Arduino IDE vs DigiSpark issue

This is just a guess and I did not read the datasheet, sometimes higher clock speed are only possible at either the high or low end of the voltage range of a chip. So it might do 16 Mhz only at 3.3 V or 5 V and your board is running on the wrong voltage. 

Or if your text is correct and the board is running at 16 mHz, everything is running at milliHz speed.

Thanks for the reply.  Just a typo, should have been Mhz.  Easy enough to try a different voltage.

(added) Just varying the voltage has no effect on the problem.  Out of 5 Digispark clones, 1 appears 'normal' and 4 appear 'not normal'.  My #1 guess is that using the Digispark 16/16.5 Mhz board definitions generates code with a problem for these board or they're just plain defective at the higher speeds.  Is it possible that there is some built-in delay to make the Digisparks work OK but get out of control with the clones?  

TM

Consulting the datasheet, there are 2 versions of the attiny85. The ATtiny85 which is spec'ed up to 20 MHz and the ATtiny85V which is specified only up to 10 MHz. I would be surprised that a clone would use the better and more expensive chip.

Maybe you can read the marking on the chip and see if it reads "tiny85  20xx" or tiny85V  "10xx". The datasheet is quiet about chip markings but some images of the Digispark show it quite clearly. 

Thanks for the reply.
I've checked the markings and all are -20SU. I'm in the process of running through the programming of each board at different speeds to see exactly what works and what doesn't. I can dump the info on each chip/board to compare the configuration of each to see if I can spot something. So far, the working and non-working board configs look the same, fuses included. I can do a bit more but I'm at the limits of my capabilities, for now. Having read about chip counterfeiting and what happens to chips that don't pass the testing AND for what these Digispark clones cost I think I'll probably write it off as just sub-par ATtiny. I have some ATtiny85 coming from a reputable supplier to see if the same issue exists. The markings on these ICs look too light and suspicious and different from some genuine ATtiny's I have but there's really no way to tell for sure. Anyway, these boards are just some pre-testing to learn the chip for a small project so buying a few more is not a problem.  If I get ambitious enough to build an HVSP I'll try the high voltage reset just for fun.

On a different note, there seems to be some sort of delay between posting and the post showing up, or not showing up at all, even though it appears to have gone through. ???

Thanks,
TM

OK, I think I found the issue but I can't explain why this happens.   The first and working board (digispark clone) compiled as a 16Mhz board had the Lfuse set to disable the clock divider CKDIV8 fuse, Lfuse:0x62 vs Lfuse:0xE2 (disabled).  The subsequent boards compiled at 16 Mhz had the Lfuse CKDIV8 enabled and so taking that board and just changing the Lfuse to disable CKDIV8, using avrdude -U lfuse:w:0xe2:m (+ the config params), the board works as expected.  This works in every case.  Now the question becomes 'why are the fuses compatible with the board choice not written in addition to the program?'  The only thing I can come up with is that I'm overlooking some setting that allows the entire sketch, including compatible fuse settings, to be written or changed.  Or maybe I found a bug when using clones with the digistump libs, but there's no feedback in searches for this type of problem so I doubt the bug factor is valid.  Back to the datasheet for a deeper dive!

The resultant output of the incorrectly operating boards varied from very, very slow operation to giving a very slow display and an inverted display on the .96" OLED used to show the button count.  Very odd.

thanks,

TM

That is some nice debugging there. 

I only remember that Atmel Studio programmer had separate panels for programming fuses, EEPROM and Flash; but that was for a different chip. The Arduino IDE might not touch anything than the Flash.

Cheers,

 - W.

Thanks, Wolfgang, I understand what you're saying but why did one board flash correctly and the others didn't?  I never checked the new, unused boards for fuse configurations but that's gonna be a standard thing from now on.  I may have one more of these boards that I can check.  I now wonder if these clones came with random settings and the first working board was just a lucky pick.  They came without the bootloader that is present on the real Digisparks and I did see that the genuine ATtiny chips do come from the factory with a standard configuration.  I'll check those when they get here but this may be a way to tell real from the counterfeit chips if this is actually what's going on.

Thanks,

TM

I think the fuses get set when you choose a different menu option, something like "Burn bootloader".

Not done every time you upload as that takes too long.