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- The simplest one consists of an ATTiny2313 chip and a few passives. Very nice design. I have not used thisThe basic schematic is:
To use it, grab AVRDude 5.1, USBTiny 1.3. Placing both in a common directory, run:
tar xfvz avrdude-5.1.tar.gz
tar xfvz usbtiny-1.3.tar.gz
patch -p0 -i usbtiny-1.3/patches/avrdude-5.1.diff
cd avrdude-5.1
./configure
make
make install
cd usbtiny-1.3/spi
make
Assuming the ATTiny2313 is connected to be programmed with the serial cable from above, program it using:
avrdude -pt2313 -c dasa -P /dev/ttyUSB1 -U flash:w:main.hex
avrdude -pt2313 -c dasa -P /dev/ttyUSB1 -U lfuse:w:0xff:m
Put the ATTiny2313 in the USBTiny circuit. I tested mine with this command (just to see if it would be USB detected – I didn't have a spare chip to test if it actually reads):
avrdude -pt2313 -c usbtiny -U hfuse:r:high.txt -U lfuse:r:low.txt
As of the time of this writing, I have not done much testing on it. It is properly detected as a USB device, but I still need to program a chip with it to make sure it works.
- A more complex one uses a USB-to-serial converter chip. I have not used this one either. This one has two advantages over the simple one above (which probably do not make up for the added complexity):
- The hardware design is similar to the Mini, so with this guy's firmware, it may be possible to use one Mini board to program another
- It implements the full STK500 spec, so it is possible to do things like timer calibations
- In addition, Atmel makes the AVRATAVRIPSMKII programming cable, available from Digikey. It's fairly inexpensive (~$30), and works well. It uses a 6-pin header (Atmel's standard) instead of the 5 pin header we use (standard on hobbyist boards)[3]. The 6th pin takes VCC, which we need to run from the main header. I've used this to program the Mini. I just ran 5 hookup wires from the plug on the MKII to the header on the Mini, and so that I wouldn't forget the configuration, I put hot glue around the wires. The sixth wire goes to the VCC pin on the Mini:
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