Teensy 3.1 as an ISP programmer for Attiny85 - missing signature

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LetZweindaut

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Hi guys,

First and foremost, my adventure with electronics started not so long ago and I'm still learning, so if I'm doing something completely wrong or if I missed something obvious, please let me know.

I'm working on an intervalometer for my Canon camera and initially Teensy was perfect for the job. However, I thought it would be a nice idea to make the whole project even smaller and to use an Attiny microcontroller instead. I read that people are using their Teensies to program AVR MCUs so I thought I could do the same. I got the Arduino ISP working on my Teensy 3.1 (well, at least I think so - it was uploaded correctly and I'm getting the heartbeat signal), please see below:

IMG_20140809_201452.jpg

I downloaded the Arduino-tiny from here: https://code.google.com/p/arduino-tiny/ and installed, I think, correctly, because the Attiny85 appeared on the list of available boards:

attiny.jpg

*on the screenshot, the Attiny45 is selected, but I actually use Attiny85 @ 1MHz

I connected the Attiny as shown below:

IMG_20140809_205225.jpg

But when I try to upload a basic Blink sketch (I changed pin 13 to 0), avrdude complains about Attiny's missing signature:

Code:
avrdude: Version 5.11, compiled on Sep  2 2011 at 19:38:36
         Copyright (c) 2000-2005 Brian Dean, http://www.bdmicro.com/
         Copyright (c) 2007-2009 Joerg Wunsch

         System wide configuration file is "C:\Users\Piotr\Documents\teensy\arduino-1.0.5-r2-windows\arduino-1.0.5-r2\hardware/tools/avr/etc/avrdude.conf"

         Using Port                    : \\.\COM5
         Using Programmer              : stk500v1
         Overriding Baud Rate          : 19200
avrdude: Send: 0 [30]   [20] 
avrdude: Send: 0 [30]   [20] 
avrdude: Send: 0 [30]   [20] 
avrdude: Recv: . [14] 
avrdude: Recv: . [10] 
         AVR Part                      : ATtiny45
         Chip Erase delay              : 4500 us
         PAGEL                         : P00
         BS2                           : P00
         RESET disposition             : possible i/o
         RETRY pulse                   : SCK
         serial program mode           : yes
         parallel program mode         : yes
         Timeout                       : 200
         StabDelay                     : 100
         CmdexeDelay                   : 25
         SyncLoops                     : 32
         ByteDelay                     : 0
         PollIndex                     : 3
         PollValue                     : 0x53
         Memory Detail                 :

                                  Block Poll               Page                       Polled
           Memory Type Mode Delay Size  Indx Paged  Size   Size #Pages MinW  MaxW   ReadBack
           ----------- ---- ----- ----- ---- ------ ------ ---- ------ ----- ----- ---------
           eeprom        65     6     4    0 no        256    4      0  4000  4500 0xff 0xff
                                  Block Poll               Page                       Polled
           Memory Type Mode Delay Size  Indx Paged  Size   Size #Pages MinW  MaxW   ReadBack
           ----------- ---- ----- ----- ---- ------ ------ ---- ------ ----- ----- ---------
           flash         65     6    32    0 yes      4096   64     64  4500  4500 0xff 0xff
                                  Block Poll               Page                       Polled
           Memory Type Mode Delay Size  Indx Paged  Size   Size #Pages MinW  MaxW   ReadBack
           ----------- ---- ----- ----- ---- ------ ------ ---- ------ ----- ----- ---------
           signature      0     0     0    0 no          3    0      0     0     0 0x00 0x00
                                  Block Poll               Page                       Polled
           Memory Type Mode Delay Size  Indx Paged  Size   Size #Pages MinW  MaxW   ReadBack
           ----------- ---- ----- ----- ---- ------ ------ ---- ------ ----- ----- ---------
           lock           0     0     0    0 no          1    0      0  9000  9000 0x00 0x00
                                  Block Poll               Page                       Polled
           Memory Type Mode Delay Size  Indx Paged  Size   Size #Pages MinW  MaxW   ReadBack
           ----------- ---- ----- ----- ---- ------ ------ ---- ------ ----- ----- ---------
           lfuse          0     0     0    0 no          1    0      0  9000  9000 0x00 0x00
                                  Block Poll               Page                       Polled
           Memory Type Mode Delay Size  Indx Paged  Size   Size #Pages MinW  MaxW   ReadBack
           ----------- ---- ----- ----- ---- ------ ------ ---- ------ ----- ----- ---------
           hfuse          0     0     0    0 no          1    0      0  9000  9000 0x00 0x00
                                  Block Poll               Page                       Polled
           Memory Type Mode Delay Size  Indx Paged  Size   Size #Pages MinW  MaxW   ReadBack
           ----------- ---- ----- ----- ---- ------ ------ ---- ------ ----- ----- ---------
           efuse          0     0     0    0 no          1    0      0  9000  9000 0x00 0x00
                                  Block Poll               Page                       Polled
           Memory Type Mode Delay Size  Indx Paged  Size   Size #Pages MinW  MaxW   ReadBack
           ----------- ---- ----- ----- ---- ------ ------ ---- ------ ----- ----- ---------
           calibration    0     0     0    0 no          2    0      0     0     0 0x00 0x00

         Programmer Type : STK500
         Description     : Atmel STK500 Version 1.x firmware
avrdude: Send: A [41] . [80]   [20] 
avrdude: Recv: . [14] 
avrdude: Recv: . [02] 
avrdude: Recv: . [10] 
avrdude: Send: A [41] . [81]   [20] 
avrdude: Recv: . [14] 
avrdude: Recv: . [01] 
avrdude: Recv: . [10] 
avrdude: Send: A [41] . [82]   [20] 
avrdude: Recv: . [14] 
avrdude: Recv: . [12] 
avrdude: Recv: . [10] 
avrdude: Send: A [41] . [98]   [20] 
avrdude: Recv: . [14] 
avrdude: Recv: . [00] 
avrdude: Recv: . [10] 
         Hardware Version: 2
         Firmware Version: 1.18
         Topcard         : Unknown
avrdude: Send: A [41] . [84]   [20] 
avrdude: Recv: . [14] 
avrdude: Recv: . [00] 
avrdude: Recv: . [10] 
avrdude: Send: A [41] . [85]   [20] 
avrdude: Recv: . [14] 
avrdude: Recv: . [00] 
avrdude: Recv: . [10] 
avrdude: Send: A [41] . [86]   [20] 
avrdude: Recv: . [14] 
avrdude: Recv: . [00] 
avrdude: Recv: . [10] 
avrdude: Send: A [41] . [87]   [20] 
avrdude: Recv: . [14] 
avrdude: Recv: . [00] 
avrdude: Recv: . [10] 
avrdude: Send: A [41] . [89]   [20] 
avrdude: Recv: . [14] 
avrdude: Recv: . [00] 
avrdude: Recv: . [10] 
         Vtarget         : 0.0 V
         Varef           : 0.0 V
         Oscillator      : Off
         SCK period      : 0.1 us

avrdude: Send: A [41] . [81]   [20] 
avrdude: Recv: . [14] 
avrdude: Recv: . [01] 
avrdude: Recv: . [10] 
avrdude: Send: A [41] . [82]   [20] 
avrdude: Recv: . [14] 
avrdude: Recv: . [12] 
avrdude: Recv: . [10] 
avrdude: Send: B [42] . [14] . [00] . [00] . [01] . [01] . [01] . [01] . [03] . [ff] . [ff] . [ff] . [ff] . [00] @ [40] . [01] . [00] . [00] . [00] . [10] . [00]   [20] 
avrdude: Recv: . [14] 
avrdude: Recv: . [10] 
avrdude: please define PAGEL and BS2 signals in the configuration file for part ATtiny45
avrdude: Send: P [50]   [20] 
avrdude: Recv: . [14] 
avrdude: Recv: . [10] 
avrdude: AVR device initialized and ready to accept instructions

Reading | avrdude: Send: V [56] 0 [30] . [00] . [00] . [00]   [20] 
avrdude: Recv: . [14] 
avrdude: Recv: . [00] 
avrdude: Recv: . [10] 
avrdude: Send: V [56] 0 [30] . [00] . [01] . [00]   [20] 
avrdude: Recv: . [14] 
avrdude: Recv: . [00] 
avrdude: Recv: . [10] 
################avrdude: Send: V [56] 0 [30] . [00] . [02] . [00]   [20] 
avrdude: Recv: . [14] 
avrdude: Recv: . [00] 
avrdude: Recv: . [10] 
################################## | 100% 0.06s

avrdude: Device signature = 0x000000
avrdude: Yikes!  Invalid device signature.
         Double check connections and try again, or use -F to override
         this check.

avrdude: Send: Q [51]   [20] 
avrdude: Recv: . [14] 
avrdude: Recv: . [10] 

avrdude done.  Thank you.

I reconnected it several times hoping I got the pins wrong, but with no luck. What am I missing?

Thanks a lot for your time!
 
Last edited:
Problem solved!

Hi guys,

Finally, I got it working :) What you can actually see on the listing above is a log for Attiny45 which I selected by mistake. I thought changing the board to AtTiny85 in the Arduino IDE will fix my problem, but it wasn't the case.

What I did today was: I borrowed an Arduino Leonardo just to test my connections and I got the same error again. This actually gave me hope that maybe it is the connections I got wrong. I unplugged the tiny from the breadboard and noticed that while unplugging, one of its pins bent. I adjusted it to be parallel to the other ones, connected the thing again (using my Teensy 3.1 this time) and I got an avrdude error: "Yikes!" with device signature 0xffffff. At this point I was sure that the Attiny is not connected properly (or some of its pins aren't), so I unplugged it again, bent all pins so they are really parallel, connected everything back again and, presto, it's working now.

This was a really frustrating process, which I'm really glad is over. If I can give you any advice, it would be just this: make sure the tiny sits correctly on the breadboard (or in a socket, which actually didn't work with my breadboard either). Please see pictures below (correct connections and working, battery powered sketch).

IMG_20140814_213557.jpg

IMG_20140814_214013.jpg
 
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