Problem in bootloading my ATmega32U4 chip

Question

I have developed my own development board using ATmega32U4. I want to bootload my ATmega32U4 and hence I used Arduino Uno to bootload it. I have given the connections as per https://www.arduino.cc/en/Tutorial/ArduinoISP and I followed this instructions:

1. Open the ArduinoISP firmware (in Examples) to your Arduino board.

2. Select the items in the Tools > Board and Serial Port menus that correspond to the board you are using as the programmer (not the board being programmed).

3. Upload the ArduinoISP sketch.

4. Wire your Arduino boards..

5. Select the item in the Tools > Board menu that corresponds to the board on which you want to burn the bootloader (not the board that you're using as the programmer). See the board descriptions on the environment page for details.

6. Select the Arduino as ISP in the Tools>Programmer menu.

7. Use the Burn Bootloader command.

But I am getting the error message as

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

I am using 16Mhz crytsal oscillator along with 22pf

What might be the problem?

Answer 1

If you are developing your own board there are a number of things which can go wrong, although the problem is usually very simple and bootloading will be easy once you fix the bugs.

Possible hardware problems are:

• You have bad solder joints / connections. Even if you think the solder joints are good, try reflowing them again
• ISP leads are too long - can lead to data corruption during bootloading
• Pins are not correct. E.g. are MOSI and MISO the correct way around?
• Reset pin needs a pullup resistor

Most likely, you have some sort of hardware problem. Post your board layout (or at least schematic) and we can look at it. If you have a pro micro board to hand (if not, buy one one ebay or similar), try bootloading that and see whether your procedure works.