This week I continued to work on programming my Hello World board. I was finally able to get the computer to detect the programmer and Hello World board after unplugging and replugging everything in. For a while, it seemed like the computer couldn't detect the Hello World, which made me worreid about a potential short. I took a multimeter and attempted to use the continuity test (set your multimeter to the mode that looks like an audio symbol) to check ground and vcc coninuity. Everything checked out okay, so I was at a loss for why the board couldn't be detected.

I eventually got the computer to detect the Hello World board. I'm not sure what I did differently: perhaps it was the orientation of the FTDI cable or unpugging and replugging it into the computer. Nevertheless, I finally got the computer to detect the FTDI cable as Future Technology Devices International. Unfortunately, I ran into the dreaded rc=-1 problem when attempting to send the .hex file to my board. I went through Ben's known causes of rc=-1, and I think milling may have played a part in my error.

When I first milled my Hello World board, I didn't notice until I was soldering on components that there were a couple traces that didn't get fully separated. I ended up taking an Xacto knife to scrape off the copper in between these traces, but I'm concerned that the traces were still faulty. I ran out of time this week to re-mill a board, but it looks like that's what I'll need to do (and redesign it so that the traces are better isolated).