Computing stuff tied to the physical world

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ISP plug

In AVR, Hardware, Software on Apr 24, 2010 at 00:01

For one of my projects, I needed a quick way to reflash an AVR via ISP. Didn’t want to have to use any of the several ISP programmers around here, so I made my own “ISP plug” for use on a JeeNode:

Dsc 1353

The pins are connected as follows:

  • ISP pin 1 = MISO = DIO1
  • ISP pin 2 = VCC (+3.3V)
  • ISP pin 3 = SCK = AIO1
  • ISP pin 4 = MOSI = AIO4
  • ISP pin 5 = RESET = DIO4
  • ISP pin 6 = GND

Here the top view, made from a little JeePlug board:

Dsc 1354

Bottom side:

Dsc 1355

Note that this ISP setup draws 3.3V from the JeeNode and uses it to power the target, so the target board should not have its own power and it should not draw more than say 100 mA of current @ 3.3V.

The code for this is called “isp_flash.pde” and is derived from the “ArduinoISP” sketch. I added software-based (bit-banged) SPI communication for use with the above I/O pins, and did a fair bit of cleanup of the source code.

The nice thing about this ISP programmer is that it works out of the box with Arduino IDE 0018:

  • upload the ISP_flash.pde sketch to the JeeNode
  • insert the ISP plug and hook it up to the test circuit (or one of these …)
  • burn the boot loader using the Arduino IDE:

Screen Shot 2010 04 18 at 18.04.06

The result will be a properly initialized ATmega, with protected bootloader and the default blink demo pre-loaded.

It’s not terribly fast because it uses a 19200 baud connection, but it’s simple and can be a life-saver if you ever damage the bootloader on an ATmega, or want to prepare blank ATmega’s for use with a JeeNode.

This plug can in fact be used as ISP programmer for any type of ATmega or ATtiny with “avrdude”:

Screen Shot 2010 04 18 at 18.14.42

You’ll need to adjust the serial / USB port, fuse settings, and sketch as needed, of course.

  1. I always wanted a universal programmer with zero-insertion-force. Your little board only works for 28pin AVRs, right?

    Do you know any way to create a ZIF-Board that works with the smaller tiny and stuff, too?

    MarvinGS 24 April 2010 at 12pm

  2. P.S. in the next posts I will present a complete ATmega 28-pin programmer…

    jcw 24 April 2010 at 1pm

  3. Sure. But the ISP-Ports are on different Pins at each package size, aren’t they?

    MarvinGS 24 April 2010 at 8pm

    • Yes, that’s the socket part. You can use different sockets for each type of chip.

      jcw 24 April 2010 at 9pm

  4. That is what i was searching for. A way to connect one ZIF-Socket to the programmer that most of the AVR Sizes can be programmed…

    MarvinGS 25 April 2010 at 1pm

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