Hi,

one of my bulbdial clocks stopped working after 16 months. There are no LEDs light. Dead. This happened once before in summer last year. But a powercycle helped.

I tried to upload beady2.pde, but I get errors regarding the time functions with arduino 22.

What else can I do? Power is good, tried two other supplies.

Bye

Stefan

I'm sorry to hear about the trouble. There is an issue with older bulbdial clock kits where it appears that memory corruption can occur in very rare cases-- it's been observed in well under 1% of kits.

Since you have programming hardware (I'm guessing a USB-TTL interface), you can try to reprogram the clock with any standard Arduino sketch, for example the basic digital "blink" sketch.

If it programs okay, then the CPU and bootloader are still intact, and you should try to reprogram the regular firmware. (You will need to download the older time library to make it work, or we can send you the necessary firmware.)

If it does not program correctly, then the bootloader likely needs to be reflashed. You can do this with an AVR ISP programmer, for example a USBtinyISP, or with another Arduino (or Arduino compatible), using the Arduino as ISP sketch. In a pinch, the USB-TTL cable can also be used as an ISP programmer.

Hi Windell,

I'll try the "blink" sketch as soon as I'm at home.

Would you please point me to the "old" time library - or just email me.

I already own an USBtinyISP - so it should be possible to do all the recommended steps.

Bye

Stefan

Hi Stefan,
I'll contact you directly by e-mail, then. You should definitely be able to get it working by reflashing it with the USBtinyISP.

Hi,

I had no luck with the arduino environment. So I tried my USBtinyISP. With no luck too. At the end I'm getting this:

Reading | ################################################## | 100% 8.86s

avrdude: verifying ...
avrdude: verification error, first mismatch at byte 0x0086
0x61 != 0x60
avrdude: verification error; content mismatch

avrdude: safemode: Fuses OK

avrdude done. Thank you.

make: *** [isp] Error 1

Then I read the contents of my chip and made a compare. There are several bytes different.

I think, my chip is bad.

Bye

Stefan

First, this doesn't sound like the same error that we've seen before. In every case where the known error happened, it was immediately cured by reprogramming.

Second, I've never heard of the chip "going bad" all by itself. So, I suspect that it's not hopeless yet.

Is the error consistent at that location in memory, or does it change if you try again? If you get errors like these at different memory locations, then it's likely that there is either (1) a flaky solder joint at fault (2) a loose connection while programming or (3) the power supply is not stable enough.

Something else to try would be to run a different program. I'd suggest using the "burn bootloader" command within Arduino, to see if you can program it once successfully. Again, see if the problem is at the same memory location, if one occurs.

Hi,

I'll resolder the ISP and AVR pins and try it again.

Bye

Stefan

Hi,

I changed from Windows 7 to Linux. And I tried with my other programmer. Same result:

And now with avr isp mkII

It's the same address everytime.

Bye

Stefan

Have you tried the other thing that I suggested, to use the "burn bootloader" command? It's possible that there's corruption in the file that I sent.

Hi,

Quote by: Windell

Have you tried the other thing that I suggested, to use the "burn bootloader" command? It's possible that there's corruption in the file that I sent.

yes I did. But it worked not inside Arduino 022. So again I tried the commandline:

what gives

Bye

Stefan

Well, that sounds pretty conclusive. I've never seen anything like it. I'll contact you by e-mail to discuss a replacement of some kind.

Hi,

thank you very much for sending me the repair parts. Got them on tuesday. Repaired the clock just now.

And it's back to life!

I'm very happy now.

Bye from Bavaria,

Stefan