I am new to Arduino, prior to that I used Raspberry and other computers for programming.
So I tried to install the arduino software on SuSE Linux.
After installing the dependencies (e.g. arduino needs avr-libc which needs
cross-avr-binutils, avrdude needs libftdi and so on,
http://software.opensuse.org/find
is a good site to find all that) I was able to install the rpm packages with
arduino 1.0.6.
Connected the Spider board with a normal USB data cable.
Red LED13 blinking which means bootloader waiting.
Connection was ok according to /var/log/messages
and arduino found the device on ttyUSB0.
Tried the example BareMinimum and got:
"avrdude: stk500_getsync() attempt 2 of 10: not in sync: resp=0x00"
and so on.
:-(
I tried arduino 1.6.5 which I downloaded: same result.
Tried additional battery on the battery input: was not the problem.
After reading a lot I found the helpful hints on:
http://false.ekta.is/2011/05/avrdude-5-10-arduino-mega-2560-command-line-uploading/
and
http://stackoverflow.com/questions/26205906/arduino-mega-atmega-1280-avrdude-stk500-getsync-not-in-sync-resp-0x00
Then I used a different programmer than the default of arduino which is
"Using Programmer : arduino"
as suggested in
http://false.ekta.is/2011/05/avrdude-5-10-arduino-mega-2560-command-line-uploading/
which is "stk500v2".
Commandline:
./arduino-1.6.5-r5/hardware/tools/avr/bin/avrdude -C./arduino-1.6.5-r5/hardware/tools/avr/etc/avrdude.conf -v -patmega1280 -cstk500v2 -v -v -v -v -P/dev/ttyUSB0 -b 115200 -D -Uflash:w:/tmp/build1821130483152826654.tmp/BareMinimum.cpp.hex:i
and used the information to hold reset and release immediately when uploading.
Now there was still nothing working but important information:
"[...]
avrdude: Device signature = 0x1e9801
avrdude: Expected signature for ATmega1280 is 1E 97 03
Double check chip, or use -F to override this check.
[...]"
-F helped but obviously there was a wrong signature.
Tried in arduino 1.6.5 to set board to ATmega2560 and this worked.
Then I took a closer look (per macro photo) onto the chip on the Spider
controller and very faintly I was able to read
"...2560" which means the information
"an Arduino MEGA compatible board" on
http://robosavvy.com/store/dagu-rover-5-arduino-kit-4-motors-and-4-encoders.html
with a link to
http://robosavvy.com/store/dagu-48-servo-red-back-spider-robot-controller-arduino-mega.html
with "ATmega1280 MCU" was not correct but to my advantage.
The spider board has defect/twisted pins at D30 and D31, so I will have to
return it anyway though.