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[on:]

Could anyone tell me what are the ICSP pins for?

is this an input pin? for expansion of output pins? thanks!

- Migs

[Reply #1 on:]

Mostly ICSP it is a AVRtiny programming header for the Arduino consisting of MOSI, MISO, SCK, RESET, VCC, GND.  It is often refered to as an SPI (Serial Peripheral Interface) which could be considered an "expansion" of the output, but really, you are slaving the output device to the master of the SPI bus.

So, Master Input and Output depends on the master

[Reply #2 on:]

Oh. I see. I've read somewhere that it's also used to burn the bootloader to the ATmega Chip. Is this true?

which could be considered an "expansion" of the output, but really, you are slaving the output device to the master of the SPI bus.

does this mean i can use it to cascade two shields? i'm having problems stacking two shields together (GSM Shield and LED matrix shield) because of pin connections.

- Migs

[Reply #3 on:]

With reference to the AVR chips themselves, they are they way you program the chips in-system.  You connect the programmer to these six pins somehow - usually over a ribbon cable with two 6 pin IDC headers but you can just use some jumpers too.  The programmer can then send the production file (elf file) to the chip.  You can get the production file from the Arduino software or from Atmel Studio.

This guy is going from the 6-pin cable to jumpers to the breadboard.  I would have just used a IDC socket.  But otherwise, this is how you do it.  This bypasses the Arduino for a bare $0.80-$3.00 controller which you can add to any project without having a dangling Arduino, but you have to buy the programmer for $35.

http://allaboutee.com/2011/05/11/how-to-program-an-avr-microcontroller/

[Reply #4 on:]

Oh. I see. I've read somewhere that it's also used to burn the bootloader to the ATmega Chip. Is this true?

Absolutely, Nick Gammon has a slick sketch that takes care of this:
http://www.gammon.com.au/forum/?id=11635

does this mean i can use it to cascade two shields? i'm having problems stacking two shields together (GSM Shield and LED matrix shield) because of pin connections.

Only if the two shields have micro-controller to slave (unlikely).  With two complicated devices, I would recommend an I2C setup:

http://www.gammon.com.au/forum/?id=10896

If you can get your specifics down, I am pretty sure Nick can help you (He is a moderator here...).

[Reply #5 on:]

thanks for the great tip guys. just new to the Arduino Community. Lots more to it that just straight up prototyping. haha. getting a hang of it though. thanks again.

[Reply #6 on:]

The clue is in the acronym  - ICSP = In-Circuit Serial Programming