Has anyone tried to program an ATmega2560 with an FTDI chip as is done in the Arduino Nano (this is for a custom design).
Will it work?
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1That will work. The only think to look out for is how to reset the board. Either manually reset it before uploading, or connect the DTR pin of the FTDI, via a capacitor, to the reset pin.Gerben– Gerben2015-03-12 16:46:27 +00:00Commented Mar 12, 2015 at 16:46
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1It actually worked!Arcu– Arcu2015-04-07 20:34:00 +00:00Commented Apr 7, 2015 at 20:34
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Reworded question to remove confusing references to the Arduino Mega, which is not what this question is about (see OP's comment below).Greenonline– Greenonline2017-01-16 20:41:05 +00:00Commented Jan 16, 2017 at 20:41
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2 Answers
In fact, the basic Arduino Mega (with the ATmega 1280) utilizes an FT232RL, so yes, it will work if you connect it correctly.
It is only the newer Mega2560 (along with the similar-generation Uno, etc) which utilizes an ATmega16u2 or similar as the USB bridge.
Generally speaking, the bootloader doesn't care - you should be able to use either target chip with either USB bridge (or others).
The Arduino Mega already has a built-in USB-UART bridge, so there's no need for a separate chip.
The ATmega1280 on the other hand is just a bare AVR MCU and does require either a separate USB-UART bridge for serial programming (provided it is programmed with an appropriate bootloader) or an ISP programmer for ISP programming.
answered Mar 12, 2015 at 14:42
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Sorry, I expressed my self wrong. My goal is to program the Atmega2560 (with the bootloader already burned in) with the FTDI chip instead the AVR USB bridge from the Arduino Mega original design. Do you think that might work assuming the connections are correct? Or in other words, is the Arduino IDE expecting some sort of response from the programmer that the AVR bridge will provide and the FTDI will not?Arcu– Arcu2015-03-12 15:01:19 +00:00Commented Mar 12, 2015 at 15:01
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The FTDI chip is a USB-UART bridge, so I would expect not. But to be perfectly honest, I'd use a ISP programmer and save myself the cost of the bridge and the time of burning the bootloader.Ignacio Vazquez-Abrams– Ignacio Vazquez-Abrams2015-03-12 15:29:07 +00:00Commented Mar 12, 2015 at 15:29
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1If you think there is a difference there you are quite mistaken. The bridge is merely a proxy. The response comes form the bootloader on the target MCU. As I'd mentioned previously the IDE (avrdude actually) relies on the operating system Serial API. It doesn't care what USB bus operations or VID/PID are involved. It merely cares that whatever operating system Serial device you point it at in the menu has a bootloader that responds at the baud rate configured for the board entry. Take a look in boards.txt at the FTDI- vs. ATmega16u2 interfaced boards.Chris Stratton– Chris Stratton2015-05-11 19:48:00 +00:00Commented May 11, 2015 at 19:48
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1I don't understand why you've gone off on this tangent. Of course the bridge doesn't care about the protocol; it's just a bridge.Ignacio Vazquez-Abrams– Ignacio Vazquez-Abrams2015-05-11 20:00:34 +00:00Commented May 11, 2015 at 20:00
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1No tangent. Just the illogical nature of your "I would expect not" comment. I read that as you expecting this not to work. Did you mean that you expected there to be no difference, ie, are you responding to the second question and not the first?Chris Stratton– Chris Stratton2015-05-11 20:05:40 +00:00Commented May 11, 2015 at 20:05