A some time ago I’ve bricked my NGW100 board by overwritten the U-boot from flash. To fix it was necessary using a JTAG interface, so I check some alternatives.
- AVR JTAGICE mkII (US$ 299) [official] http://atmel.com/dyn/products/tools_card.asp?tool_id=3353
- AVR JTAG ICE mkii CN (US$ 99) http://enshop.avrvi.com/avrjtagicemkiicn.html
- AT AVR JTAGICE mkII clone (US$ 159) http://enshop.avrvi.com/jtagicemkiiclone.html
Considering that NGW100 itself costs about US$ 89.00 could be more cheaper get another board than buying a JTAG device. Note that I looking for way to allow a programming Interface to flash and not other features available in a JTAG like source level debugging.
The bootloader for the NGW is stored in the parallell flash
Searching for a inexpensive solution I found this AVR Freaks thread teaching how to use cable wiggler or byteblaster to flash NGW. Everyone that used Altera FPGA at least one time know about Byteblaster cable, was easy found one at university and try (thanks Prof. Robson Moreno)
I’m using Byteblaser I
I’ve compiled a new u-boot binary from BSP code and used a too called avr32prog (it’s windows-only) to record.
avr32prog.exe -c byteblaster -p LPT1 -f u-boot.img prog
The process is extremely slow, about 35 minutes to flash a 100kbyte binary (~ 50bps)
I have not had success the first time due some kind of “writing error”. I noted that if I use the computer (i.e.: browsing) when avr32prog is running the error happens faster, so I started the program a let flash the board “alone”. After finished just turn off the board, unplug JTAG connector and turn on the board again. It’s nice to see serial working again 
U-Boot 1.1.4-at0 (Mar 9 2010 – 01:55:04)
U-Boot code: 00000000 -> 000149cf data: 24000000 -> 24002d80
SDRAM: 32 MB at address 0×10000000
Testing SDRAM…OK
malloc: Using memory from 0×11fc0000 to 0×12000000
Flash: 8 MB at address 0×00000000
DRAM Configuration:
Bank #0: 10000000 32 MBIn: serial
Out: serial
Err: serialNet: macb0, macb1
Press SPACE to abort autoboot in 1 seconds
Uboot>