programming board

[loydmilligan]

I am thinking of making an stk500 like board for the usbtiny. I would guess that someone else may have completed something like this, if so please let me know as it might make my project a little easier. I am acutally hoping to limit the number of sockets i use and select the chip type with a rotary or dip switch. Also, can anyone reccomend some zif sockets that are reliable and reasonably priced.

One more thing, perhaps someone with more knowledge can give me some advice. I would really like to limit the number of sockets on the board. Is there a good summary of pinouts anywhere on the web? Could I get away with only 3 or 4 of sockets?

[The_Don125]

Well, if you use a header for the programming pins, you could use a single socket for everything. You could get a 40-pin wide DIP ZIF socket, like this one: http://search.digikey.com/scripts/DkSea ... me=A306-ND , and have two 20-pin headers running alongside it. You connect each pin on the headers to the respective pin on the socket. Now all you need is six jumper wires to go from the programming header (assuming ISP) to the correct pins on the microcontroller. That setup should be good for any DIP-packaged chip.

[loydmilligan]

that is a good idea, esp considering how much easier it is than what I was thinking of originally - not quite as convenient to use, but much easier to make...

[keen101]

here is a design i came up with about a month ago. I haven't gotten to try it out yet, but i had been planning to send for a nice pcb of it to sparkfun's batch pcb.

I put the three most common AVR chips that i have/might use.

[SolidSilver]

Cool design! I'd put in a socket for a resonator/crystal so you can program chips that need an external clock (like 'duinos).

[keen101]

Cool design! I'd put in a socket for a resonator/crystal so you can program chips that need an external clock (like 'duinos).

Thanks. And yeah that's a good idea about adding a crystal socket. However I'm not worried about it since i can always pull the chip off my Arduino and use the board, or use this to reset the fuses. http://mightyohm.com/blog/2008/09/ardui ... rogrammer/

(i also made a nice pcb in eagle cad for the high voltage programmer if anyone wants it)

[loydmilligan]

yeah I would like it for sure...thanks a lot

[keen101]

yeah I would like it for sure...thanks a lot

ok, here are the eagle cad files for ther high voltage programmer. I haven't tried it out either, but i made a protoboard version, and it works great. If the Arduino "hosting code" was changed you could theoretically turn the high voltage programmer into a programmer that can also output a clock signal.

oh, both designs probably don't have holes big enough for a zif socket, so if you want to use ine of those you will probably have to change the socket in eagle cad.

[nphillips]

Hey -- awesome, Andrew!

Any chance you'll be making any batches of PCBs? This is (I think...I don't have eagle on this PC) what I've been looking for.

[westfw]

The posted schematic has problems: no power for the Arduino being programmed! There's apparently a
correction posted at the original site:
http://mightyohm.com/blog/2008/09/ardui ... programmer

[keen101]

Hey -- awesome, Andrew!

Any chance you'll be making any batches of PCBs? This is (I think...I don't have eagle on this PC) what I've been looking for.

umm.... which one... the 3-type avr programming board, or the HVP? Either way, i'm glad i could help.

Maybe on either, but probably not for awhile. Ideally I'd like to set up a simple site like ladyada's adafruit shopping site, but i don't have any experience nor the cash to spare at this point in time. Maybe in a year (or more) when I'm a college student i can invest more into creating a site dedicated to diy AVR circuits. I'm trying to create an open source AVR motor speed controller for competition robots too, which would basically be a neat open source version of something like this http://www.ifirobotics.com/victor-884-s ... bots.shtml.

The posted schematic has problems: no power for the Arduino being programmed! There's apparently a
correction posted at the original site:
http://mightyohm.com/blog/2008/09/ardui ... programmer

Thanks. Like i said i haven't ordered any pcb's of either these designs, so it is best to double check the wiring before you order one from batch pcb. http://www.batchpcb.com/

also, if you order from batch pcb, make sure you start with this CAM file to avoid mirrored pcb gerbers. http://www.sparkfun.com/tutorial/Beginn ... rb274x.cam

by default it doesn't print the silkscreen text, so start with the file and modify it accordingly if you care about silkscreened names and values.

[nphillips]

Sorry -- I wasn't paying close attention; I didn't realize the second file you posted was an HVP (that's what you get for speed-replying while at work!)

I'm primarily interested in the 3-slot programmer.

I like theDon's idea of using the 40-pin ZIF socket, too...I have a few ideas for simplifying the use of such a device, too, without having to run a bunch of jumpers, but I have no idea if it would work or not. Sort of a combination of your board, and his idea.

I've been thinking of opening my own mini-store, too...but I don't have the time, nor the resources to really make it work. Once I have some quality prototypes, and a few decent how-to posts on my site (and instructables!) I might see if someone like Ladyada or Sparkfun would be interested in helping sell kits/PCBs. It'll all be 100% open, of course...but if I can recoup a little money for some PCBs and whatnot, I wouldn't complain