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Topic starter
2020-02-13 3:15 am
Can I please get some tips on how to get this FTDI unit to work with my Mac. When I try to upload a sketch to my chip I'm getting an error that the Arduino IDE cannot communicate with the boot loader. I'd like to think I have everything wired up correctly. Not really sure how to trouble shoot this.
2020-02-13 4:37 am
When I try to upload a sketch to my chip I'm getting an error that the Arduino IDE cannot communicate with the boot loader.
What chip are you using? Does it have a bootloader in it? Some chips do not come with a bootloader burned into them.
DroneBot Workshop Robotics Engineer
James
2020-02-13 4:44 am
Have you watched Bill's video and Web article on this?
DroneBot Workshop Robotics Engineer
James
2020-02-13 11:03 am
Try to reinstall the FTDI driver for Mac.
https://learn.sparkfun.com/ftdiDriversMac
If that doesn't work, you may have a clone. The makers of the FTDI chip are rumoured to have put a code sequence in the driver to prevent using their drivers with illegally cloned chips. If you have got one of these then it is a "brick"!
You could take a chance buying another FTDI breakout board or change to the CH340g USB/serial interface.
Topic starter
2020-02-13 1:50 pm
Update on things so far.
So since I'm so new at this I thought it would be best to break things down into little chunks and build up from there. First things first, here are the items I'm using...
Gratux Atmega328P-PU with Bootloader Bundle with Sockets
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B07PZWYW2F/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_search_asin_title?ie=UTF8&psc=1
HiLetgo FT232RL FTDI Mini USB to TTL Serial Converter
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00IJXZQ7C/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o03_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1
The FTDI device I bought does state that it's some cheaper version and that you can brick it really easy by using the wrong Windows drivers. I'm using a Mac so do I still need to worry about bricking this thing? From what I read it didn't seem to be an issue ?♂️
What I did first was take my UNO that has a removable chip and place one of the chips I bought into the unit. I wanted to do this so I could test that the boot loader was actually installed on it. After doing this test the blink sketched worked just fine and I was able to alter the sketch and upload the code to the chip seeing the changes happen (faster blink speed). OK cool! So far so good 🙂
Next I followed these instructions to program the chip outside of the UNO and using the UNO as the FTDI device. https://www.arduino.cc/en/Tutorial/ArduinoToBreadboard
This worked perfect and I now have a stand alone chip wired up on a breadboard with a blinking LED that can be programed from the UNO! Also very cool!
So I now know for sure that the boot loader works on this chip and that my wiring is correct for the stand alone chip. The only thing I have to work out now is getting the FTDI device that I bought working so that I can remove the UNO.
At least with this step by step process I was able to figure out what is working and then build on each win. I'll report back here how things end up with the FTDI device.
Thank you all for your comments and support 🙂