detail this weekend. The atmega was hot. Maybe if the bootloader was lost it was stuck in some loop that used up all the processor.

[GregEigsti]

I'm not suggesting that the bootloader is the issue - just that it is a potential issue.

Greg

[SirPoonga]

I am thinking about putting my YellowJacket up for sale if someone wants to futz with it. It looks like a major pain to try to put a bootloader on it, especially when all you have is a Mac with no parallel port.

[GregEigsti]

The ICSP programmer that I have is a USB device and works just fine from the Mac. Though trying to connect it to the YJ would/could take some work.

Greg