I am having some trouble uploading code to my Seeeduino ADK (essentially a Arduino Mega 2560) using Eclipse. Basically, this thread explains my problem. Sometimes I get a series of timeouts using the Arduino IDE upload, which is usually fixed by removing and re-inserting the USB. Unfortunately enough, this does not help fix the problem in Eclipse.
I have been trying to do the upload using AVRdude via the command line (I even tried the “hacky” solution in the last comment of the above thread), but to no avail. This is the line I am using for this:
"%AVR_DUDE%" -pm2560 -cstk500v2 -P\\.\%COMM_PORT% -b115200 -F -V -D - Uflash:w:"%HEX_FILE%":a -C"%AVR_DUDE_CONF%"
Which gives me:
avrdude.exe: stk500v2_ReceiveMessage(): timeout
I know the above batch variables are OK, because AVRdude runs correctly (but then it times out). If anyone has any ideas or tips that could help me with my uploading I would greatly appreciate it. Thanks beforehand.
EDIT: As it turns out, the reason for this may be that the Arduino IDE sends a reset to the board before uploading, something which the Eclipse AVR plugin does not do. I will test this and write a uploading perl script, but I am fairly certain this is the problem.
Your suspicion is correct. The Arduino IDE uses a patched version of AVRDude to pulse the DTR line and reset the board before each upload. For some reason, some people have had difficulty getting the right command line parameters to replicate this on the Mega2560. I’ve had the same problem myself – ATMega328’s work with no problem, but the 2560 needs to be reset manually.
There’s some further explanation and tips for possibly getting it working here (check the comments too): http://false.ekta.is/2011/05/avrdude-5-10-arduino-mega-2560-command-line-uploading/