i cannot get the programmer to work, with the same error every time: <name>-laptop:~/Code/initialload$ make avrdude -c avr109 -p m168 -b 115200 -P /dev/ttyUSB0 -U flash:w:initialload.hex:a

Connecting to programmer: .avrdude: butterfly_recv(): programmer is not responding

is there a way to test if it is broken, and is the chip on the programmer static sensitive

Hi tech20,

You can try doing what we call a "loopback" test -- sending its output right back into its input. With the four colored wires coming from the NerdKits serial inverter PCB, leave black connected to ground, red to +5, but then put green and yellow together in a single otherwise-unoccupied breadboard row. Connect your battery (because the serial inverter does require +5 to work).

Then, use a serial terminal (see here for instructions for your operating system -- scroll down to Serial Port Communication to type characters and send them out over the serial port. You should see them echoed back to you. This verifies that both the USB-Serial adapter (the blue part) is working, along with the NerdKits inverter PCB. If you remove the green or yellow wire, it should stop echoing. Give this a try and let us know what happens.

Mike

thank you a lot, i found out that the usb-serial converter was not recieving enough power from my laptop since it had low battery(1% left on low power consumption) so the usb wasn't powering the converter, i just tested uart with the tempsensor program and it works wonderfully, thank you for the help

Excellent -- that's a new one. Glad to hear you fixed it!

Mike

tech20, Yippers, just an FYI... Most laptops will try to conserve as much power as possible when the battery gets really low... They do this by turning things off, and usually the USB controller is one of the first things to go! There's a setting somewhere, can't think where off the top of my head, that you can actually disable this, but that's up to you... ;)