A programmer for the ATMega168

Development Boards MicroMod
1

Hi,

Ive been playing with AVR’s for a little over 2 months now. Back then, I didnt know as much as I did now, of course. My local components shop didnt exactly have a large selection of anything - about 3 types of AVR, and the only programmer they had was, as I later found out, an old style AVRISP serial kitset programmer. the staff were as clueless as i was, so i ended up buying that and an ATMega162.

I built the programmer, followed the tutorials on this website, and held my breath as I tried to program from within PN2. I immediately hit a problem - avrdude wouldnt program my chip.

Long story short, I managed to stumble upon avrprog inside AVRStudio, and found that by selecting the ATMega161, I was able to program. I thought my problems were more or less over.

I have now upgraded to an ATMega168, as I really needed analog sensing. My blink program uploaded without a problem, but when I tried uploading a test program with ADC functionality, the programmer came to a grinding halt. After investigation, I find that AVRISP is an outdated and unsupported format nowadays, and that the 168 is incompatible with it. This is just lovely - I wish that shop would employ competent staff!

So now Im looking for a new programmer, and Im fairly hesitant to dish out money on something which may or may not even program my AVR’s!

I need an ISP programmer which is either USB or serially connected, will program at least ATMega168’s, ideally everything in the AVR universe, and wont cost me the world, as Im on a budget. Emulation/debugging is not required, so long as it just programs. Im looking at the following, and im hoping someone can point out which is the best for what I need.

http://www.sparkfun.com/commerce/produc … ucts_id=11

http://www.sparkfun.com/commerce/produc … ucts_id=12

http://www.sparkfun.com/commerce/produc … ts_id=8702

…the last of which looks most promising. I also hear talk of JTAGICE Mk II, and other interesting sounding devices, but I cant find them on Sparkfun.

Which should I get?

2

The Atmel Dragon is very popular. It’s also a debugger, which is very useful.

Leon

3

If your AVR boards have a JTAG connector, or if you wish to wire up a connector, I’ve used this with AVR Studio for loading HEX to flash; works well, is fast, low cost. JTAG breakpoint debugging works too, but I don’t use that function much:

http://www.nkcelectronics.com/avr-jtag- … r-kit.html

4

I’m in a similar boat, I cant get this dongle to program my Atmega168 so I’m looking for a more versatile solution. I’m giving the AVR Dragon some serious thought.

5

I dont need anything fancy or any development board, all I want is a programmer with an ISP connector that I can jam SPI wires into, just like the tutorials :stuck_out_tongue:

6

Vertigo:
I dont need anything fancy or any development board, all I want is a programmer with an ISP connector that I can jam SPI wires into, just like the tutorials :stuck_out_tongue:

Then something like [this might be a decent option. It is a kit. That item is backordered, but the comment on the page says they expect to have them back in stock today. They also have the bare board, but then you’d have a catch-22 situation with programming the chip.

If you don’t like that, then there are various forms of [build-it-yourself hardware for PonyProg.](PonyProg - Serial device programmer)](USBtinyISP AVR Programmer Kit (USB SpokePOV Dongle) [v2.0] : ID 46 : Adafruit Industries, Unique & fun DIY electronics and kits)

7

Vertigo:
I dont need anything fancy or any development board, all I want is a programmer with an ISP connector that I can jam SPI wires into, just like the tutorials :stuck_out_tongue:

The SP12 programmer works very well, and is very simple:

http://www.xs4all.nl/~sbolt/e-spider_prog.html

I used it for years.

Leon