When programming the microcontroller using the Arduino one can come across a number of errors especially when compiling and uploading the code to the Arduino board. The compiling errors mostly include syntax errors whereas errors during uploading of the program mainly include the connectivity issues of the Arduino board with the computer to which it is connected. The compiler errors are mostly highlighted by the Arduino IDE and are easy to resolve but the errors that occur at the time of uploading the code to the Arduino board are difficult to resolve. So we have discussed the error that is encountered by the users when uploading the code to the microcontroller.
What is avrdude: stk500_recv():programmer is not responding
To understand such errors first we have to know what is avrdude and for what purpose it is used in Arduino IDE. The avrdude is the utility tool used by the Arduino IDE for uploading the sketches/codes to the microcontroller board. So, from here we can suppose that this error might pop up when there is an issue with uploading the code to the Arduino board.
When the error avrdude: stk500_recv():programmer is not responding arise
From the statement of the error we can clearly see that either the Arduino IDE and the Arduino board are not connected with each other properly or both are unable to communicate with each other. In short, we can say that this error pops up when the Arduino IDE and the Arduino board are unable to communicate with each other properly.
This error mostly comes when we are using any communication device such as Bluetooth with Arduino that is using the TX and RX pins of the Arduino.
Why the error avrdude: stk500_recv():programmer is not responding arise
From the above discussion it is clear that this error arises when there is a communication problem between the Arduino IDE and the Arduino board because a communication device interfaced with Arduino is using its TX and RX pins. Now the question arises what is the reason behind such type of error. The reason behind this error is that when we upload the sketch to the Arduino board using the USB cable the TX and RX pins of the Arduino boards are used and it can be seen that the LEDs of TX and RX blink at the time of uploading the code. Since the TX and RX pins are already being used by the communication device, the Arduino board does not respond to the data sent by the Arduino IDE and that is why this error arises.
How to resolve the error avrdude: stk500_recv():programmer is not responding arise
To demonstrate how we can eliminate this communication error at the time of uploading the code we have interfaced the Bluetooth module with Arduino Uno and tried to upload the sketch. We get the same error as you can see from the image below and we have connected the TX and RX pin of Arduino with bluetooth:
Now to eliminate the error we have unplugged the TX and RX pins of the Bluetooth module from the Arduino board as you can see in the image below and then compiled the code.
Now you can see in the figure that there is no error in uploading the code to the Arduino board.
Conclusion
Errors can be expected while compiling the Arduino code in the Arduino IDE but some of the errors are difficult to figure out. One of the errors which is difficult to figure out is the “ programmer is not responding “ error by the avrdude of the Arduino IDE compiler. We have discussed this error in detail about what is this error, how this error is encountered and how we can solve this problem in detail.
