I recently found this AVR USB Programmer on a local shop. I have 12 ATMega 328PU sitting on the top of my desk and I want to boot them and start running them. I wanted to use Mogul's Tutorial to do this. However, I still do not have an Arduino of any sort or any booted AVR and don't expect to get one (very little hopes). So I wanted to ask how to use that programmer, if its compatible with that ATMega 328s and if I can program the chips the same way as Mogul talks in his tutorial.
You need a breadboard, a few
You need a breadboard, a few wires, a 16MHz ceramic resonator (or crystal plus 2 22pF caps), a 10k resistor and a 0.1uF cap. I’ll try to draw you a schematic later, now I’m not at my comp. Oh, you will need some breakaway male headers to connect wires to your programmer’s cable, since you can’t plug it directly into the breadboard. Once you have the parts plugged correctly on the breadboard, you can upload the bootloader and set the fuses either from Arduino IDE or, if that does not work, you can follow my tutorial to set them up manually.
Uhh…
Well, problem is, I’m trying to minimise the cost of stuff. At the start, I’ll not have a resonator/ crystal+caps and resistor. Later on I may have one. I want to boot it with 8MHz internal clock. If I go that way, Arduino IDE is out of question and I don’t have AVR Studio atm (600MB takes 7 hours to download and I can’t run this machine for even 1 hour). So I’m looking for an option that’ll fit all these conditions. I’ll somehow download AVR Studio (maybe start the download in my college lib’s in the morning and take it out in a pen drive in the evening) but I need to be sure that I’ll support my specs (the clock and minimalistic approach)…
No worries with 8MHz,
No worries with 8MHz, internal clock. I have used that in my uBipedino robots without problems. I used the internal clock but I have designed the PCB with a resonator just in case. But I found out I did not need it (yet) and all works fine. I mean servos, sensors, Bluetooth, all work. You need to set the fuses a bit differently for 8MHz, but there is an Arduino bootloader and loading that from the IDE automatically sets the proper fuses. You need to chose the board as Arduino Pro or Mini (3.3V 8MHz) and I think the AVR ISP programmer (you might want to try all other programmers and see if any works with your programmer - I had no such luck from the IDE, but my AVR ISP works in AVR Studio). But you definitely need the 10k pull up resistor on the Reset pin to Vcc. The 0.1uF capacitor is used in series from the USB-serial cable DTR pin to the Reset pin after you program the bootloader. Let me know how many pins your programmer’s cable has (6 or 10) so I can draw the schematic for you. For sure you’ll need a breadboard and wires or at least a 16 pin socket to plug in the chip you’re programming.
Re: AVR Studio download
Have you considered looking for a torrent of AVR Studio? Or even a downloader app that will let you start and stop the download?