ok so im stuck and need an answer about programming atmel chips

[GMZombie]

 its off topic but im working with arcades so i think its relevent. im trying to coipy a atmel 90s2313 chip so i can fix a board. Long story but everytime i read the chip no matter what chip i put in it gives me the same readout. i actually had this atmel programmer since the days of DTV stuff lol but maybe this isnt a working peice of equipment anymore. any suggestions on a programmer or what i should so. ive tried using fbprg16 even the original program that came with the board and it will see the chip but it will not read right?so confused,.

[MonMotha]

90S2313?  That's an oldie.

Is the chip locked?  If so, you aren't going to be able to read it back.  I don't know of any tricks to unlock them (unlike many PICs from that era).  Even some of the companies I know that do teardowns claim it's difficult (though not impossible) to unlock most of the AVRs without destroying them.

What method are you trying to talk to it with?  I assume the SPI ISP interface or parallel since I don't think that chip has JTAG, and it's too old for debugWire.  If you've tried only serial ISP, then try a parallel readout.  It's possible to set fuse bits to disable the serial ISP interface without locking the part entirely, though most people don't.  You can do both methods on an STK500 or similar if you've got one, or most standalone programmers can do both modes.  If the part had JTAG, I'd offer to try a JTAG readback for you (I have a JTAGICEmkII), but it doesn't.

[GMZombie]

yea i was actually trying lpt port programming as i do not currently have a serial programmer

[SavannahLion]

Did you try asking at AVR Freaks website? You'd have a larger pool of experience to dip into.

[MonMotha]

yea i was actually trying lpt port programming as i do not currently have a serial programmer

The parallel port programmers use the serial SPI method.  They just bit bang it on the parallel port data lines.  The serial port ones do the same just on the serial port handshaking lines.  When I say parallel programming, I mean the actual parallel programming mode on the chip (see the datasheet).  The chip should say hi no matter what, though it may be locked.

If you haven't done this in a while and are using a different PC, your parallel port may not be suitable.  The low voltage parallel ports some modern PCs have won't work.  This is especially true if you're trying to power the chip off the parallel port rather than using a separate power source or if you're running the chip off of an external 5V supply (most modern parallel ports are 3.3V or even lower).

[GMZombie]

ic ic. the particular programmer i had was from back in the days of DSS testing and it always programmed the chip i know that much. but what you said makes sense. so do you think the stk500 is the easiest to use that will help me on my quest or do you think something like a willem universal progammer will work better? i will check out the avr freaks website too as i didnt even know they existed before lol

[MonMotha]

Either should do.   The STK500 can sometimes be had cheap or free if you talk to your local Atmel rep nicely enough.  The Willem device is more universal though (STK500 only does AVR whereas the Willem device will do all sorts of other MCUs, ROMs, etc.).  There's also now the STK600 that supports the new AVRxmega and AVR32 devices, but I don't think you'd have any use for that, and it's more expensive and complicated.

There are some better design parallel port programmers out there, too.  They include level shifters and such so that you'll get reliable communication in the presence of low voltage parallel ports and whatnot.  They can generally be built on a protoboard.