Rolling your own minimal USB to serial Arduino programmer

usb-to-serial-programmer

[Hans Peter] wanted to move away from using full Arduino boards in his projects. One of the components he rarely used after the development stage is the USB hardware. Once the firmware is flashed to the chip he didn't need it any longer. So he tried his hand with some really small SMD parts by building this USB to serial Arduino programmer. The chip he went with isn't the FTDI part we're used … [Read more...]

USB Keyboard Becomes an AVR Programmer

USB Keyboard AVR Programmer

[Steve] created an AVR programmer using an old USB keyboard. We feature a bunch of AVR programmers, but this one is made from parts that many people will have lying around. There are two components: the controller PCB from a USB keyboard, and an optocoupler for emulating key presses. In order to send data to the AVR, [Steve] used the LED outputs on the keyboard. These LEDs can easily be toggled … [Read more...]

AVR fuse bits explained

fuse

Every AVR microcontroller, from the ATtiny in your thermostat to the ATMega in your Arduino, stores its configuration in a series of fuse bits. These fuse bits control settings such as the multiplier of the internal oscillator (and thus the speed of the chip), or if the reset pin can be used as a GPIO pin. [YS] just put up an awesome tutorial for understanding these fuse/lock bits, and it's just … [Read more...]

TI Launchpad as AVR ISP programmer

lauchpad-avr-isp-programmer

[Minifloat] is using his TI Launchpad development board as an In-System Programmer for AVR chips (translated). There are a ton of homebrew AVR programmers out there, and using an Arduino for ISP is quite popular. But recently we searched for a way to use the Launchpad as a programmer and didn't find one. We'd venture to say this is the first. There is one hardware modification that must be … [Read more...]

Flash an Arduino from an SD card

ardu

[Kevin] has been working on reverse engineering the protocol used by the Arduino IDE and porting it to the Arduino platform. Now that his BootDrive project is nearing completion, he's ready to give every Arduino the ability to program another Arduino over an SD card. BootDrive isn't terribly different from using an Arduino as an ISP, only now AVRdude runs on the Arduino itself and no computer … [Read more...]

AVR Programming 02: The Hardware

arduino

You may be able to write the most eloquent code in the history of embedded systems but without a way to run it on the hardware it will be worthless. In this installment of the tutorial series we will: Look at some of the available AVR programmer options Place the microcontroller on a breadboard and connect it to a power supply and a programmer. Use programming software to send some example … [Read more...]