Hi I am new to electronics so please be nice.I have wired to the stage where Congratulations hardware is ok message is on screen,when i am connect via usb and flip to programming mode the screen goes all black, I have installed the driver,changed the comm port in the make file,Now when i press dir in the command line i get nothing,Please what do i do from here i have tried everything i know!

Sorry to add to what i have said, In the programmers notepad i have the initialloadc there,but what do i do with it when i have it in the notepad?,It says on page 43 when you have seen the code, does that mean in the notepad,then it says open up command line and navigate to the folder with the code in it, what do i press because pressing dir in command line,doesnot bring up the folder or any referance to the avrdude: avr device initialised,what do i do from this stage.

Hi higginson24 welcome, promise we will not bite (sometimes some of us get a bit snide but we do not do much harm).

First thing slow down.

It looks like you are asking 5 different things.

I think if you slow down and work it through you will answer some of your question yourself.

Lets start from scratch. Does the Congratulations (initialload) still work?

We need to make sure you still have a working device. So answer that Yes/No then we can move on.

What OS are you using? I asume Windows but what version?

You can load the program using Programmers Notepad without using the command line.

Using the command line "dir" only gives you the directory listings of your current folder (directory).

You probable need to be using "cd" as in change directory to get to your initialload folder.

If you are using Windows and you unzipped the Nerdkits download to C:\Nerdkits\Code.

Then you need to do something like:

 >> cd c:\\Nerdkits\\Code\\initialload

That gets you to the initialload folder the Congratulations program.

The tempsensor program would be something like:

>> cd c:\\Nerdkits\\Code\\tempsensor

So do you still have a working Nerdkit? Yes/No

Ralph

Hello yes my nerdkit is still working,All i have done is assembly they kit to get the congratulations hardware ok message, i havent yet been able to load the initial load onto the chip.

Ok are you still on page 43?

On the command line are you in the Code/initialload folder? Correct?

When you move the run/program switch to the up/left position do you get two black bars?

If so if you were to type "make" (no quotes) what happens?

The initialload program is the same as the Congratulations program you initially ran so you will not see any difference

unless you change the program,which we will do next. So everything "should" be the same as you started.

So let us know how you are doing.

Ralph

I've spent the last 3 hours trying to figure out this same problem, finally decided to look at the forum. I am not computer savvy at all, I'm a Mac user, but am using a PC for this kit. The Kit instructions are lacking in several areas to say the least. I'm using windows XP Pro. I'm stuck on page 43, #2. How do I navigate to the folder with code in it?? i type dir and that gets me nowhere. I type make, that gets me nowhere as well. How do I list all the files in a directory and then put them into the editor? I can see the original code initial.c in "notepad", but is that where I'm supposed to edit the new code? Soooo frustrating.

What does "gets me nowhere" mean? What actually happens when you type "dir" or "make" at a command prompt?

Or have you tried "cd" as in change directory (no quotes of course)?

Ralph

After spending 2 more hours on this, I figured it out. Getting nowhere means that when I would type dir in the command line, I'd get a small list of folders like desktop, documents, etc. I couldn't get to the Code folder that was required, I didn't know how to open those folder using DOS. I finally found the "library" section on the Nerdkits site and stumbled upon a DOS tutorial. This got me somewhere, but ultimately nowhere, until I started playing around. I did the opposite of the tutorial and voila, it started to work. When I had the code folder open I typed make in the command line and that gave me slight happiness until I got an error message. For anyone in the future, the instructions do not tell you that the battery and USB should be plugged in to write the new code. If your mechanical person like me, that may not be a no-brainer. After getting the code to work, I had to figure out where the code was coming from. So more playing and I realized that everything is done in the Programmers Notepad. Inside there, open up initialload.c and look for the LCD text. I altered the texted, saved it in Programmers Notepad, and all was good. It's all these little things that are missing from the guide, too many assumptions were made by the developers of this fun product.

Hi kirknerd,

Developer of this fun product here. Thanks for the feedback. I always like to know what our customers think so we can keep evolving the educational experience and keep making things better!

Looking at our guide I think I see where the battery on/off confusion might have come from. Page 43 goes over the programming steps, and admittedly does not state the battery needs to be plugged in. However the red box on the bottom of page 42 goes over how to boot your chip into programming mode to prepare for programming. I'll try to make sure these two steps are a little more clearly grouped in a future version of the guide.

I'd like to know more concisely what you mean by "did the opposite" of the tutorial. I'm fairly certain that guide works as written (or at least it did back when I wrote it), so any confusion it caused I would be happy to improve upon. We are always happy to be able to better explain a concept. If you would prefer to take this conversation offline shoot us an email at support <at> nerdkits.

We (and this wonderful community on our forums) are always happy to help. We understand everybody learns differently and what is obvious to some is completely foreign to others. I look forward to seeing some awesome mechanically oriented projects from you in the future!

Humberto