Arduino Bootloader Update or Install - Upgrade a Clone From Old Bootloader to New Optiboot! 

Hi, can this method be used to get the old bootloader onto a new nano?

@@WorldWarSelection Yes, but not sure what the benefit would be?

@@DesignBuildDestroy the old bootloader nanos seem to have a bug on it, that actually benefits what I need it for. Weird one, but that seems to be the only way. I’ve contacted every seller at Ali express to try and find the old bootloader nanos. I received one today, meant to be old bootloader, which it is, and it’s loads up the sketch, but doesn’t function the way it should. Actually freezes the system I put it in. So I’m guessing it’s a faulty one.

You used two micro controllers?

@@stevee-bc1gt Yup. I used two Arduino Nano. One to upgrade the boot loader on the other one that had a old boot loader.

Much appreciated!

C:\Program Files (x86)\Arduino\hardware\arduino\avr ( Pah for boards.txt )

Yea so after someone pointed out you can get to the path via Preferences menu mine takes me directly into the users AppData folder as I showed not to program files. The files exist in both locations but not sure why ha may depend on how you install it. In any case if it works for you GREAT! Thanks for sharing it might help other's out there :)

I'm referring to the board you loaded the Arduino ISP sketch too to act as the programmer. I meant you do not need to keep it as a "programmer" put that sucker into some cool project and load your new sketch to it overwriting the Arduino ISP sketch. Unless you want to keep it on hand as an ICSP programmer that is :)

I don't believe you would have to if the "programmer" is already on Optiboot. The reason for changing the boards.txt file is due to the different baud rates coded in the bootloaders so when using an OLD bootloader as your programmer it will fail to communicate with the programmer to push the new bootloader to another board. And you can't just change the baud rate in the file because the rate is hard coded in the old bootloader so flipping the bootloader source is the only way I found. But check out my last video on gaining 1.5k of flash space ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE--MynHAz7TsI.html this is a good reason to edit your boards.txt before burning the bootloader to your board. As well as flipping them around and using the newly upgraded one to be the programmer and flash your existing Nano! Even a genuine Arduino using Optiboot still has the wrong setting, so even though your new bootloader is 512 bytes it still locks up a full 2k for bootloader space.

the answer to your question is actually in the tutorial.

The cap prevents the master side from resetting on serial connection being open. But if my thinking is correct and you are using latest version of Arduino IDE, AVRDude will open the serial connection which may reset the master in that instance, but that's ok, the master runs back up instantly and the firmware starts to push through. I suspect it was more of an issue with older versions, at least that's been my working theory. I have never needed to use the capacitor on reset line.

@@DesignBuildDestroy Thanks!

Great video, One suggestion : try not to touch the pins of nano-clones, static energy damages the i/o and may result in irratic behavior

Please don't worry about replying now as I have found a "shotgun" fix to this problem in Win 10! Cheers and thanks

Sure can!, An UNO and a Nano are the same device just in a different board format. Both use Atmega328p microcontroller. The only difference is the Nano ships with the old bootloader (whether it is a genuine Nano or not).

@@DesignBuildDestroy awesome thanks..greetings from The Netherlands.

That did not work for me, but it could be differences in IDE versions and installations. Arduino IDE is kinda weird which is why some of us all have our boards.txt files in different folders etc. But good to know it worked for you and will work for some other folks out there

@@DesignBuildDestroy I used 1.8.19 for Linux and I replicated it on 2.0.2 for Linux.

Maybe try going to boards manager and reinstalling Arduino AVR boards profile. I don't know any way the core Arduino profiles get removed unless you accidentally deleted it. Even in IDE you can't choose to uninstall just 1 Arduino board the AVR profile is all or nothing. In any case UNO is a Nano with a different layout so it does work. The only real difference is nano has an extra couple ADC pins, that SMC Uno has them on it's chip but not run out to headers for you to use. Throw back to when Uno used a DIP style chip which did not contain the additional ADC pins they didn't want to change the board layout after updating but code wise the bootloaders are identical so it all still works with nano.

@@DesignBuildDestroy Thanks! I did check if the pinout is the same and it showed that it is. For the next project I will use the Nanos called Uno, but I need to find a working Nano. Haven't you mentioned you're selling them somehow? Also I cannot build one without having the option to choose the darn thing.

@@F74D3N8r0T I don't sell anything, I buy my Nano's on Amazon. Specifically Rexqualis brand they are good quality and cheap if you are in the US amzn.to/2YNt9GI

@@DesignBuildDestroy Thanks. Since I am not from the US I will buy some others, but sure you helped me a lot. Thank you!

Assuming it is actually a Atmega328P chip, then it could be a connection issue, check all the wiring on both chips. There have also been lots of knock off chips themselves where it's not just an Arduino clone board, but they managed to make a fake Atmega328p chip itself check out: www.sparkfun.com/news/364. I've never had that issue with this particular brand but I have had problems with some other off brand Arduino clones the chip just doesn't work right for anything let alone trying to burn bootloader. As for changing the text file back you could if you want, I personally leave it as is since I basically only buy clones and first thing I do is upgrade the bootloader it if needed.

If you can upload the code without any errors, it may not a bootloader problem. Try loading the blink sketch with nothing else connected to the pins of the board. You can find Blink under File -> Examples-> Basic. If that uploads and the onboard LED blinks then the problem may be your original code or circuit.

@@DesignBuildDestroy No. Yesterday I tried again to load a sketch and then under Tools > Nano module ic >Atmega328P (old bootloader). My board does not come up to date with ISP and compiling the projects in this "old bootloader" mode, they work perfectly. Finally I can breathe a sigh of relief. For this problem I had to abandon completely Arduino (I use only clone versions) but now I'm happy to start again with them. Thank you very much.

@@pierpa_76pierpaolo AH yes the clones are almost always the old bootloader for whatever reason. Now that you know they are working you can upgrade the bootloader following this video if you'd like :)

Same method, except choose USBASP as your programmer and go directly to Burn Bootloader after having made the bootloader.txt file changes. You won't need the ArduinoISP sketch. Just make sure you wire the programmer up correctly the ICSP pins on the Arduino.

You sure can! Just load the ArduinoISP sketch to the UNO first making sure to select UNO as the board type. Then After wiring everything up (the wiring pins numbers are the same for the UNO as Nano), change the Arduino IDE board to the device type you want the bootloader for, in your case Arduino Nano with processor Atmega328p and hit the burn bootloader menu option.

@@DesignBuildDestroy thank you so much 👍🏻

nvm, figured it out. blonde moment

@@redneckwarriors1 what was the solution I'm having a blonde moment

​@@caedenv2575 i think it was that i had to make myself an administrator over everything in my file path which was C:\Program Files (x86)\Arduino\hardware\arduino\avr\boards. in the Properties menu i went down to Advanced i changed all of it to give myself permission

@@redneckwarriors1 okie sounds good thanks

@@caedenv2575 let me know if it helps