Package from Sparkfun redux

It came- hooray for Sparkfun! Well, it probably came on Friday, but I wasn't there to receive it. I had it shipped to work thinking for some reason that it would get int my hands faster. In reality, the opposite was true. I received five twenty-eight pin chips with the little red dot. Now, I have to find out how to return the non-arduino chips. I'm pretty sure they have a procedure for that.

So, the big lesson here is that Sparfun made a boo-boo. Hey- it happens. The important thing is that they corrected the situation in a timely manner. When you next need electronic components- how about checking http://www.sparkfun.com/ first?

I should get back to work.

Another Sparkfun Response

OK- from the previous post, it would seem that Sparkfun made a boo-boo and is doing the right thing to fix it. Hurray for Sparkfun!

While I am composing the last post, this email comes in (I left off the email headerinformation because it was a pain to post as it kept gagging the HTML):

Hello Bruce,

Our returns department finished testing the ATmega328s you returned to us, and found that they had somehow made it out without the Arduino Bootloader having been loaded. I have placed a new order, # 21xxxx, which contains five ATmega328, DEV-09217.

Please let me know if I can help with anything else, and have a great day!

Best,

L (Sparkfun rep name)
Customer Service
SparkFun Electronics

Now- I have not yet returned anything, but they have tested them.  I think I will wait and see what comes in the mail. Sparkfun may be experiencing growing pains- that's OK; it happens. Let's see how they handle it. I believe they will make everything right, it just may take another pass at the problem to get there.

Sparkfun Response

Received from Sparkfun:

Subject: Re: [FWD: SparkFun Order 21xxxx]
From: Tech Support
Date: Fri, April 30, 2010 10:16 am
To: "Your Host"


Hi Bruce,


I talked to customer service, they should be sending you out 5 replacement ATMega328s with the bootloader and a return label for the 5 unprogrammed ones. Sorry for the inconvenience this has caused.


Thanks,


P (Sparkfun rep name)

Sent to Sparkfun

Subject: [FWD: SparkFun Order 2xxxxx]
Date: Mon, April 26, 2010 11:39 pm
To: customerservice@sparkfun.com

Good day.

I received my latest order from Sparkfun. I had some spark, but unfortunately, no fun.

On my previous order, I received Arduino 328 chips. All were marked with a red dot but one. I had my doubts, so I reserved it. When attempting a project with the unmarked chip, it would not load. OK, I still needed some more Arduino chips, so I ordered four more- Order 2xxxxx. I received the four chips I ordered, but none were marked. I removed one from the package and tested it- it would not load.

Here is what I did to test:

1) Took a known good circuit and removed the Arduino
2) Installed the unmarked Arduino
3) Recompiled the code
4) Attempted to download
5) Received the following error:
avrdude: stk500_getsync(): not in sync: resp=0x00
avrdude: stk500_disable(): protocol error, expect=0x14, resp=0x51
6) Powered down
7) reinstalled the known good chip
8) Powered up, recompiled code
9) Downloaded code
10) Code executed as expected

I think none of these chips has the Arduino bootloader loaded on, even though my packing list has a certification of compliance signed by the Customer Service Manager. What do you think?

I am attempting to write a class using Arduino chips, but that is rather difficult when they are not the correctly configured chip and my deadlines are slipping. I now have 5 chips that are not what I purchased. What can you do to rectify this situation?

Sincerely,

Testing the Unknown

Not what I wanted to see:

avrdude: stk500_getsync(): not in sync: resp=0x00
avrdude: stk500_disable(): protocol error, expect=0x14, resp=0x51
 
Looks like my backup chip really is not an Arduino.
Neither are the chips in the new order.
 
I took a known good circuit with a known good Arduino in it, removed the Arduino and replaced it with an unmarked chip. I recompiled the code and tried to download it. I received the error above. I powered down, swapped the known good chip back in, powered up, recompiled, loaded to the chip and the program ran as expected.
 
Time to contact Sparkfun.

Package from Sparkfun

The package from Sparkfun arrived today. I need to do some testing. On the last order, all the chips were marked with a red dot, except one. The unmarked chip does not appear to have the Arduino bootloader on it. I will run one more test on it. None of the chips that arrived today were marked. I hope they just forgot to mark them.

I am hopeful that I can start on the Arduino project again- I have ideas and need to implement them!

Slightly out-of-focus pictures below tell the story better.

Marked Arduino on left, Unmarked, probably not Arduino on right.

Unmarked chips. Hoping for bootloaders.

Since we are on the topic, it has been bbrought to my attention that one may construct an Arduino bootloader burner rather easily. This may be something to add to the end of the class. If I have an order of plain AtmelATMega 328 chips, then I may have to do this. Not without a call to Sparkfun first.

Good day at The Generator

Today is the last Saturday of National Robotics Week. DPRG marked that date with an event at The Generator, a coffee shop in downtown Garland. the Arduino project made an appearance as well. There would have been one more Arduinp project board, but trying to get the board running at 6:30 this morning, a careless application of 12 volts was made, and that particular Arduino chip is no more. My backup chip, it turns out, may be a wonderful ATMega 328, but it is no Arduino. Maybe at one point, I will learn how to put the bootloader on the ATMega, but not today. Time for another order from Sparkfun.

The Arduino appeared in a rare, shared-power configuration. The Cylon board already had a voltage regulator on it, the Ping did not. These particular boards will snap together, so they were shapped and a jumper was run between the positive and negative 5-volt buses on each board. It would have looked great with the switching board in the middle, but that was not to be today.

Prelude to Arduino

In process right now is the development of class utilizing the Arduino microcontroller. Before anyone points it out, there are others that are developing classes utilizing this same chip. This class is being developed by a person that has been building projects with this chip for almost a year. It is an easy to use chip and it’s a lot of fun building the projects.

The intent behind this class is to share. There are those that may be experiencing some difficulty or just don’t know how to proceed. After taking the class, then someone working with small robotic projects will have a set of tools and solutions that can be easily applied in that field.

There are multiple microcontroller products with the name “Arduino.” In this class, the term “Arduino” will refer to the Atmel ATMega 328 chip with an Arduino boot loader. The chip itself is used on a prototyping breadboard and not on one of the development platforms sold by Arduino such as the Arduino Duemilanove. It’s easier to pronounce if you speak Italian.

Much information about the Arduino can be found on the web.

Arduino maintains this site:

http://www.arduino.cc/

Much more is available and easily found.

The Arduino chips for this class were purchased from Sparkfun Electronics
(http://www.sparkfun.com/)
and are modestly priced. Breadboards were purchased from Marlin P. Jones & Assoc. Inc. (http://www.mpja.com/);
Breadboards and other electronics were purchased from Tanner Electronics in Carrollton, Texas (http://www.tannerelectronics.com/).

The current USB to TTL serial adapter is the USB BUB board from Modern Device (http://www.moderndevice.com/)
and is the most expensive item on the basic Arduino breadboard setup. This product may be changed in the future.

In addition, this class is built as an extension to the “Breadboard Arduino” class developed by Dale Wheat (http://blog.dalewheat.com/tag/arduino).
Prerequisites to this class are all in his class. If you have attended the introductory Breadboard Arduino class, then you have the base hardware and training needed for this class.

So, as far as the class goes, updates have been posted to Facebook, but will now be posted in this blog. There will probably be some information fed into one or two posts that gets the information caught up.