Re: [avr-chat] ultra-cheap HVSP programmer

[Joerg Wunsch]

address@hidden wrote:

> Keep in mind that you'd be potentially saving $50 on behalf of a
> whole lot of other people, too.

Well, not so many I'd think.  First, both the STK500 and the AVR
Dragon are fairly popular, in particular the Dragon.  The devices that
can be programmed with HVSP (the newer ones) can also be debugged with
it, and once you got used to the joy of debugging an AVR online, you
won't want to miss that again.  Second, only very few devices can be
programmed with HVSP (only the 8-pin ones), all the larger AVRs
require HVPP which you cannot do with the simple parallel-port
approach simply because the number of signals is not sufficient.  So
you'd need external electronics anyway, but then you can use an
external microcontroller as well instead of the host-computer
bit-banging.  I think there are already circuits around in the
Internet for HVPP but even they are not too popular, given that many
potential users of it prefer the STK or Dragon.

Finally, computers often no longer come with true parallel ports you
can use for bit-banging.

One advantage of HVSP compared to HVPP is that there's a good chance
you can even do it with the AVR inside the target circuit when your
target circuit is designed to cope with it (i.e. it doesn't get into
the way of the programming signals).  That's almost impossible to
achieve with parallel programming because of the sheer amount of
signals to care for.

But yes, feel free to contribute that to AVRDUDE if you want!  (Don't
forget about the documentation though.)

-- 
cheers, J"org               .-.-.   --... ...--   -.. .  DL8DTL

http://www.sax.de/~joerg/                        NIC: JW11-RIPE
Never trust an operating system you don't have sources for. ;-)