SparkFun Forums

[NoMonkey]

I am following the "Beginning Embedded Electronics" tutorials and am purchasing parts for the second one in the series. My problem is that I do not have a parallel port on my computer however I know I can purchase a USB->Parallel converter cable. From the reviews on Newegg, these cables seem to be a bit hit and miss on which ones work and which ones don't. Is there any recommended cable or alternate solution to this?

Thanks,

John

[leon_heller]

You might be better off getting a second-hand PC with a printer port. They are available very cheaply, or even free.

[NoMonkey]

Unfortunately that is not an option for me. Thank you for the suggestion though.

[leon_heller]

Those adapters are usually intended for driving a printer. A cheap PC is your best option.

[60amp_relay]

Would a serial port suffice? I use this to do all my PIC programming:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.a ... 6812149115

I've never used WinAVR before, but the tutorial mentions using a serial or a parallel port - I'm assuming that means either would work.

[Whiternoise]

I use a USBasp combined with eXtreme Burner.

The software is free and you can get the programmer for about £10 on eBay. It's USB, so very portable - I use mine with my laptop regularly - and it programs chips just fine.

Essentially all you're doing is getting a hex file onto the AVR. There are a multitude of ways to do this, all culminating in the same result. My MacBook obviously has neither parallel nor serial port so getting a USB programmer was important to me.

The most you'll have to do is edit the Makefile to tell AVR-GCC what programmer you're using, but it should autodetect it anyway.

[NoMonkey]

Thank you all very much for the help!

I have found a product similar to what Whiternoise has posted, found here, which seems like it will do the trick.

I am very new to all of this so please excuse my ignorance if I am on the wrong track.

Thanks again.