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This error is not actually related to the servo motor in any way. The actual problem is that there is a “bad” character in the file. It is a type of error that we have heard of before, but not been able to reproduce. If you can follow up on our earlier reply to you and send us a copy of the file, then hopefully we can solve this once and for all. If not, you might try using one of our example files while doing your calibrations.
Awesome– glad to hear it!
The Arduino IDE is a fine method to burn a bootloader– one of the easiest and most reliable. Just make sure that your hardware setup is matched to the bootloader that you choose.
Yes; the Uno bootloader does require the external crystal. If you try (even once with partial success) to burn this bootloader, it can convert your chip to the state of requiring an external crystal.
With this setup, you’ll need to be very careful, since most of the bootloaders in the IDE *do* require a crystal. Which bootloader have you been writing?
There are a few things that all need to work correctly for it to program:
– The programmer– The chip– The connection between them– The softwareThere’s not much that I can say, except that you need to check each of those things to find out where the error is. I’ve been there a few times, and I usually feel pretty silly after finding the error that I missed (backwards cable? no power? wrong software command?).Do you have the external crystal installed? And, are you trying to install a bootloader that requires one?A “raw” ATmega328 from the factory is configured to run from its internal clock, and does not require an external crystal. Our ATmegaXX8 mini dev kits come with a raw chip, unless specially ordered otherwise.
However, once it is programmed with a bootloader that expects an external crystal (or technically, once its “fuse” bytes are set to require one– which happens as part of that programming process), it does require a crystal.
If you do not have a crystal on your target board, and you tried to program a bootloader, it’s possible that you may have *succeeded* once, which will make it so that it cannot be reprogrammed, at least until you add the crystal and caps.
For an outdoor display, you’ll probably want at least 1 W of LED per “candle”. You could potentially use the menorah circuit board, with each LED output going to instead drive a transistor that controls that LED. For housings, you might start with existing outdoor housings for LEDs or other types of lighting.
Glad to hear that you got it sorted– what did the issue turn out to be?
Either option will work fine with the FTDI Friend and Arduino for programming. The tradeoffs are described on page 12 of the instructions. If you need to be able to communicate between your computer and the Peggy 2 via the serial port (other than for programming), then you should use the SER option, JP1/JP2.
The main icons shown are a pencil and a printer, which are meant to represent editing a document and printing it– they were not intended to reflect the actual shape of the tool used, nor the shape of the printer.
Earlier versions had other depictions there, such as a pencil and paintbrush for the two modes, but it was confusingbecause it looked like a choice between the type of marking instrument that would be used, not between modes of the program. Although you can use either a pen or pencil or paintbrush for output, I think that it’s more helpful *in that particular context* to indicate the difference between the “create” and “painting” modes.We have tried to make the language inclusive of the different ways that the machine can be used– when we say “Painting mode: print your drawing,” we are intentionally using words that usually refer to different techniques– those words hint at both painting (as with a brush), drawing (as with a pencil), and printing (as with a computer printer).The pencil tool in the drawing context of RoboPaint is the tool that performs the action of a “pencil tool” in a drawing program: that of creating a vector line of arbitrary shape. We could potentially switch it out for a paintbrush shape, but again, it is indicative of the tool’s function in the program, not of the physical implement. Similarly, the “rectangle” tool makes rectangles on your screen, but does not use a rectangle-shaped tool.Two other approaches that you might want to consider:1. Design your graphics in Inkscape, which is a full-featured SVG editor. (The “edit” context within RoboPaint is really only meant to provide some simple ability to open, resize, and edit graphics.) We’ve generally had excellent luck getting kids up and running with Inkscape for making drawings.2. Have you played with RoboPaint RT? It has many fewer options, and makes it a bit simpler to get painting *immediately* without a separate design stage.No, this does not sound correct. Every LED should light up in alignment mode. If it does not, you should not go on to the next step of assembly until that issue is corrected. Can you please list exactly which LEDs are lighting? I may be able to help you narrow down what might be causing this.
It sounds like LED driver U4 is not operating correctly. Try swapping the two LED driver chips (U4 and U5).
If the problem changes (for example, if none of the LEDs light), then that driver chip will need to be replaced.If the situation does not change, then the chip is most likely fine, but there is something about how it is wired or soldered that is causing the problem. Carefully check to see if there are any short circuits — accidental connections — on the pins below it, or possibly under the socket on the top side. Check to make sure that there are not any poor, dry, or incomplete solder joints on that socket. Make sure that the chip is firmly seated in the socket as well.I haven’t really played with the color changing lights– I don’t know how sensitive those are to “rebooting” — my expectation is that it’s a similar circuit, but I don’t know its properties well enough to advise on that.
The flickery LEDs require a DC voltage source in order to operate the little circuit that flickers the LED. However, most solar yard lights rapidly flash the LEDs to dim them for low power. In cases like that, there isn’t really any DC voltage there to power the flickering LEDs– it’s like turning off power to your computer every second– it will never boot all the way to the desktop.
