Marlin -> Anet A8 Board Upload Errors

[Lukrative]

I’ve been fiddling with this for a couple of days now, and I’m at my wit’s end.

I’m trying to upload Marlin onto the controller board of my CTC i3 Pro B. It’s a cheap Chinese printer. As far as I can tell, it uses the same board as the Anet A8 (I will attach some pictures of the board). I’ve been referencing this tutorial on youtube to accomplish this:

Anet A8 Upgrade: Why & How You Should Update Your Firmware - Marlin Install Tutorial

I have my sketch ready to go in Arduino IDE. It’s been verified, but the upload process always fails. This is what shows up in the black portion of the screen when I have verbose mode turned on:

avrdude: Version 6.3, compiled on Jan 17 2017 at 12:00:53
Copyright (c) 2000-2005 Brian Dean, http://www.bdmicro.com/
Copyright (c) 2007-2014 Joerg Wunsch

System wide configuration file is “C:\Program Files (x86)\Arduino\hardware\tools\avr/etc/avrdude.conf”

Using Port : COM4
Using Programmer : arduino
Overriding Baud Rate : 57600
avrdude: stk500_getsync() attempt 1 of 10: not in sync: resp=0x93
avrdude: stk500_getsync() attempt 2 of 10: not in sync: resp=0x9b
avrdude: stk500_getsync() attempt 3 of 10: not in sync: resp=0x89
avrdude: stk500_getsync() attempt 4 of 10: not in sync: resp=0xfe
avrdude: stk500_recv(): programmer is not responding
avrdude: stk500_getsync() attempt 5 of 10: not in sync: resp=0xfe
avrdude: stk500_recv(): programmer is not responding
avrdude: stk500_getsync() attempt 6 of 10: not in sync: resp=0xfe
avrdude: stk500_recv(): programmer is not responding
avrdude: stk500_getsync() attempt 7 of 10: not in sync: resp=0xfe
avrdude: stk500_recv(): programmer is not responding
avrdude: stk500_getsync() attempt 8 of 10: not in sync: resp=0xfe
avrdude: stk500_recv(): programmer is not responding
avrdude: stk500_getsync() attempt 9 of 10: not in sync: resp=0xfe
avrdude: stk500_recv(): programmer is not responding
avrdude: stk500_getsync() attempt 10 of 10: not in sync: resp=0xfe

avrdude done. Thank you.

Problem uploading to board. See http://www.arduino.cc/en/Guide/Troubleshooting#upload for suggestions.

I’m confident that I’m using the correct port, because whenever I unplug the USB cable, the port that I have it set to disappears. The board is “Anet V1.0” and I’ve tried uploading the sketch using every programmer available in Arduino IDE.

I thought at first that it might be a driver issue, because I noticed that in Cura I couldn’t monitor prints (“the printer is not connected”). I installed the CH340 USB driver and now I can host prints from my computer using Cura. Because this is working, I’m hesitant to place the blame on a faulty USB cable.

Here are some of the specifics of my setup:

windows 7 64-bit

Arduino IDE 1.8.5

Cura 3.3.1

Thanks in advance for any advice that you may have. Also, beware that before a couple of days ago I didn’t even know what an Arduino was, so be ready for a lot of questions, even when talking about things that one might consider “common knowledge.”

[onverra]

Hi Lukrative,

I was wondering if you solved your problem. I’m at the exact same stage and bang my head on the wall…

Thanks

[Lukrative]

Yes, the problem was that the bootloader was either corrupted or non-existent. I ended up ordering a USBasp and a 10-pin to 6-pin adapter and re-flashing the bootloader. It’s counter-intuitive to use the adapter, since the place on the board where the USBasp fits has 10 pins, but you do have to use the adapter for it to work. After that, everything worked just as it should.

Here are links to the necessary hardware if you think this is your problem:

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B07BF7P7QJ/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o08_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

Amazon.com: HiLetgo 51 AVR ATMEGA8 Programmer USBasp USB ISP 10 Pin USB...

Let me know if you have any more questions!

[onverra]

Thank you! I ordered one and it’s on the way. I may have more question once I try to use it. Thanks again for pointing to the right direction!

[majorkuso]

Make sure too that you are choosing the correct board in Arduino ide settings

[Plodmore]

Sorry to be late to the party. 2 things. First, did you check the baud rate. Looks different from mine. 112500 works on mine. 2nd, did your usbasp work? Mine didn’t and I am waiting for seller to come back as to why. I suspect my usbasp is broken as only the write led comes on.