LCD issues

[operators123]

I'm trying to program atmega32 using ponyprog (I'm programming it using the last unencrypted firmware to test my board works correctly) I have the ISP cable set up, but because my computer lacks a parallel port I'm trying to use a parallel to serial port cable I've found in my house, so I've plugged the ISP cable into this converter which then connects to the serial port. I was wondering what settings I would have to apply on ponyprog to allow this to work correctly?
Is there also another way I can program atmega from my megadrum board in a similar fashion?

[dmitri]

The ISP cable will work only with a real parallel port. Find/borrow a computer with such port.

[operators123]

Right I've finally got it to work using avrdude. I've written in the firmware to an atmega 32 chip, do I need to program fuse bits? And if so, what command should I use in avrdude?

[dmitri]

https://www.google.co.uk/#q=megadrum+atmega32+fuses
I've never used avrdude myself so you will have to figure it out yourself.

[operators123]

Ok I think I figured it out, but what fuses are set for an atmega32 running at 16mhz?

[dmitri]

Fuses are the same for 12/16/20/24MHz.

[operators123]

A little off topic but, I've programmed the firmware and the fuse bits, and put it into my board. The LCD display doesn't display anything, but the back light works. The connections between the chip and the LCD are working (tested with a multimeter) and I've tried connecting pins 1 and 3 of the LCD, the top row shows all black boxes. I suspect it's atmega now, I read something after I programmed the chip saying that you need to turn off the 'JTAG' fuse in order to allow the PD0-7 to work correctly, is this true? Because I didn't turn it off when I set the fuse bits. I assume that the 16mhz crystal and the two 22pf capacitors next to it are working fine. Also so are all the resistors around the LCD. Pin 1 and 2 are showing 5V

[dmitri]

I read something after I programmed the chip saying that you need to turn off the 'JTAG' fuse in order to allow the PD0-7 to work correctly, is this true?

Where did you read this? You have only to program fuses correctly.

[operators123]

Just came up when I googled atmega avr mot working. But I haven't disabled it anyway

[operators123]

These are the fuse bits I used, I noticed they're not the same as the ones described in the documentation here http://www.megadrum.info/old_site/img/fuse32.png
This is because I changed the high bits to 0x89, after reading this

1. Wrong fuses programmed.
2. Wrong crystal.

Yeah, wrong fuses. low 0xff and high 0x89 worked. I did not see any clear mentioning of this in the documentation.

Might this be why my LCD doesn't work?
The atmega also doesn't want to get detected by AVRDUDE anymore, despite it working before I changed the fuse bits