(In my programming setup I have resistors on the pins, that should at least stop me from drawing too many mA by accident)
Good idea... so just series resistors in the wires from the Arduino pins to the target's? What size- couple of hundred Ohms?
I'm sure the whole process must be safe, but I'm just concerned that the instant the code is uploaded to the target it will start running. Should I fit the components on the target's pins before uploading the sketch?
I'm also going by
this Instructable, whose steps imply that you connect the atTiny to the Arduino, attach the atTiny's LEDs or whatever for its sketch, then upload the sketch via the Arduino. The Instructable is silent on my concern of the atTiny still being connected to the Arduino when its (the atTiny's that is) sketch fires up.
I'm thinking I should post this question in another thread... this is the wrong place.
EDIT.... I re-posed this question in a new thread
here which I think is better. Let's let this thread revert to its original purpose in the gallery. Sorry about that....