I have been able to flash both my attiny85 and my attiny44 many times in the past but for some reason, recently I can't flash my attiny44 and get this error:
"avrdude: initialization failed, rc=-1 Double check connections and try again, or use -F to override this check."
I am sure that my connections are just fine. I have it on a breadboard with all the wires connected how I always have and the ICSP header oriented correctly, etc. I have been researching this for a while and have come across the fact that you can brick your MCU by setting the wrong fuse bits. Is it possible I've done this by accident? I don't know how to manipulate the fuse bits so I don't think I could have done something there, although I was thinking maybe by changing values in the CLKPR register, does that change fuse bits? (If anyone could point me to a good tutorial on what fuse bits are and how you edit them, that's an area of my understanding I need to fill)
If not fuse bits madness, then what other possible causes should I try to track down? I know I can always just buy some more MCUs, but this has happened to me several times before with different AVRs and I'd like to nail down what are the best ways to troubleshoot this for the future as well. Any advice is appreciated.
I'm using an avr pocket programmer from sparkfun (usbtiny) if that helps.
Note: I'm not sure if this is the right stack exchange site for this question. If not, should it be asked on the electronics stack exchange or possibly the arduino stack exchange?
Well this has gotten no response here, but I asked the same question on avrfreaks.net and got some good replies and was able to solve my problem. Here's the link: https://www.avrfreaks.net/forum/why-wont-my-attiny44-flash