I am completely new to microcontrollers and breadboards. I am trying to go through the tutorials (http://www.sparkfun.com/commerce/presen … BEE-2-Code), but am stuck on the second lecture because the parallel port programming dongle has been out of stock for a while.
In cruising the forum, I have also seen reference to the parallel port not being accessible in XP. Is there a serial or USB programmer that I can substitute for the programmer? On http://www.avrfreaks.net there is a programmer called “ICprog-AVR2.0 KANDA” available at http://www.ic-board.de listed, but I don’t quite understand if this will work as a direct substitution, or if there would need to be changes to the circuit or code.
Does the Atmel Dragon program the Atmega168 chip? Would it be necessary to change any of the code either in the makefile.exe or in the blink_1MHz.c files provided in the tutorial?
You just have to compile the code in the Studio environment.
I’m not sure what that means (sorry, I’m a real newbie).
I just noticed that the tutorial mentions changing between the parallel port and the serial port. Can the “AVR STK Serial Port Dongle Programmer” (SKU#: PGM-00014) be used for the atmega168? It’s not listed among the supported devices, but as I said the tutorial mentions using the serial port.
Really, I’m just looking for whatever will work for the least trouble and the least $$.
Do you have a builtin serial port or only USB serial ports? If the former, the PGM-00014 (which is Sparkfun’s SKU for the Olimex AVR-PG-1B, which is a clone of the ponyprog design) should work fine. I use it with avrdude; it’s a common and simple design which lots of programming software supports.
It might work with a USB serial adapter but bitbang programmers often don’t.
wiml:
Do you have a builtin serial port or only USB serial ports? If the former, the PGM-00014 (which is Sparkfun’s SKU for the Olimex AVR-PG-1B, which is a clone of the ponyprog design) should work fine. I use it with avrdude; it’s a common and simple design which lots of programming software supports.
It might work with a USB serial adapter but bitbang programmers often don’t.
I do have a built-in serial port. So, before I spend $$, I just want to confirm with someone…will the AVR-PG-1B mentioned above, used with AVRDUDE or ponyprog, work with the Atmega168?
I haven’t personally tried it, but it ought to (though you’ll need a recent enough version of avrdude or ponyprog to support the '168). A brief google turns up some people who report success with that combination.
The '168 supports debugWIRE as well as ICSP; the PG-1B only does ICSP. That means you can program the chip but not use the on-chip-debugging features.
I am completely new to microcontrollers and breadboards. I am trying to go through the tutorials (http://www.sparkfun.com/commerce/presen … BEE-2-Code), but am stuck on the second lecture because the parallel port programming dongle has been out of stock for a while.
In cruising the forum, I have also seen reference to the parallel port not being accessible in XP. Is there a serial or USB programmer that I can substitute for the programmer? On http://www.avrfreaks.net there is a programmer called “ICprog-AVR2.0 KANDA” available at http://www.ic-board.de listed, but I don’t quite understand if this will work as a direct substitution, or if there would need to be changes to the circuit or code.
Thank you in advance for your help!
I have the same problem the pararell programmer is not available. so i brought a usb-to-serial adapter and then i purchased the serial programmer from sparkfun. But im getting a error when i try to program the microcontroller.
avrdude: initialization failed, rc=-1
Double check connections and try again, or use -F to override
this check.
I dont know whether it is because of the usb-to-serial adapter or what. I have triple check the microcontroller and wiring.
ojthejuice:
I have the same problem the pararell programmer is not available. so i brought a usb-to-serial adapter and then i purchased the serial programmer from sparkfun. But im getting a error when i try to program the microcontroller.
avrdude: initialization failed, rc=-1
Double check connections and try again, or use -F to override
this check.
I dont know whether it is because of the usb-to-serial adapter or what. I have triple check the microcontroller and wiring.
someone please help
From the [Olimex page on the PG1B, it says “connects to PC via RS232 port (note it will not work with USB-RS232 converters”