USBASP problem that has me stumped.

I have a USBasp V2 that I have been using for years to program drivers. Most recently I have been using it with ZFlasher on Android and have been upgrading FWxA’s with chip clips and D4v2’s and D4Sv2’s and all has been going well. Now, I am trying to put N-lite on a couple of AK47’s with 13A chips and no matter what I cannot get it to even try to work. I am getting a bad chip signature on every try.

What have I tried?

  1. New clip, they do fail.
  2. Different USBasp, have not had one fail before.
  3. Changed 3.3 to 5 volt.
  4. Tried to read a known good BLF SRK 7135 driver.

All have failed! It seems that I am having trouble with only the 13 or 13A chips. Zflasher lists a 13 but not 13A as an option, maybe a problem? Do I need special baud rate for frequency for the 13? Default has worked for every other chip I have used it on. The errant signature is all zeros, so it is just not communicating.

I may need to set up avrdude on the PC, but it is going to be awhile before I get a chance to do that and I really wanted this darn driver before Thursday. BTW, it is going into an old Balder AA light that I have resurrected that has the horrible modes of the AK47.

Any ideas?

Thanks Matt

Is pin 5 of the ATtiny connected to ground? If yes, that’s your problem.

The only pins that are grounded are 4 and 7.

Pin 7 must not be grounded as well. A several kOhm pulldown should be OK, but not directly grounded.

Pin 7 appears to be 122k with my Fluke meter.

I have also installed AVRdude and it recognizes the USPasp but also does not see the ATtiny 13.

It was some time ago I was dealing with those. If I remember correctly, the USBASP needs to connect to 6 pins, doesn’t it? If any of those pins (besides GND pin) are shorted with GND you will not be able to flash it?

Besides grounded pins there is a possibility that those drivers have had the lock fuse set on the MCUs. If they are locked / bricked you need high voltage serial programming device to get then to respond again. Here is some information about it: https://www.electronics-lab.com/recover-bricked-attiny-using-arduino-as-high-voltage-programmer/
I made a Arduino based HVSP a long time ago and got it to work every now and then but it was a real hassle. I’m so glad to be done with those things.

Just resetting the lock bits does not require HV programming. Reading the device signature is always possible, independent of the lock bits. I think just disabling serial programming prevents reading of the signature (and enabling it would require HVP).

Oh yes, I think you are right. What I was doing was using the reset pin as an IO, that required HV programing to get it responsive again.

Sorry for the noise, it was ages ago I was dealing with those things.