NerdKits - electronics education for a digital generation

You are not logged in. [log in]

NEW: Learning electronics? Ask your questions on the new Electronics Questions & Answers site hosted by CircuitLab.

Microcontroller Programming » Trouble getting Initialload to work can't program MCU

July 18, 2013
by Cameron
Cameron's Avatar

Hello NerdKits Members,

My username is Cameron, i recently started setting up the NerdKit and ran into the "Butterfly" error. I have tried everything on the forums (rebuild the circuit, WinAVR, DRIVERS, programming switch) and nothing seems to work so I'm sending you pictures of my circuit and a screenshot of what happens in the command terminal (I'm running WIN 7 64bit).

https://docs.google.com/file/d/0B0GBtry7RRzfVEZJcmxXOFRIVzA/edit?usp=sharing https://docs.google.com/file/d/0B0GBtry7RRzfQzM3NU9OeEtvSTA/edit?usp=sharing https://docs.google.com/file/d/0B0GBtry7RRzfR2t0cllsSUY2LTQ/edit?usp=sharing

July 18, 2013
by dvdsnyd
dvdsnyd's Avatar

Welcome Cameron. The butterfly error can be tricky. Your circuit looks good to me, however I may have missed something.

One other thing to try is unplugging your serial transmit and receive lines (yellow and green coming from the USB programming cable) and reboot your computer. Once rebooted, plug programmer back in and try it again. Also, make sure you are using the correct COM port in your Makefile.

Dave

July 18, 2013
by pcbolt
pcbolt's Avatar

Cameron -

Here's a quote from the NK Guidebook...

"There is a bug with the driver that causes the cable not work with any COM port larger than COM5, so if your computer assigns something larger to it, you have to manually change it."

I haven't had windows assign my USB/Serial cable to anything higher than COM5 so I don't know if this is still a problem or not. You have to go to the control panel in windows and navigate to the device manager/Comm Ports and poke around in some of the "Advanced" settings to change the COM port name. Just make sure you use a name that's not in use already.

July 19, 2013
by BonBon
BonBon's Avatar

Hi There, I just transferred my basic circuit to a larger breadboard and received the butterfly error also. I noticed that you get exactly the same error regardless of whether the circuit it turned on or off. For this reason I believe my breadboard is faulty and not powering the chip correctly. I'll post again if I confirm this was the care. Good luck

July 19, 2013
by BonBon
BonBon's Avatar

Hello again guys. SUCCESS!! I just transferred the circuit back to a known working breadboard and the thing works fine now. I believe the "butterfly" error may be related to the chip not being powered properly. If you are pulling your hair out trying to find out why the wiring LOOKS ok but doesn't work then I'd suggest measuring the voltage on the pins of your ATMEGA and make sure they are +5 or 0 as appropriate and go from there. Best of luck mate. Phill

August 07, 2013
by Cameron
Cameron's Avatar

Hey guys thanks for the suggestions.

Sorry for the long delay between posts... My initiallaod finally worked !! The problem was the USB to ttl cable. I had a old pc with a serial port,I breadboarded a serial to ttl circuit and it worked. Can i get the cable replaced??

Cameron

August 07, 2013
by pcbolt
pcbolt's Avatar

Cameron -

The Nerdkit guys don't visit the forum too much these days. Best bet is to email them a few times at "support@nerdkits.com". One thing to keep in mind if you switch to Windows 8 that cable won't work any more. Nice job wiring up a serial to ttl circuit. Mad skills.

Post a Reply

Please log in to post a reply.

Did you know that you can make a spooky Halloween Jack-O-Lantern with a microcontroller? Learn more...