AVRISPMKII led blinks, but no connection on $50 robot

[robotdude]

Hi,

We're trough the electronics part of the robot. Now we connected the programmer (the expensive one) put power on the robot (we chose the battery holder method) through 9 V battery (and we also tried with the battery holder connected). When we do this the status indicator of the connector starts blinking. I'm speaking about the red light which is blinking. This is a good sign, like "Hello World!" right?

But when we try to connect with AVR Studio 4 (without Ponyprog, we have the good programmer) the computer stops working for a while and then the connection screen pops up again and it says: "Connection failed" or something similar.

I hope someone can help us.

Thanks in advance!

Robot Dude

[Webbot]

I'm speaking about the red light which is blinking. This is a good sign, like "Hello World!" right?

No - if everything is OK you will get a constant green light.

The flashing light means either:
1. You have plugged the cable in the wrong way around on the board, or
2. There is a problem with the RESET line from the ISP 6 pin header to the RESET pin of the microcontroller - get out your meter and check for any short circuits and that each ISP pin is connected to the correct target pin or power line.

[Admin]

I'm speaking about the red light which is blinking. This is a good sign, like "Hello World!" right?

The flashing light means either:
1. You have plugged the cable in the wrong way around on the board

Plugging the ISP cable in reverse gives a flashing orange light. Red light means there is no power/connection to your mcu.

I've never seen a flashing red light before . . . probably something bad, like your wiring is seriously wrong or a short or something malfunctioned . . . get out a multimeter and check your wiring!

[Webbot]

I'm speaking about the red light which is blinking. This is a good sign, like "Hello World!" right?

The flashing light means either:
1. You have plugged the cable in the wrong way around on the board

Plugging the ISP cable in reverse gives a flashing orange light. Red light means there is no power/connection to your mcu.

I've never seen a flashing red light before . . . probably something bad, like your wiring is seriously wrong or a short or something malfunctioned . . . get out a multimeter and check your wiring!

I'm going by the Troubleshooting section of the AVRISPMKII User Guide  - see page 27 of http://www.atmel.com/dyn/resources/prod_documents/AVRISPmkII_UG.pdf

Given that it doesn't mention 'red LED' then I was taking it as 'orange LED' - just in case.

Also see table on page 25 for various LED colours - may help.....