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  VS Arduino › Visual Micro › Microchip Studio (Atmel Studio 7) › Out of this world issue
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Locked Topic Out of this world issue (Read 12461 times)
Gilles Plante
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Out of this world issue
Apr 11th, 2014 at 2:48pm
 
Hi,

we have a very strange issue. There are boards we flashed 2 or 3 weeks ago. We are told by the customer, who has one and tested today, it doesn't work at all (the led does not lit).

Since we have a few of these in the shop, we tested them this morning... same issue. In fact the board needs to find a peripheral to turn the LED on, but we tested that also, so it would not be the issue.

As a test, I loaded in our board the same version of the software that was previously loaded, and afterwards they worked  Shocked.

So the question is: is it possible that for some reason the program would be gone ?

I know that the question feels dumb, how can flash forget, but that's the only explanation I can think of at this time. So I asked !

Thanks
  
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Tim@Visual Micro
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Re: Out of this world issue
Reply #1 - Apr 11th, 2014 at 3:09pm
 
The only thing I can think of is this:-

The only thing missing from your report is that they were tested, prior to today, that the flashing had actually happened 2 or 3 weeks ago.
  
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Gilles Plante
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Re: Out of this world issue
Reply #2 - Apr 11th, 2014 at 3:21pm
 
Hi,, found something here http://letsmakerobots.com/node/27050:

Quote:
I'm using Ro-Bot-X's uservotino for my Venux robot. I recently had a problem where the sketch (program, for all you non-Arduino types) disappeared on me. The board would power up fine, but nothing would happen. Then I upload the sketch again and everthing is fine.

I thought it was an isolated incident, but it just happened again! Any thoughts on what would cause an Adruino to lose its mind?

EDIT: The issue turned out to be with the Brown Out Detection (BOD) settings on the Arduino bootloader. The BOD defined in the bootloader was disabled. When the power to the Arduino dips too low, it can wind up corrupting memory, including the stored code. The BOD feature tells the processor to reset if the power dips below a selectable threshold. Since my chip didn't have a BOD threshold set, I lost the program code.

Yikes, someone ever heard of that ?

Thanks
  
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Tim@Visual Micro
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Re: Out of this world issue
Reply #3 - Apr 11th, 2014 at 3:45pm
 
That's interesting, so powering through battery or solar or something?
  
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Gilles Plante
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Re: Out of this world issue
Reply #4 - Apr 11th, 2014 at 3:51pm
 
The final product will be powered by battery, for the development purpose I use a Power Supply. I turn off the Power Supply each evening, but that does not seem long enough to get the flash erased I guess.

We flashed a unit 2 or 3 weeks ago that was sent right away, but the customer tried it only today.

Very frustrating issue.

Thanks

EDIT:

There is SparkFun board I use to test burning the bootloader a few weeks ago, I am pretty sure I loaded Blink to it. I tested id, it didn't work...
« Last Edit: Apr 11th, 2014 at 3:55pm by Gilles Plante »  
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Tim@Visual Micro
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Re: Out of this world issue
Reply #5 - Apr 11th, 2014 at 4:04pm
 
Amazing issue, I bet that explains a few things for a few people who probably gave up!
  
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Gilles Plante
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Re: Out of this world issue
Reply #6 - Apr 16th, 2014 at 3:03pm
 
Hi Tim,

I am searching about fuses and lock bits to find out the cause for my issue (I also open a ticket with Atmel). Looking at Atmel FAQs, I learned that the ELF format on top of containing the program itself in a downloadable format may also include fuses and lock bits. You know more than me about this, so I would like to know if these stand true:
  • What ever way one picks to upload the program, Serial port or programmer, fuses and lock bits will be set
  • Fuses (and lock bits ?) settings come from the board definition file

Once that's solved I will post back for others not to go through this pain.

Thanks
  
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Gilles Plante
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Re: Out of this world issue
Reply #7 - Apr 16th, 2014 at 9:41pm
 
Tim,

it looks like from AtmelStudio it's possible to read and write fuses. Unfortunately at the moment I am not at the office and can't check in VisualStudio, but the reference was for AtmelStudio 4, so ?!?

I know that VisualMicro kind of blocks some of AtmelStudio functionnalities. Do you know if in AtmelStudio 6.1, one can access fuses ?

Thanks
  
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Re: Out of this world issue
Reply #8 - Apr 17th, 2014 at 11:14pm
 
Hi Gilles, yes it can but maybe you can help with the commands. We can use the atprogram.exe command line tool that comes with atmel studio. This is what the new proogrammers (atmel avr/ice) entries do already.

You can run atprogram.exe within a windows cmd box and see the help/documentation.

If you can workout the commands I can tell you how to add them to the vm config
« Last Edit: Apr 17th, 2014 at 11:14pm by Tim@Visual Micro »  
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Gilles Plante
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Re: Out of this world issue
Reply #9 - Apr 22nd, 2014 at 12:41am
 
Tim,

I am wondering about something. If I am right, whether I use the Tools menu or the AtmelStudio command line atprogram.exe utility, a programmer will be used to read/write fuses. If the programmer is an Atmel mkII, then I guess AtmelStudio will want to use the Jungo driver I had so much pleasure (ahum...) replacing by the libusb driver  : Huh

So I guess I better use a different programmer.

Thanks
  
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Re: Out of this world issue
Reply #10 - Apr 22nd, 2014 at 2:21am
 
Hi,

There are two avrisp mkII entries on the menu. The higher one uses std arduino/libusb, the one with a name that begins "Atmel" uses Jungo.

Am I missing the point?

Thanks
  
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Gilles Plante
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Re: Out of this world issue
Reply #11 - Apr 22nd, 2014 at 12:58pm
 
Quote:

There are two avrisp mkII entries on the menu.
Ah that explains why I have two entries in Arduino's IDE  Smiley.

But in VisualStudio, I have only one for mkII.
  
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Tim@Visual Micro
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Re: Out of this world issue
Reply #12 - Apr 22nd, 2014 at 1:11pm
 
Now you have lost me.

We have already established in previous threads that the atmel programmer only shows for 1.5 systems with Visual Micro. So I guess that it why you only see the one in AS6

As for the two you mention in the Arduino Ide I have no idea what that is about.

  
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