It Started With a Hardware Limitation I have been using Quectel GNSS modules in my designs for a while. They are reliable, well-documented, and the support ecosystem is solid. But the module I had been using had one problem that I kept running into: no external antenna support . For most projects that is a minor inconvenience. For a marine vessel monitoring and control system , it is a non-starter. A vessel hull blocks sky view, antenna placement is critical, and the difference between a clean fix and no fix at all often comes down to whether you can mount the antenna where it actually has line of sight. An integrated antenna in a sealed enclosure below deck simply does not cut it. So I went directly to Quectel. The Conversation With Quectel I reached out through their official sample request channel. I was not expecting much — most component manufacturers have a standard process: fill out a form, wait, get a few uni...
Finally able to flash the Arduino bootloader it to fresh Atmega1284P via my version of ISP programmer. ISP programmer includes and Atmega328P and FTDI board for serial communication between PC and the Atmega328P. Armega328 is loaded with ArduinoISP sketch. This works with Arduino 1.0.1(old version that i use for test) IDE and still testing for Arduino 1.5(i have upgraded to). Once the following files installed to the Arduino Hardware folder ( https://github.com/maniacbug/mighty-1284p/zipball/master ) please mind to restart the application. After restart you will see from the hardware list as Original Mighty 1284p 16 and 8MHz. Select the hardware, port and the programmer as Arduino ISP and burn the bootloader. This process takes quite sometime and after its loaded, do a test by loading blink sketch. Use upload using programmer button to upload the sketch. Blink sketch on test.. cool it works for me. I am trying to workout this method in version 1.5 too, as soo...