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My first post - I am a relative newbie.

I want to make a smartcontroller for my boat - I have built the electronics and written and tested a sketch for the Nano, all working totally fine. I then decided that I would like to keep my existing Nano (Nano-A) as a development system and buy another one (Nano-B) to actually deploy. Both of these are cheap chinese clones (from different suppliers).

However I cannot upload anything to Nano-B. It seems to be basically working (LEDs flash) but not wishing to accept any sketch uploads. The COM port seems to be working OK and I have tried all the various options available in the Arduino IDE (boards, programmers etc.) without success.

So I came to the conclusion that possibly the bootloader on Nano-B needs to be re-flashed.

So I setup Nano-A as a programmer, loaded up "ArduinoISP", connected up the ISP pins and hit "burn bootloader".

It seems as if this is "nearly working". I have turned on the -v (verbose) option for avrdude and pasted the log below. It looks to me as if the IDE is invoking avrdude twice; (1) To set the Fuses etc, and (2) to upload the actual bootloader. I seems that (1) is working OK but (2) is failing.

I've been tearing my hair out for about 3 weeks with this and would be really keen to get some ideas. Thanks in advance.

Arduino "burn bootloader" IDE Log - follows;

Arduino: 1.8.13 (Windows Store 1.8.42.0) (Windows 10), Board: "Arduino Nano, ATmega328P" C:\Users\--\Documents\ArduinoData\packages\arduino\tools\avrdude\6.3.0-arduino17/bin/avrdude -CC:\Users\--\Documents\ArduinoData\packages\arduino\tools\avrdude\6.3.0-arduino17/etc/avrdude.conf -v -patmega328p -cstk500v1 -PCOM8 -b19200 -e -Ulock:w:0x3F:m -Uefuse:w:0xFD:m -Uhfuse:w:0xDA:m -Ulfuse:w:0xFF:m avrdude: Version 6.3-20190619 Copyright (c) 2000-2005 Brian Dean, http://www.bdmicro.com/ Copyright (c) 2007-2014 Joerg Wunsch System wide configuration file is "C:\Users\--\Documents\ArduinoData\packages\arduino\tools\avrdude\6.3.0-arduino17/etc/avrdude.conf" Using Port : COM8 Using Programmer : stk500v1 Overriding Baud Rate : 19200 AVR Part : ATmega328P Chip Erase delay : 9000 us PAGEL : PD7 BS2 : PC2 RESET disposition : dedicated RETRY pulse : SCK serial program mode : yes parallel program mode : yes Timeout : 200 StabDelay : 100 CmdexeDelay : 25 SyncLoops : 32 ByteDelay : 0 PollIndex : 3 PollValue : 0x53 Memory Detail : Block Poll Page Polled Memory Type Mode Delay Size Indx Paged Size Size #Pages MinW MaxW ReadBack ----------- ---- ----- ----- ---- ------ ------ ---- ------ ----- ----- --------- eeprom 65 20 4 0 no 1024 4 0 3600 3600 0xff 0xff flash 65 6 128 0 yes 32768 128 256 4500 4500 0xff 0xff lfuse 0 0 0 0 no 1 0 0 4500 4500 0x00 0x00 hfuse 0 0 0 0 no 1 0 0 4500 4500 0x00 0x00 efuse 0 0 0 0 no 1 0 0 4500 4500 0x00 0x00 lock 0 0 0 0 no 1 0 0 4500 4500 0x00 0x00 calibration 0 0 0 0 no 1 0 0 0 0 0x00 0x00 signature 0 0 0 0 no 3 0 0 0 0 0x00 0x00 Programmer Type : STK500 Description : Atmel STK500 Version 1.x firmware Hardware Version: 2 Firmware Version: 1.18 Topcard : Unknown Vtarget : 0.0 V Varef : 0.0 V Oscillator : Off SCK period : 0.1 us avrdude: AVR device initialized and ready to accept instructions Reading | ################################################## | 100% 0.11s avrdude: Device signature = 0x1e950f (probably m328p) avrdude: erasing chip avrdude: reading input file "0x3F" avrdude: writing lock (1 bytes): Writing | ################################################## | 100% 0.04s avrdude: 1 bytes of lock written avrdude: verifying lock memory against 0x3F: avrdude: load data lock data from input file 0x3F: avrdude: input file 0x3F contains 1 bytes avrdude: reading on-chip lock data: Reading | ################################################## | 100% 0.04s avrdude: verifying ... avrdude: 1 bytes of lock verified avrdude: reading input file "0xFD" avrdude: writing efuse (1 bytes): Writing | ################################################## | 100% 0.04s avrdude: 1 bytes of efuse written avrdude: verifying efuse memory against 0xFD: avrdude: load data efuse data from input file 0xFD: avrdude: input file 0xFD contains 1 bytes avrdude: reading on-chip efuse data: Reading | ################################################## | 100% 0.04s avrdude: verifying ... avrdude: 1 bytes of efuse verified avrdude: reading input file "0xDA" avrdude: writing hfuse (1 bytes): Writing | ################################################## | 100% 0.04s avrdude: 1 bytes of hfuse written avrdude: verifying hfuse memory against 0xDA: avrdude: load data hfuse data from input file 0xDA: avrdude: input file 0xDA contains 1 bytes avrdude: reading on-chip hfuse data: Reading | ################################################## | 100% 0.04s avrdude: verifying ... avrdude: 1 bytes of hfuse verified avrdude: reading input file "0xFF" avrdude: writing lfuse (1 bytes): Writing | ################################################## | 100% 0.04s avrdude: 1 bytes of lfuse written avrdude: verifying lfuse memory against 0xFF: avrdude: load data lfuse data from input file 0xFF: avrdude: input file 0xFF contains 1 bytes avrdude: reading on-chip lfuse data: Reading | ################################################## | 100% 0.04s avrdude: verifying ... avrdude: 1 bytes of lfuse verified avrdude done. Thank you. C:\Users\--\Documents\ArduinoData\packages\arduino\tools\avrdude\6.3.0-arduino17/bin/avrdude -CC:\Users\--\Documents\ArduinoData\packages\arduino\tools\avrdude\6.3.0-arduino17/etc/avrdude.conf -v -patmega328p -cstk500v1 -PCOM8 -b19200 -Uflash:w:C:\Program Files\WindowsApps\ArduinoLLC.ArduinoIDE_1.8.42.0_x86__mdqgnx93n4wtt\hardware\arduino\avr/bootloaders/optiboot/optiboot_atmega328.hex:i -Ulock:w:0x0F:m avrdude: Version 6.3-20190619 Copyright (c) 2000-2005 Brian Dean, http://www.bdmicro.com/ Copyright (c) 2007-2014 Joerg Wunsch System wide configuration file is "C:\Users\--\Documents\ArduinoData\packages\arduino\tools\avrdude\6.3.0-arduino17/etc/avrdude.conf" Using Port : COM8 Using Programmer : stk500v1 Overriding Baud Rate : 19200 AVR Part : ATmega328P Chip Erase delay : 9000 us PAGEL : PD7 BS2 : PC2 RESET disposition : dedicated RETRY pulse : SCK serial program mode : yes parallel program mode : yes Timeout : 200 StabDelay : 100 CmdexeDelay : 25 SyncLoops : 32 ByteDelay : 0 PollIndex : 3 PollValue : 0x53 Memory Detail : Block Poll Page Polled Memory Type Mode Delay Size Indx Paged Size Size #Pages MinW MaxW ReadBack ----------- ---- ----- ----- ---- ------ ------ ---- ------ ----- ----- --------- eeprom 65 20 4 0 no 1024 4 0 3600 3600 0xff 0xff flash 65 6 128 0 yes 32768 128 256 4500 4500 0xff 0xff lfuse 0 0 0 0 no 1 0 0 4500 4500 0x00 0x00 hfuse 0 0 0 0 no 1 0 0 4500 4500 0x00 0x00 efuse 0 0 0 0 no 1 0 0 4500 4500 0x00 0x00 lock 0 0 0 0 no 1 0 0 4500 4500 0x00 0x00 calibration 0 0 0 0 no 1 0 0 0 0 0x00 0x00 signature 0 0 0 0 no 3 0 0 0 0 0x00 0x00 Programmer Type : STK500 Description : Atmel STK500 Version 1.x firmware Hardware Version: 2 Firmware Version: 1.18 Topcard : Unknown Vtarget : 0.0 V Varef : 0.0 V Oscillator : Off SCK period : 0.1 us avrdude: AVR device initialized and ready to accept instructions Reading | ################################################## | 100% 0.11s avrdude: Device signature = 0x1e950f (probably m328p) avrdude: NOTE: "flash" memory has been specified, an erase cycle will be performed To disable this feature, specify the -D option. avrdude: erasing chip avrdude: reading input file "C:\Program Files\WindowsApps\ArduinoLLC.ArduinoIDE_1.8.42.0_x86__mdqgnx93n4wtt\hardware\arduino\avr/bootloaders/optiboot/optiboot_atmega328.hex" avrdude: writing flash (32768 bytes): Writing | ################################################## | 100% 0.00s avrdude: stk500_recv(): programmer is not responding avrdude: stk500_recv(): programmer is not responding avrdude: stk500_cmd(): programmer is out of sync avrdude: stk500_cmd(): programmer is out of sync avrdude: stk500_cmd(): programmer is out of sync avrdude: 32768 bytes of flash written avrdude: verifying flash memory against C:\Program Files\WindowsApps\ArduinoLLC.ArduinoIDE_1.8.42.0_x86__mdqgnx93n4wtt\hardware\arduino\avr/bootloaders/optiboot/optiboot_atmega328.hex: avrdude: load data flash data from input file C:\Program Files\WindowsApps\ArduinoLLC.ArduinoIDE_1.8.42.0_x86__mdqgnx93n4wtt\hardware\arduino\avr/bootloaders/optiboot/optiboot_atmega328.hex: avrdude: input file C:\Program Files\WindowsApps\ArduinoLLC.ArduinoIDE_1.8.42.0_x86__mdqgnx93n4wtt\hardware\arduino\avr/bootloaders/optiboot/optiboot_atmega328.hex contains 32768 bytes avrdude: reading on-chip flash data: Reading | ################################################## | 100% 0.00s avrdude: loadaddr(): (b) protocol error, expect=0x14, resp=0x3f avrdude: stk500_paged_load(): (a) protocol error, expect=0x14, resp=0x10 avrdude: stk500_cmd(): protocol error avr_read(): error reading address 0x7e01 read operation not supported for memory "flash" avrdude: failed to read all of flash memory, rc=-2 avrdude: stk500_disable(): protocol error, expect=0x14, resp=0xff avrdude done. Thank you. Error while burning bootloader.

Edit ... Connections between the Arduinos. Nano A is the programmer. Nano B is the target

  • Nano A Nano B
  • ISP 1 -- ISP 1 (MISO)
  • ISP 2 -- ISP 2 (VCC - 5v)
  • ISP 3 -- ISP 3 (SCK)
  • ISP 4 -- ISP 4 (MOSI)
  • ISP 6 -- ISP 6 (GND)
  • D10 -- ISP 5 (RESET)

I have also now added a 60ohm resistor between RESET and +5V on Nano A
I have also tried connecting a capacitor between RESET and GND. (2uF and 100uF - I didn't have a 10uF) - but it made no difference

Further investigations.

I have tried running avrdude in "terminal" mode and can confirm that I can do all of the usual read/write operations except writing to anywhere in flash memory. This seems to be the only operation that does not work. I will now try breaking down the flash write operation into the individual SPI programming instructions to see if I can work out where it is failing. I suspect that my MCU is a "brick" but I have learned loads!

Another edit; I have now been using the avrdude terminal mode "send" command to step throuh the individual SPI operations one at a time to write flash memory and hey! it works! (see below) Windows command interpreter - avrdude session

So, if this works, why does ArduinoISP fail to load the bootloader? I will set this up as another/new question

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4
  • What, if anything, did you do with the reset signal on the nano that runs the arduinoisp.ino sketch? Commented Nov 30, 2020 at 16:08
  • Could you show how you've connected both Nano's? Commented Nov 30, 2020 at 16:54
  • I have connected the two nanos using the 6 pin ISP headers. as follows; Commented Nov 30, 2020 at 16:58
  • @RobW: please edit your question to add details, don't add them as comments Commented Nov 30, 2020 at 17:03

3 Answers 3

Reset to default
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Perhaps this isn't the answer to the bootloader issue but I went through the same thing recently, I realized a little late about what was exactly the problem, so I checked the uC on the Nano Board and it has an ATMega168 instead of the normal ATMega328p.

So if you are using ArduinoIDE you need to check the ATMega168 option while you are selecting your uC chip (as in the picture above)... Sometimes (as it happened to me, just going for the basics solve all the problems)

Hope this could help you mate

enter image description here

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2
  • Thanks Cyborg. I had a look at the uC and it is an ATMega328p. Interestingly (perhaps) it is a lot bigger that the uC that is on the other Nano - also a 328p Commented Nov 30, 2020 at 20:08
  • Yeah mate, this link may help you to learn something new about ATMega328p packages: eeweb.com/the-different-atmega328-packages Commented Nov 30, 2020 at 20:25
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There is more then one bootloader in the Nano's, a new one and the old one. I had the same problem so I simply went to tools in the IDE and switched from the new to the old, it solved my problems.

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2
  • Thanks Gil - This is one of the first things that I tried - without success. Commented Dec 1, 2020 at 18:42
  • Sorry I am out of ideas. I hope somebody can help you. Commented Dec 2, 2020 at 22:07
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I have now fixed this problem, but still do not fully understand what the original problem was.

Please see my other post on this qusetion to see what I did Link to other post

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