Programming an Atmega8A with USBasp

Using Arduino Microcontrollers
1

I purchased a USBasp programmer from ebay and have obtained and installed a libsub driver for it.

So that when I plug my device in to a usb port the libsub driver comes up in windows device manager and the drivers is 'working properly' according to device manager.

Also I noticed that the libsub driver in windows device manager is not associated with a com port. And the arduino IDE expects a com port.

With both the FTDI programmer and the USBasp programmer plugged in, arduino IDE seems to default to com3 which corresponds to the FTDI device when you hit upload regardless of the fact that I have selected USBasp in the 'programmer' menu.

So how do you properly setup and use a USBasp device with arduino ide?

2

Yeah, IMO, the GUI was never updated properly to support using an ISP programmer, or least not to make it as easy as a serial port.
There was much debate over this several years ago, and I don't think the final result was nearly as good as it needs to be.
I was pushing for the ability to select a programmer and use that instead of the serial port once configured. I lost....

While you can do it, it isn't particularly obvious and there is no way to tell the GUI, from the GUI, to use the desired programmer when you click on the upload button.

Also, even if you always want to use an ISP programmer, the GUI will go out and search for and open up serial ports looking for Arduino boards.
And it used to be if you have a machine without a serial port you cant run the IDE.
(Not sure if that has been fixed, but it burned me a few times)

To use the ISP programmer instead of the serial port, you have a couple of options:

  • create a special board type that specifies that the board uses the desired ISP programmer.
    While this is really nice, and allows the upload button to work as would be expected, it requires creating a custom board type.
    One advantage of creating the custom board type is you can bump the flash size to indicate the full flash since no bootloader will be used.

  • press and hold the key when press the upload button.
    This will use the selected ISP programmer instead of the serial port.

  • Go through the menus to do the upload
    [Sketch]->[Upload Using Programmer]

  • Use the [upload using programmer] short cut keys
    ++

--- bill