Digispark ATtiny 85 erases flash after power loss

Question

I have some issues with my Digispark ATtiny85 board. If I upload the blink sketch for example the LED starts blinking and everything looks fine. But as soon as I unplug the Digispark from the USB port and plug it back in nothing happens. I know that the programm starts with a delay of 5 seconds so programming via USB becomes possible, but still nothing. Its seems like the flash-memory (where the programm is stored) of the ATtiny 85 is empty.

Here is the example blink sketch:

// the setup routine runs once when you press reset:
void setup() {                
  // initialize the digital pin as an output.
  pinMode(0, OUTPUT); //LED on Model B
  pinMode(1, OUTPUT); //LED on Model A   
}

// the loop routine runs over and over again forever:
void loop() {
  digitalWrite(0, HIGH);   // turn the LED on (HIGH is the voltage level)
  digitalWrite(1, HIGH);
  delay(1000);               // wait for a second
  digitalWrite(0, LOW);    // turn the LED off by making the voltage LOW
  digitalWrite(1, LOW); 
  delay(1000);               // wait for a second
}

I also tried uploading the sketch from a Laptop running on Windows but without success.

I am using Linux Mint and Arduino IDE 1.8.10.

Since I am new to Microcontrollers, I would be grateful for explainations, tipps or useful links. Thank you!

Answer 1

I got the same issue, on two boards. Will probably try to burn the bootloader using usbasp, maybe they burned the wrong one back in china.

EDIT:

As expected flashing the micronucleus bootloader using USBasp solved the problem on both of the boards. I've used burn-o-mat as the arduino was not seeing my programmer.

Just download the firmware from github (I've used this: https://github.com/f4goh/micronucleus/archive/master.zip )

and connect like so (here the guy is using arduino uno, doesn't matter): https://hamprojects.wordpress.com/2018/12/27/digispark-microcontrollers-implementation/