I tried to flash a Focus MC-2E video A/D converter with a new firmware upgrade in order to remove a nasty "feature" where it fades to black whenever it encounters problems in the analog input.
However, for that firmware update Atmel's "AVRProg.exe" tool had to be used (v1.37).
When starting AVRProg.exe, I was immediately greeted with the following error message:
The device was connected to the computer using a Serial-to-USB converter (RS232). I've verified that the serial-communication was working properly, by using Focus' "Media Converter" application to query the converter's status: After selecting the right com-port, the device was found and everything looked fine.No supported board found!
AVRProg version 1.37
So it wasn't a connection problem.
[SOLUTION]
I've encountered the above error message 2 times:
1) The device wasn't put into "AVR programming mode":
This is done by holding the "Next" key during power on.
The display will be lit, and the upper line char-blocks have all pixels on and that's it.
If you turn the device on normally, AVRProg will not "find" it.
2) COM-port number greater than 4:
When I wanted to flash another MC-2E device, I got the error message again, but this time it *was* in AVR programming mode
I've verified that by using Focus' "Media Converter" application to connect to the device, and instead of displaying the A/D converter mode being "encoding(green)" or "decoding(red)" as usually, it was now "AVR programming mode" in blue
So again: Communication was fine, but AVRProg was unhappy.
Thanks to a forum post at AVRFreaks.net, the solution was clear:
AVRProg only scans COM 1-4. My serial-to-usb converter showed up as COM5.
As I remembered having troubles with wrongly numbered COM ports on windows machines, so I moved COM5 to COM4 (Device manager > Com port > properties > advanced ... ), restarted AVRProg and everything worked fine!
