Well I've been working on an LED Array for a school project lately... fried the chip twice. I just now ordered a new chip and I expect it to arrive by saturday.... hopefully. The project is due Monday! x_x

The first chip came in 3 days and shipped the same day I bought it. That's good service.

I don't know, just felt like saying this.

What are you doing that is "Frying" your microcontroller?

Well the first time, the programming cable crossed wires and the mcu got very hot, the cable broke too. The second time, I accidentally tried programming the mcu and didn't realize that pin 14 wasn't in the breadboard (it bent), so now it can't verify any data. Just silly mistakes.

pin 14 wasn't in the breadboard (it bent),

That would not blow a mcu, pin 14 floats in run mode any way,the same as not being in the breadboard. You ground pin 14 to program, switch up, but switch down (to the right) is not connected to anything.

I would try the "blown" mcu, after rewiring (takes 5 minutes at the most after you have done it two or three times), load the initialload program.

Even getting a short across the mcu (hot) does not necessarily mean that it is blown.

Ralph

I'll experiment tonight. Thanks!

I rewired the entire breadboard and still I get this message:

avrdude: verifying ...
avrdude: verification error, first mismatch at byte 0x0000
         0x0c != 0x00
avrdude: verification error; content mismatch

I think it's dead, Jim. Also I have tested it, nothing is written or erased.

The first one, I'll give you that. Shorting out the chip to the point of it heating up could have definitely damaged it. However, I fully agree with Ralph. A bent pin 14 will not damage the mcu electrically. As long as the pin can be straightened and all pins fully seated, the chip should work. That is unless something else happened to it that you haven't told us or that you are unaware of. If you physically broke off pin14 trying to straighten it, you won't be able to go into the Nerdkit program mode, but you would still be able to program the chip via ISP with an ISP programmer. If the pin were broken and any of it remained, you could even solder a jumper directly to the remaining portion and connect that to the program switch.

What are you using to power the chip? Are you sure your USB/Serial (AKA Nerdkit programming) Cable is good?

Rick

The cable is fine, I checked it with putty. Works perfectly. I use a 9 volt battery to power the chip. The pin isn't broken. It does enter programming mode but like I said it doesn't read or write anything and gives a verification error. The only thing I can think of that I haven't said is that when I was trying to program it, my computer got the BSOD... twice. But then again, the pin wasn't in the breadboard so I have no idea why it did that. Thanks!

I have gotten a couple of BSOD while trying to open putty around the same time the computer is programming the microcontroller. However, this did not do any damage to the chip. This thread has someone with the same issue, and it seems at the very end they found it to be that the chip was bad. There were a few other remedies people mentioned though. Have you had a look at this thread?

David

Yes, I have seen that thread. That thread (plus a few others) are what drive me to the conclusion that the chip is dead. It seems that is the only answer to everyone with my problem. I don't have an ISP Programmer so I can't try re-writing the bootloader, sadly.

Thanks!

Woo Hoo! The new chip came. Great timing, NerdKits team.