Pocket AVR With Arduino IDE

Forum 2005-2010 (read only) Hardware Interfacing
1

I'm getting ready for the next step in an ongoing project and I'm interested in programming an ATmega in a standalone circuit without the bootloader.

I understand I need an external programmer and I was looking at the Pocket AVR Programmer from SparkFun due to the cost. Has anyone been successful using this with the Arduino IDE? Someone's already asked this question in the comments on SparkFun's product page, but they didn't receive an answer, so I thought I'd ask here.

The Arduino IDE is the only interface I'm familiar with at this point, so I would prefer being able to upload my code to the ATmega from the same interface. If this means getting a more expensive programmer like Atmel's AVRISP, then so be it.

However, if anyone has another suggestion for a low-cost programmer that I can use to upload my code with the click of a button, I'm open.

2

You can still use a bootloader even if the ATmega is in a standalone circuit. All you need is an off-board USB/USART interface such as this SparkFun USB to Serial Breakout - FT232RL - BOB-12731 - SparkFun Electronics.

With a programmer only you would loose the convenience of printing debug info to the Serial Monitor. With a bootloader you can upload code and print debug info through the same interface.

3

Thanks, but I'm interested in programming the ATmega without including the bootloader. This is to go in a completed circuit and I want to not only take advantage of the entire available memory, but also eliminate the delay on startup. I won't need to print debug information.