Trouble while flashing Sensebender Micro: protocol error, expect=0x14, resp=0x90

[christiang]

Hello,

I have a problem flashing one of my Sensebender Micros, maybe someone can help.
The board is not connected to anything but the FTDI programmer. I already used this programmer on several other Sensebenders and all worked flawless. The error message from avrdude is: "stk500_getparm(): (a) protocol error, expect=0x14, resp=0x90"

The board itself is ok, the initial software worked and was able to send messages to the gateway and print serial debug messages. I also can burn sketches directly using the spi programmer. I also burned the dualboot bootloader again, but that didnt solve the flash problem.

Here is the complete output of the flash procedure:

avrdude: Version 6.3, compiled on Jun 22 2016 at 16:05:21
         Copyright (c) 2000-2005 Brian Dean, http://www.bdmicro.com/
         Copyright (c) 2007-2014 Joerg Wunsch

         System wide configuration file is "C:\Program Files (x86)\Arduino\hardware\tools\avr/etc/avrdude.conf"

         Using Port                    : COM15
         Using Programmer              : arduino
         Overriding Baud Rate          : 57600
         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 : Arduino
         Description     : Arduino

avrdude: stk500_getparm(): (a) protocol error, expect=0x14, resp=0x90

avrdude: stk500_getparm(): (a) protocol error, expect=0x14, resp=0x90

avrdude: stk500_getparm(): (a) protocol error, expect=0x14, resp=0x90

avrdude: stk500_getparm(): (a) protocol error, expect=0x14, resp=0x90
         Hardware Version: 4728160
         Firmware Version: 0.4598627

avrdude: stk500_getparm(): (a) protocol error, expect=0x14, resp=0x90

avrdude: stk500_getparm(): (a) protocol error, expect=0x14, resp=0x90
         Vtarget         : 0.3 V
         Varef           : 200212948.0 V
         Oscillator      : 921.600 kHz
         SCK period      : 3.3 us

avrdude: AVR device initialized and ready to accept instructions

Reading | 
avrdude: arduino_read_sig_bytes(): (a) protocol error, expect=0x10, resp=0x90
avrdude: error reading signature data for part "ATmega328P", rc=-3
avrdude: error reading signature data, rc=-1
avrdude: stk500_disable(): unknown response=0x90

[tbowmo]

@christiang

What supply voltage do you use? Is it stable during programming?

I did some google searching, and found this https://forum.arduino.cc/index.php?topic=50889.0

[christiang]

This post is deleted!

[christiang]

@tbowmo
Supply voltage are the 3.3v from the ftdi programmer. Nothing else is connected to the USB so it should be stable. Tried few other sensebender today and the ftdi programming worked flawless every time.

Could that be a timing problem, because UART communication is also not very stable at that particular sensebender with 57600 baud. The other ones work even at 115200 without a problem.

[tbowmo]

Could be timing then, if the internal RC oscillator is not running at the expected 8mhz.

I haven't made any calculations on how much it can deviate from 8mhz before serial is having troubles

[christiang]

@tbowmo
You think a lower baud rate at programming could solve that issue temporarily?
Am I correct that to test that I would need to change the rate in boards.txt and rebuild the bootloader (Baud rate has to be changed via the Makefile I guess)

The option to solve the problem if it is indeed timing would be to solder an external quarz.
Would that be the right type for the soldering pads on the sensebender?: https://www.conrad.de/de/smd-quarz-49usmx-serie-crystal-euroquartz-8000mhz-49usmx-30504018pfatf-frequenz-8000000-mhz-l-x-b-x-h-1135-x-47-x-42-mm-155384.html

Thanks for your time

[tbowmo]

Probably a lower baudrate would fix things. You need to build a new bootloader with correct baudrate though.

I can't remember which crystal I designed to be used on the sensebender. It was with 32khz oscillator in mind though, as there is no external load capacitors (you need to add them if you want to use 8mhz crystal)