While playing with an ATmega168, [Jeff] programmed the RSTDISBL fuse bit. This pretty much makes the chip useless in most cases. [Jeff] didn’t want to give up on it though, so he built a system to program it using the rarely used high voltage parallel programming mode. He used an Arduino, a few lines of code and a few spare parts to make it. After sharing the idea with some fellow programmers, he decided to make an Arduino shield specifically for this purpose. You can use this to reset almost any fuse to rescue a chip. If you are a die hard AVR person and never started using Arduino instead, the STK500 actually has this built in.
As does the AVR Dragon, which has saved my butt more then once since I started learning AVRs. I like the idea here though!
Jeff showed off this board at MakeSF this week and it’s nicely done. He said he made up some kits but will be soldering the boost SMD components on the boards himself so the user will only have to solder the resistors and sockets. This will also rescue several of the ATTiny AVR processors too (check out the smaller socket).
here’s an alternate option: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EHOxc-FvaUs
You are a very smart person! :) Btta5200