AVR Microcontroller Downloader

I'd get on the phone and talk to someone.

I would get an oscilloscope to probe the communication line to the chip and verify that you are sending a serial stream to the chip. You may have overlooked some operating system parameter that must be set once to start communication.

Sign up and join the EEVBLOG.com forum, there are MANY members there that use AVR's.

Search to see if this has been a problem for others, if you can't find any related issues, as your question there.

many thanks ignator, i have signed up the forum and posted this thread. hopefully there will be good answer soon

GA

If its anything like a PICAXE, you can accidentally wipe the Boot loader and not know it...then its just a Microchip chip.....or just a block of plastic with pins!!

Best way is for someone else to try and use the chip(s) to identify the problem area better....postage is generally cheap for small parcels....maybe send the programmer to to a helpful friend for checking as well.....

Checkout and see if a forum member lives near you as well....he may be only a push bike ride away.....

I don't know these chips, and I was unable to find out if in fact they have a boot loader or not for certain.....I tend to think not actually.....but someone here will know better.

If no boot loader, they may have become "locked", many PICs can be locked to stop code being stolen or copied....

thank you guys, at first it was all normal. i could download program to it, but after saveral times the error came up all of a sudden

You need a Buddy for testing.....

Are you sure there is enough memory to accept and execute the program you are trying to load? You may have exceeded the size limit and the registers are full.

If you have access, check the error log and reset all faults then try it again.

Is the Parity, Baud Rate, Star Bit, Stop Bit, and all other applicable communications protocol parameters set correctly on/in your communications port? Your laptop or loader machine comm port must match the device/chip.

Check on 'instructables.com' for things like 'ISP'(in system programmer), using the Arduino for ISP,etc. for tips on downloading software to various Atmel chips with no bootloader installed.

Another thing to try is if you are using a USB type programming interface is to check the COM port settings...both within the programming software and through the PC settings. I found a strange behaviour where the PC allocates a virtual COM port at times. A further tip is to use the same USB port all the time.

Further to what Andy said...some ICs are one-time programming and they lock up. Others have a few programming cycles then lock up. Best thing to do is download the datasheet and read it thoroughly

ok guys here are some step that might work, i bought another kit with saveral different input and output but still using the same mega16 microchip. the owner suggested me to use khazama avr downloader than avrdude. first it's OS issue, if you running on windows 7 then you must run it in compatibility mode windows xp sp3 for khazama avr downloader, set isp clock for 32 KHZ. i placed my old mega16 chip and...it's failed still. then i used the new one, it's worked

so i came to a conclution that my old mega16 chip is broken anyway, i didn't know how and when. when i looked closer at them, they had diferent part name. one is written atmega16 (the old one) and another atmega16a. after searching for a while, i found that mega16a is further development from the original mega16. it has more endurance to voltage unbalance and less power consumption

so that's my effort so far, i think this thread can be closed. thank you guys

That message could/should be a warning to you that your programmer voltage is possibly too high, or simply not clean enough or even BOTH!!.....a scope might assist in determining which.

If you have another power supply that you KNOW is good, try using that instead.....

It says in the data sheets that the chip can become corrupted if the voltage goes too low as well....

I looked on the internet for technical details and found this, look at the parts I have made Italic Black Underlined, you may need to find out how to rest these lock bits!! Using Adobe pdf reader I found MANY references to locking.....or go on a forum and ask for help might be quicker...:-

High-performance, Low-power AVR 8-bit Microcontroller
Advanced RISC Architecture
- 131 Powerful Instructions - Most Single Clock Cycle Execution
- 32 x 8 General Purpose Working Registers
- Up to 6 MIPS Throughput at 16MHz
- Fully Static Operation
- On-chip 2-cycle Multiplier
Nonvolatile Program and Data Memories
- 16k Bytes of In-System Self-Programmable Flash
- Optional Boot Code Section with Independent Lock Bits
- 512K Bytes EEPROM
- Programming Lock for Software Security
JTAG (IEEE std. 1149.1 Compliant) Interface
- Boundary-scan Capabilities According to the JTAG Standard
- Extensive On-chip Debug Support
- Programming of Flash, EEPROM, Fuses, and Lock Bits through the JAGS Interface
Peripheral Features
- On-chip Analog Comparator
- Programmable Watchdog Timer with Seperate On-chip Oscillator
- Master/Slave SPI Serial Interface
- Two 8-bit Timer/Counters with Separate Prescalar, Compare
- One 16-bit TImer/Counter with Seperate Prescaler, Compare and Capture mode
- Real TIme Counter with Seperate Oscillator
- Four PWM Channels
- 8-channel, 10-bit ADC
- Byte-oriented Two-wire Serial Interface
- Programmable Serial USART
Special Mircocontroller Features
- Power-on Reset and Programmable Brown-out Detection
- Internal Calibrated RC Oscillator
- External and Internal Interrupt Sources
- Six Sleep Modes: Idle, ADC Noise Reduction, Power-save, Power-down, Standby, and Extended Standby
I/O and Packages
- 32 Programmable I/O Lines
- 40-pin PDIP, 44-lead TQFP, and 44-pad MLF
Operating Voltages
- 4.5-5.5V for ATmega16
Speed Grades
- 0-16 MHz for ATmega16
Power Consumption at 4 Mhz, 3V, 35 °C
- Active: 1.1mA
- Idle Mode: 0.35mA
- Power-down Mode: < 1µA

What I forgot to mention is a very extensive .pdf file for this product can be found here with a total of 323 Pages.....Could be useful if you don't already have it:-

ATmega16.pdf