Bootloader and upload to Atmega328P-AU 

Thanks for your comment. Very good points.

Thanks for the comment. That's a good reminder that even a Nano can be used as a programmer.

x2

Yes, the main-stream suppliers seem to be out of stock. But you can still get them from China (aliexpress etc) but they are more expensive than they used to be. Here is a link to some on AliExpress $10 per chip. www.aliexpress.com/item/32880625265.html

P stands for the low power version and might not always be printed on the chip. Mini-Core boards and Arduino Nano''s both use Atmega328 chips in the QFN32 format. If the chip is already soldered into the Mini-Core board then I'd recommend using online tutorials for that board.

@@KakushinAU Thanks a lot!!!

Unsure! I'll let you know! I can't really see why not as long as you're caps/oscillator crystal are identical, basically 1:1 circuitry on both pcb - I imagine it will work! Gonna test for my own use case so will update!

Here is where I bought my TQFP32 test adapter www.aliexpress.com/item/32811311116.html

I've used the RX and TX pins to program an ESP32 (see my bitcoin tracker video) but I haven't tried it with an Atmega328. Most newer generation Atmega chips have migrated to using the UPDI pin for programming using a single connection.

@@KakushinAU thank you

I'm not sure, but all the Atmega328 microcontrollers I've come across come from the factory empty without bootloaders in my experience. Once the bootloader is loaded I've always been able to upload new sketches without reburning a bootloader. Hope that helps.

tried selecting the board as Nano, atemga328 (minicore) but NO output.

Sorry, seems like you have the same controller and it should work. You may have already checked the following: 1) loose connections 2) 5 volt power supply (3.3v may not be enough depending on your brown-out-detection setting) 3) reversed LED leads 4) bad resister. Worse case maybe you've got a bad controller. Good luck.

Thanks for the comment. Yes, the chip shortage is not great for makers. The main suppliers are out of stock but there still seems to be some availability directly from China www.aliexpress.com/item/1005003022628090.html The quality isn't guaranteed and shipping takes a long time but I personally haven't received any defective components so far.

​@@KakushinAU Thanks a lot ! I'm going to try your link !! regards

Yes, the same code that works on an Arduino Nano will work on this Atmega328P-AU chip (because the Nano uses this chip). Just need to match up the pins on the chip to the Nano.

Hi. There are a few tutorials for the 328p dual in-line package (DIP). Here is a link to one: www.instructables.com/Getting-Started-With-the-ATMega328P/

A Pololu programmer is easier to order, and actually easier to use. $7.77 USD from Digikey. Just search for "Pololu 2183-3172-ND". I have another video which shows exacly how to use that programmer.

Hi, you're not alone. I was getting exactly the same avrdude errors when I tried using a Nano as the ISP (except my Device signature was showing random combinations of 0's and f's). I tried for hours and couldn't get it to work. When I googled for solutions everyone just suggested re-checking the connections and changing capacitor values, but I still couldn't get the bootloader burned. Then I tried using the ISP Programmer and everything worked seamlessly. Sorry if that doesn't help your situation, but the only thing I can suggest is to get an ISP Programmer.

@@KakushinAU Hi - Thank you. I got an ISP Programmer. But now I'm getting this error while burning: avrdude: auto set sck period (because given equals null) avrdude: error: program enable: target doesn't answer. 1 avrdude: initialization failed, rc=-1 Double check connections and try again, or use -F to override this check. Do you have any suggestions for this?

@@bobk8901 Not quite sure. I'll try to replicate your errors in my setup.

I was able to replicate the following error codes in several scenarios. avrdude: auto set sck period (because given equals null) avrdude: warning: cannot set sck period. please check for usbasp firmware update. avrdude: error: program enable: target doesn't answer. 1 avrdude: initialization failed, rc=-1 Double check connections and try again, or use -F to override this check. Scenarios: 1) Disconnecting any 1 of the 6 ISP programming connections 2) Reversing the MISO and MOSI connections 3) Disconnecting the oscillator 4) Changing the USBASP windows driver back to libusb-win32 Unfortunately the error codes are exactly the same in all scenarios, so it could be any one of them. As soon as I put everything back to the setup shown in the video I was able to reburn the bootloader. Good luck, and let us know how things go.

@@bobk8901 Hi, check your wires. I spent hours and hours trying to solve this error until I decided to check continuity with a multimeter and found 1 faulty wire.

Hi, I just tried it but wasn't able to get it to work. I happen to have several PB chips I had purchased by mistake. I burned a bootloader to the fresh Atmega328pb-au (I changed the clock setting to "Interal 8Mhz", and the chip variant to "328PB"). The bootloader seemed to burn just fine, but then I wasn't able to upload any sketches regardless of what Arduino AVRboard I specified. I think I'll stick to using Atmega328p-au chips with an external oscillator. I've also heard that the internal oscillator isn't very accurate and can cause problems if you are doing any serial communications. Sorry.

@@KakushinAU Hi Thanks for Reply.. I have done the same and 2 days ago it worked but the arduino sketch wont upload. I tried a hack i have compiled code and generated hex file using arduino and uploaded the hex file using an external ISP file.. It worked Flawless.. Hope you can try that out..

Thanks. I'll definitely give it a try.

The Pololu programmer also works well with the Atmega328P. See this other video using that device ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-ZscDJ-xO4tA.html

@@KakushinAU Thanks!

Good idea, but unfortunately the pin-outs wouldn't match. The Atmega328P chip in the Uno has 28 pins (DIP-28), while the Atmega328P-AU chip has 32 pins (TQFP-32). Therefore the clam shell won't match up properly.