avrdude: stk500_recv(): programmer is not respondingIf this is the case, any number of things could be wrong, but you can almost certainly ignore the skt500 part of the message. This message is misleading and unfortunate in its mention of the STK500. Your problem probably boils down to some kind of problem with the USB link to the device you are trying to download code to. A google search on the message above will yield lots of information. Many scenarios are possible.
An STK500 is a device that looks like this:
What it is, is a board with sockets for many different Atmel AVR microcontrollers. It allows AVR devices to be programmed over a serial link. It supports "high voltage" programming of AVR devices, which can allow recovery of "bricked" AVR devices that have had fuse settings misprogrammed. The letters "STK" stand for "Starter Kit" (near as I can tell). These gizmos were (and perhaps still are) produced and sold by Atmel, though they seem to have moved on to the STK600.
"Why do I care?", you may be asking. You will see mention of the STK500 frequently when you begin to research AVR controllers. Some software (such as avrdude) was apparently originally written with the STK500 front and center in the developers minds, and error messages (such as the one mentioned above), still reference it.
Tom's Computer Info / tom@mmto.org