Author: Robert Harrison
Date Created: August 2008
Last Revised: See Bottom of Page
Version: 0.02
Email: rharrison [email @ goes here ] hgf.com *NB The awkward email address format is to prevent my address being harvested by spammers
Getting a programmer to actually program an Atmel AVR chip can be a frustrating process for the beginner, at least it was for me. I have written this guide after buying four programmers and finally figuring out how to get them all working under AVR Studio (Atmels Integrate Development Environment), winavr (the open source IDE) and avrdude under Linux. It's perhaps worth noting here that winavr is actually a collection of open source (OS) programs packaged together and it is indeed avrdude that is used to do the flashing (programming) of the AVR chip in windows.
You should at least read the section on the programmer you are interested in and the problem solving section.
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Specification
Manufacturer: Atmel
Model: AVRISPmkII
Link: AVRISP mk II
Port: USB
ISP Connector(s): 6 pin Atmel Standard
Cost: £25 - £30
Description
Supplier Links
AVR Studio configuration
avrdude (Windows) configuration
avrdude (Linux) configuration
avrdue (Mac OS X) configuration
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Specification
Manufacturer: Atmel
Model: AVR Dragon
Link: AVR Dragon
Port: USB
ISP Connector(s): 6 pin Atmel standard
JTAG: 10 pin Atmel standard
Cost: £35 - £45
Description
This is a full featured programmer and debugger for the Atmel AVR chips. The programmer has both a 6 pin ISP connector and a 10 pin JTAG programming / debugging connector. Note the 10 pin JTAG programmer is different to the 10 pin ISP programmer and the two can not be interchanged. The JTAG connection will debug chips up to and including 32Mb of flash memory. Chips larger than this can be programmed but not debugged.
This is the one of the more expensive programmers but offers a lot more functionality. It also has the ability to program chips directly connected to the programming board, though you need to do a bit of soldering before you can take advantage of this feature. For instructions on how to do this click here.
Supplier Links
AVR Studio configuration
Make sure you are using the USB drivers from Atmel NOT the winavr drivers
Select the Dragon from the list of programmers and the USB port from the connection list.
avrdude (Windows) configuration
Make sure you are using the USB drivers from winavr NOT the Atmel drivers
avrdude -c dragon_isp -Pusb -p m32 -U flash:w:main.hex
avrdude (Linux) configuration
Use dmesg to make sure the device was recognised by the kernel. Most recent kernels work.
[root@computer]# avrdude -c dragon_isp -Pusb -p m32 -U flash:w:main.hex
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Specification
Manufacturer:
Model:
Link: Not Set Yet
Port: USB / Parallel / Serial
ISP Connector(s): 10 pin Atmel standard / 6 pin Atmel Standard / 10 pin inverted
Cost: GB Pounds
Description
Supplier Links
AVR Studio configuration
avrdude (Windows) configuration
avrdude (Linux) configuration
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Specification Manufacturer: Model: Port: USB / Parallel / Serial Cost: GB Pounds
Description
Supplier Links