SparkFun Forums

[jgalak]

I asked this on the general project forum, but maybe someone here will know the answer. I got the SMD Simon game to practice SMD soldering, and need to program it. I have an FTDI Basic from SFE, and thought I could attach it to the 6-pin port of the Simon board. However, I could not find a way to make it work in avrdude.

Is it possible to do this? Can the AVR be programmed with the FTDI Basic? Or do I need to buy an actual programmer and go through the ISP pins?

If it's possible, whats the actual avrdude command and/or configuration block to make it work?

Thanks,
Juliean.

[leon_heller]

You need an AVR programer, such as an AVRISP, or a Dragon.

[jyoung]

The FTDI chip is a USB to UART bridge. You can't directly program an AVR with it, for that you'll need some type of AVR programmer (ISP). Now, you _can_ use an Arduino as an ISP, and you can do stuff like hook up a ATmega328p to an FTDI chip (get an ATmega328p that already has Optiboot on it), then hook up the ATmega328p as an ISP programmer for another AVR and program it that way.

Plenty of options to do what you want, but yeah, you can't use the FTDI as an ISP. Wrong type of chip.

[dchrislee]

FTDI can be used to program AVR chips. It's called FTDI bit bang
http://translate.google.com/translate?p ... ry_state0=

http://easyelectronics.ru/skorostnoj-av ... llera.html (on Russian sorry)


Logic unit: 74HC00

avrdude.conf
#FTDI_Bitbang
programmer
id = "ftbb";
desc = "FT232R Synchronous BitBang";
type = ft245r;
miso = 3; # CTS(11 PIN FT232R)
sck = 5; # DSR(9 PIN FT232R)
mosi = 6; # DCD(10 PIN FT232R)
reset = 7; # RI (6 PIN FT232R)
;

avrdude command to run:

avrdude.exe -p m16 -c ftbb -P ft0 -U flash:w:m16boot.hex:a

usage:
1. connect to ISP
2. Press PROG button (LED1 should be turned on)
3. Upload firmware, fuses,..
4. Press RUN (to RESET MCU)

Circuit author website: http://easyelectronics.ru/