SparkFun Forums

[roach]

Can anyone tell me how to use the PG1B in AVRStudio (if that's even possible)?

[TSPRAP]

Unfortunatly...no, though Olimex is in the works of making a STK500 compatible USB programmer thta will work with Studio.

[roach]

Okay, not a problem. I'll just use AVRDude. The PG1B is mind-numbingly slloooowwww, though. I assume this is because it's a serial adapter, but is there any way to speed it up? I increased the baud rate on that COM port (in Windows Device Manager), but no effect. Any ideas?

[TSPRAP]

The reason it is soo slow is because it is a bit-banged programmer. With the PGB-1 the serial port becomes just a couple of I/o and ponyprog has to run the serial port as somthing its not ment for. PonyProg makes a software SPI out of the serial port which...natrually is slower than the hardware SPI on the STK500

[roach]

TSPRAP: In another thread you mentioned an STK500 emulating bootloader. Would this speed up the transfer? (I'm guessing yes, but I like to ask dumb questions...)

[TSPRAP]

TSPRAP: In another thread you mentioned an STK500 emulating bootloader. Would this speed up the transfer? (I'm guessing yes, but I like to ask dumb questions...)

You'll have to program your AVR with this bootloader .hex then you just wire up your USART to a PC(make sure you do level conversion such as MAX232) and you won't need the PGB-1 anymore for thta AVR. Yes, programming with a bootloader is faster then the PGB-1, though you *can't* speed up the PGB-1 with the bootloader.

[roach]

Then I guess I know what my next priority is (right after "Hello World").

thanks again!

[donblake]

Here's an AVRprog compatible bootloader that I'm using. It's designed for the ATmega8. I'm using it with minimal modification with an ATmega16 (a JTAG ICE clone). I don't think it would take much work to modify it for an ATmeg128.

Don

[roach]

Hi Don,

I think you forgot the link...

[donblake]

I think you forgot the link...

You're right.

Here's the link: http://www.dl5neg.de/bootloader/bootloader.html

Sorry.

Don

[andrey]

I just wanted to mention that the official Atmel AVRISP MkII is a pretty good deal at $29. It works with AVR Studio (of course) and it's a proper ISP. Unfortunately it only has a 6-pin ICSP cable but you can make an adapter.