Re: [avrdude-dev] Does anybody still use the erase cycle counter?

[Ormund Williams]

On Mon, 2006-11-13 at 22:36 +0100, Joerg Wunsch wrote:
> The erase cycle counter feature (options -y and -Y) looked quite
> reasonable with the first AVRs.  Their flash ROM had been spec'ed for
> only 1000 erase cycles, even though already Brian's first tests (after
> implementing these options) resulted in an AT90S1200 showing failures
> only after some 170000 (IIRC) erase cycles.
> 
> These days, with page-programmable memory, and with software
> breakpoints potentially rewriting single flash pages quite frequently,
> I think that feature has outgrown the reasons for its creation (to
> make sure you wouldn't ship a device that is already close to the
> supposed end of its flash life).  Still, we read the last four EEPROM
> cells on each AVRDUDE startup, and display their contents as an
> integer if they are not 0xffffffff.
> 
> I wonder whether it's rather time to remove that feature again, or
> anybody would still be using it?
> 
I have tried to use it but it doesn't seem to work with the AvrISP mkII.
My command line:
        avrdude -p m8 -c avrisp2 -P usb -y -U flash:w:rom.hex:i

I can set the ititial value using -Y but after programming the flash the
count is erased.  When I use the parport programmer this feature works
fine.

Ormund