[avr-chat] jtag ice eating 168's

[Steve Franks]

Alright, so this evening I'm not really expecting help.  I'm just
sending out a complimentary nasty-gram to my good buddies in Norway.

Seems to me, the JtagIce should have a big red warning label, "don't
even think about connecting this to parts over debug wire when code
enables watchdog".

Set breakpoint, hit run, and *wham*, instead of resetting every 2
seconds, my reset led starts flashing like a rave party.  Suddenly
jtagice thinks the 168 no longer exists, and joy of joys, debugwire is
now enabled, so I can't connect a avrisp to even erase the thing.  Get
out the rework gun, boys, it's time for a new chip.  Serves me right
for putting an MLP package on a proto board.

This on the heels of a very satisfying debug session several nights
ago with identical code, sans watchdog.

This further on the heels of an episode 18 months ago where I actually
sent 128's back to norway on some pricey boards, to which I got the
answer, "whoa!  the internal 'secret' registers are all corrupted! 
How did you do that?"  Simple - connect a jtag-ice to a fresh part
with a cpld in the chain, something the jtagice purportedly knows how
to do.  Now hit 'program' 2-3 times, voila!, everything on your 128
now reads 0x00.  Wonder if they ever got around to fixing that.  That
project got cancelled, needless to say.

Let's say I'm displeased.  Especially with $900 of jtagices on the
bench I no longer trust.  Anyone care to place a bid?

Dissapointed.

--
Steve Franks, KE7BTE
Staff Engineer
Franks Development, LLC
http://www.franks-development.com
(520) 312-0089