ATmega328P firmware flashing interrupted - is it fixable?

Question

I am working on some PCB with an ATmega328P on it. I use a Pogo connector because we have to program and test the PCB outside.

I program with usbTiny, (mosi/miso/rest/clk/power)

Anyway, many times during programming I move a little bit which disturbs the Pogo pin contacts and get a verification error. Then I start again and flash it successfully.

But sometimes, after a movement and a mismatch on verification, I can not flash it any more, like now.

I get :

avrdude: initialization failed, rc=-1
         Double check connections and try again, or use -F to override
         this check.

An error occurred while uploading the sketch

I got extremely tired from manufacturing again and again :( and I am sure the chip is still OK. This will probably happen again.

I have read that there are ways to save it, like serial programming or oscillator.

How exactly can I do this with serial?

VERBOS:

       Using Port                    : usb
         Using Programmer              : usbtiny
avrdude: usbdev_open(): Found USBtinyISP, bus:device: 020:013
         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 : USBtiny
         Description     : USBtiny simple USB programmer, http://www.ladyada.net/make/usbtinyisp/
avrdude: programmer operation not supported

avrdude: Using SCK period of 10 usec
avrdude: initialization failed, rc=-1

Answer 1

It seems likely that you have inadvertently changes the fuses to one of:

• Disable /RESET
• Different clock speed or clock source
• Disable SPI programming

To recover this you need to use a "high-voltage" programmer that involves holding /RESET at +12V whilst specific sequences of commands are sent through most of the other pins. This may be difficult with your "pogo pin" arrangement.

It may even be impossible if putting 12V into /RESET damages other circuitry (eg. if you have a pull-up resistor that would bleed 12V into the 5V line).

I have a post about using another Arduino to do high-voltage programming here.

You can see that there are a lot of wires, and it may not be practical to do what with pogo pins.

You can also use an AVR Dragon board to provide the necessary signals and pin-outs.

However this would require that you either remove the chip and place it inside the programmer, or run something like 18 wires to the board, similar to the earlier solution.

---

I suggest, whilst testing, that you solder on a 6-pin header suitable for doing your SPI programming. That will eliminate the pogo pins, and give you a reliable contact for programming. Once you have debugged it the production models won't need that.

---

What about external oscillator?

You could use my chip detector sketch which would help show if the chip is unresponsive, or has merely had some fuses changed (eg. clock source).

Example output from the sketch:

Atmega chip detector.
Entered programming mode OK.
Signature = 1E 95 0F 
Processor = ATmega328P
Flash memory size = 32768
LFuse = FF 
HFuse = DE 
EFuse = FD 
Lock byte = CF 
Bootloader in use: Yes
EEPROM preserved through erase: No
Watchdog timer always on: No
Bootloader is 512 bytes starting at 7E00

Bootloader:

7E00: 11 24 84 B7 14 BE 81 FF E6 D0 85 E0 80 93 81 00 
7E10: 82 E0 80 93 C0 00 88 E1 80 93 C1 00 86 E0 80 93 
...
7FE0: E7 DF 80 32 09 F0 F7 DF 84 E1 DA CF 1F 93 18 2F 
7FF0: DF DF 11 50 E9 F7 F4 DF 1F 91 08 95 FF FF FF FF 

MD5 sum of bootloader = 0F 02 31 72 95 C8 F7 FD 1B B7 07 17 85 A5 66 87 

First 256 bytes of program memory:

0: 0C 94 35 00 0C 94 5D 00 0C 94 5D 00 0C 94 5D 00 
10: 0C 94 5D 00 0C 94 5D 00 0C 94 5D 00 0C 94 5D 00 
20: 0C 94 5D 00 0C 94 5D 00 0C 94 5D 00 0C 94 5D 00 
30: 0C 94 5D 00 0C 94 5D 00 0C 94 5D 00 0C 94 5D 00 
40: 0C 94 80 03 0C 94 5D 00 0C 94 C9 00 0C 94 5D 00 
50: 0C 94 5D 00 0C 94 5D 00 0C 94 5D 00 0C 94 5D 00 
60: 0C 94 5D 00 0C 94 5D 00 E5 01 11 24 1F BE CF EF 
70: D8 E0 DE BF CD BF 11 E0 A0 E0 B1 E0 E0 E9 F8 E0 
80: 02 C0 05 90 0D 92 A2 32 B1 07 D9 F7 11 E0 A2 E2 
90: B1 E0 01 C0 1D 92 A2 3C B1 07 E1 F7 10 E0 CA E6 
A0: D0 E0 04 C0 22 97 FE 01 0E 94 42 04 C8 36 D1 07 
B0: C9 F7 0E 94 1F 02 0C 94 46 04 0C 94 00 00 08 95 
C0: FF 92 0F 93 1F 93 06 EA 11 E0 C8 01 40 E0 52 EC 
D0: 61 E0 70 E0 0E 94 FA 00 C8 01 0E 94 44 03 C8 01 
E0: 60 E0 71 E0 0E 94 75 03 91 E2 F9 2E E0 E0 F0 E0 
F0: F0 92 57 00 E4 91 C8 01 6E 2F 40 E1 50 E0 0E 94 

Source for sketch on GitHub - in "Atmega_Board_Detector" folder.