avrdude: stk500_recv(): programmer is not responding

Lynxmotion Rovers, Sumo, and Tracked
1

I recently purchased a DFRobotShop Rover V2 - Arduino Compatible Tracked Robot (Bluetooth Kit) with the DFRobot I / O Expansion Board for Arduino v5.

Everything was working fine. I was able to control the Rover via Bluetooth. Then suddenly, I get
“avrdude: stk500_recv(): programmer is not responding”
when I tried to reload sample sketch #2.

I’m using the Arduino IDE v1.0.5 on OSX 10.8.4 with the following settings:
Board - Arduino Uno
Serial Port - /dev/tty.Bluetooth_Bee_V2_DevB
- (also tried /dev/cu.Bluetooth_Bee_V2_DevB)

I’ve tried resetting the Rover (waited for the Binary sketch size message to show up and then releasing the reset button). I tried putting in new batteries. I also tried different USB ports. They didn’t work.

However, the program loads fine without the I/O Expansion board.

I plugged in a new I/O Expansion board plus a new DFRobot Bluetooth Bee. I get the exact same error with the second Expansion board / Bluetooth Bee.

Any suggestions?

2

The IO expansion board blocks the RX and TX pins required for the Arduino programming, you have to remove it in order to program the microcontroller. You can also remove its RX and TX pins.

3

Thanks Carlos.

But, now I’m curious because it was working fine before. I was able to load programs on to the rover and control it via bluetooth. How could that have been possible if I needed to make a hardware change?

4

I did some experiments based on your suggestion: I removed the RX and TX pins from I/O Shield (using jumper wires). I was able to upload the code to the rover but only if I set the serial port to USBModem in the IDE. If I set the serial port to Bluetooth_Bee_V2, then I get the same error: stk500_recv(): programmer is not responding.

I also tried it on a Windows7 machine. Device and Printers shows the Bluetooth_Bee_V2 on COM5. But, only COM6 shows up on the IDE. Device Manager shows COM6 is also a bluetooth connection, but if I try to upload a program using that as the serial port, the IDE just hangs. The usb connection also works in Windows when the RX and TX pins are disconnected.