BGC board bootloader

1

I’ve been playing with BGC 3.1 boards (Happy to hear recommendations for alternatives!) and the problem I keep running into is that each of them eventually ends up in a state where they will no longer accept new uploads from Arduino IDE.

I have managed to remedy this to some extent by reinstalling the bootloader using an Arduino Uno to re-upload the bootloader. The boards are at least no longer bricks for me.

The problem I have is that the bootloader only ever seems to work for one upload. Each time I want to re-upload a sketch, I first have to re-upload the bootloader. This is infuriatingly tedious as far as learning and code iteration is concerned!

Am I missing something? Is there a way to get the BGC 3.1 back to being a functional board again?

Thanks again.

2

Hey,

This sounds like either you’re overwriting the firmware each time you program it, which can be caused by an incorrect configuration of the board variant.
Or maybe its overwriting the correct firmware with an incorrect version when you program.

Or another thought: perhaps the boot button isn’t working? So the firmware is on there, but expecting a different boot button, so you never get back to the firmware after entering the user code?

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3

Hi, thanks for the reply

When you say overwriting the firmware what do you mean by “firmware”? Do you mean the bootloader? Or do you mean the arduino sketch I am loading onto the board?

This is an arduino-compatible board and I am loading a new sketch onto the board.

This works once, then it won’t unless I re-upload the bootloader. Then I can load a new sketch on again.

What should the boot button be doing? So far I’ve not touched that at all. Should I be?

4

Yes, I meant that you’re overwriting the boot loader…

But yes, to enter the boot loader mode, you hold down the boot button and then press reset. You can let go of the boot button shortly after letting go of reset.

Then the board will enter boot loader mode, and should allow you to flash it via USB. If you haven’t been doing this, then that might be the issue. But TBH its been a very long time since I used this board, so my memory of the procedure is fuzzy…

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5

Thanks, will check it out and let you know what I find.

6

If you can load the sketch only once, it means that the fuses are set incorrectly. How do you flash the bootloader?

7

I’m using an Arduino UNO with six jumper wires. Arduino as ISP.