HELP : Programming Severino(S3V3) with Atmega168

Forum 2005-2010 (read only) General Frequently-Asked Questions
1

I am going to build the Arduino Severino S3V3.

Main problem is the BLANK Atmega168.
No bootloader, nothing.

My plan :

  1. Burn bootloader into Atmega168 using ALL 100 programmer at campus first.
  2. Use Parallel Programmer connected to Severino (ICSP) at home to program using Arduino 0017 IDE.

Guys, is this possible?
I'm new to the arduino with brief knowledge.

2

In a word, Yes.

Why not just use a serial cable, instead of building a Parallel Programmer?

(My DIY Programmer of choice AVR Programmer )

3

hi there man,
thanks for your reply.

is the serial programmer responsible for both

  1. burning the bootloader into Atmega168 @ 1st place?
    and
  2. burning future project codes into Atmega168?
4

From the AVR-Programmer page:

This simple AVR Programmer will allow you to painlessly transfer hex programs to most ATMEL AVR microcontrollers without sacrificing your budget and time.

The Bootloader is a .hex file. Once this .hex file has been "burnt" to the chip you can transfer sketches to the Arduino's ATMega via its serial pins. For this task you would then need a serial-to-TTL-converter, as the ATMegas logical TTL-levels are different from the ones of the RS-232-protocol the computers serial port uses.

I think the linked AVR-programmer wouldn't work for this task because it's in no way connected to the ATMega's TX/RX-pins, but uses the MISO/MOSI-pins instead. Of course you would have the option to totally ignore the bootloader and always just transfer the sketches' .hex-files (which are in the sketch folder after compiling) directly to the ATMega. This would save you the bootloader-startup-time at the cost of some (actually quite some) comfort (as you couldn't just simply click "Upload" in the Arduino IDE but had to manually upload each sketch as .hex to the ATMega).

5

The Bootloader is a .hex file. Once this .hex file has been "burnt" to the chip you can transfer sketches to the Arduino's ATMega via its serial pins. For this task you would then need a serial-to-TTL-converter, as the ATMegas logical TTL-levels are different from the ones of the RS-232-protocol the computers serial port uses.

yo there Otacon,

i have a USB to RS232 cable.

i just load the bootloader (hex file) into the Atmega168, and
after that, i can just use this USB to RS232 cable to program?

6

Yep, you use programmer like the ALL 100 programmer, or a DIY Parallel/Serial Programmer to burn the bootloader (hex).

Then you can upload sketches to the arduino using the USB to RS232 cable thought the arduino IED.

7

woah, thanks n00b, for clearing that up.
i'll definitely try out the solution and post it here.