Atmega328P-PU: Programmer is not responding

Question

Few days ago, I built my own custom Arduino on the breadboard. It is built according to tutorial on http://www.crash-bang.com/resource/breadboard-arduino/. The Atmega328P-PU is already burned with the Arduino bootloader with simple blink sketch.

For the programmer, I decided to use the Arduino USB2Serial. Again, it is connected as shown on crash-bang site. Problem is I get this error when uploading a different sketch:

avrdude -Cavrdude.conf -v -patmega328p -carduino -PCOM3 -b115200 -D -Uflash:w:build244630154737317489.tmp/sketch_may23a.cpp.hex:i 
avrdude: Version 6.0.1, compiled on Apr 15 2015 at 19:59:58
 Copyright (c) 2000-2005 Brian Dean, http://www.bdmicro.com/
 Copyright (c) 2007-2009 Joerg Wunsch
 System wide configuration file is "avrdude.conf"
 Using Port : COM3
 Using Programmer : arduino
 Overriding Baud Rate : 115200
 AVR Part : ATmega328P
 Chip Erase delay : 9000 us
 PAGEL : PD7
 BS2 : PC2
 RESET disposition : dedicated
 RETRY pulse : SCK
 serial program mode : yes
 parallel program mode : yes
 Timeout : 200
 StabDelay : 100
 CmdexeDelay : 25
 SyncLoops : 32
 ByteDelay : 0
 PollIndex : 3
 PollValue : 0x53
 Memory Detail :
 Block Poll Page Polled
 Memory Type Mode Delay Size Indx Paged Size Size #Pages MinW MaxW ReadBack
 ----------- ---- ----- ----- ---- ------ ------ ---- ------ ----- ----- ---------
 eeprom 65 20 4 0 no 1024 4 0 3600 3600 0xff 0xff
 flash 65 6 128 0 yes 32768 128 256 4500 4500 0xff 0xff
 lfuse 0 0 0 0 no 1 0 0 4500 4500 0x00 0x00
 hfuse 0 0 0 0 no 1 0 0 4500 4500 0x00 0x00
 efuse 0 0 0 0 no 1 0 0 4500 4500 0x00 0x00
 lock 0 0 0 0 no 1 0 0 4500 4500 0x00 0x00
 calibration 0 0 0 0 no 1 0 0 0 0 0x00 0x00
 signature 0 0 0 0 no 3 0 0 0 0 0x00 0x00
 Programmer Type : Arduino
 Description : Arduino
 Hardware Version: 3
 Firmware Version: 4.4
 Vtarget : 0.3 V
 Varef : 0.3 V
 Oscillator : 28.800 kHz
 SCK period : 3.3 us
avrdude: AVR device initialized and ready to accept instructions
Reading | ################################################## | 100% 0.00s
avrdude: Device signature = 0x1e950f
avrdude: reading input file "build244630154737317489.tmp/sketch_may23a.cpp.hex"
avrdude: writing flash (450 bytes):
Writing | avrdude: stk500_recv(): programmer is not responding

Most of the time I do not even get to this point and just end up with something like:

avrdude: stk500_recv(): programmer is not responding
avrdude: stk500_getsync() attempt 1 of 10: not in sync: resp=0xf5

What I have done so far:

• I already tried to reset Arduino just before uploading the sketch.
• According to the avrdude, bootloader is fine.
• Reinstalled drivers, Arduino IDE
• Changed the USB cable and connected it to another USB slot
• Burned new bootloader using ArduinoISP

Thank you for help.

• Ignacio Vazquez-Abrams: Is there a reason why you don't want to stick with ISP?
• Lorin: This would require to buy another programer, would not it? I hope someone could know the solution to get current programmer to work...
• user31481: Your time is more valuable than a (hardware) programmer.

Answer 1

"Step 3 says to connect +ve rail –> AVCC (pin 20) and +ve rail –> AREF (pin 21). You can leave those pins not connected. "

+ve rail should not be connected to Aref. The +ve rail will connect via the internal operation of the ADC mux.

AVCC and both Gnds should be connected per the datasheet: 5.2.7. AVCC AVCC is the supply voltage pin for the A/D Converter, PC[3:0], and PE[3:2]. It should be externally connected to VCC, even if the ADC is not used.

28.2. AVCC must not differ more than ±0.3V from VCC.... Optionally, AVCC or an internal 1.1V reference voltage may be connected to the AREF pin by writing to the REFSn bits in the ADMUX Register. The internal voltage reference must be decoupled by an external capacitor at the AREF pin to improve noise immunity.

If you connect Aref to the +ve rail externally, and then select the internal reference, things can go bad.

FTDT thru 0.1uF cap to Reset, with 10K pullup, and reverse biased diode to VCC, works for me in plenty of designs. Not sure why it does not work in all cases. The diode dissipates any spike on the Reset line to keep the chip from thinking high voltage programming mode is being started.