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By KaelaStreet
#201509
Reference your product https://www.sparkfun.com/products/12640. This suggests the following "The Pro Micro is similar to the Pro Mini except with an ATmega32U4 on board. The USB transceiver inside the 32U4 allows us to add USB connectivity on-board and do away with bulky external USB interface."
Question 1: Does this mean I can purchase the populated board as described in the link here and connect direct to a PC to program it, as one of the suggested as' needed' items, is the usb header interface 'Tiny AVR Programmer'?
Question 2: What will the board appear as under 'Tools/Board' in the arduino 1.8.8 application?

I could not find the answers in your forum, as I may have not found the best search phrase. Looking forward to your reply.
Very Best regards.

Kaela
By wangcheung
#201540
you won't need anything but a micro USB cable to connect it to the computer to download code through the Arduino IDE. The tiny AVR programmer is only needed if you had to overwrite the bootloader or if you wanted to remove the bootloader and run only your own code on the board.

You will need to make sure you install the Sparkfun Arduino board definitions in the board manager for the Arduino IDE, as shown in the hookup guide, so that the pro micro is included in the list of boards. Use caution when selecting the board, there are 2 version (3.3 and 5V) and if you pick the wrong one and upload code to it, it can be a real pain to get the board functioning properly again. It can be done but it's a pain, that's coming from experience LOL

It's been so long since I installed my first pro-micro I don't remember if you need USB drivers or if they are already available.

good luck