AVRISPMKII needs a fix

[silent069]

hi there, ive been trying to find out why my atmega8 chip will not program and happened to stumble across a post on the forum that basically solves my problem. This other person was unable to program their chip and went through 4 different atmega8 chips before ordering the dongle serial programmer and instantly recovered 3 of the 4 thought to be faulty chips. I was wondering if anyone has had this problem with the $34 AVRISPMKII programmer, and if you have, what u have done to fix this..  I don't really want to order another programmer, especially if this is the "better" programmer. I know the programmer is only like $12, but im from canada and after paying for the shipping and duties at the border, im up to $30+
Let me know if you have any suggestions or fixes to this problem!

Thanks,

Bobby

[bens]

Can you describe the circuit your mega8 is in (or provide a schematic)?  In general, the mkII is very picky.  If you have the wrong impedances or capacitances on your programming lines it won't program the device.

You could also try reinstalling the mkII firmware and see if that makes a difference.

- Ben

[silent069]

Its for the $50 robot.  I wont post a link or anything as im sure everyone is quite familiar with it by now

[bukowski]

Hello, and welcome!
First off, triple check your connections, both to the programming header and to all the pins on the chip. I fried my first one, and messed with it for days before i saw the mistake, fixed it and replaced the chip.

If you are absolutely positive that all the connections are correct, I know there was a firmware issue with some of the programmers. 

http://www.societyofrobots.com/robotforum/index.php?topic=3177.0

Also, if all else fails:

http://support.atmel.no/bin/customer?=&action=viewKbEntry&id=25