Daily Archives: 10/18/2011

High-Low Tech – Programming an ATtiny w/ Arduino

I had an idea for a project that doesn’t require a full Arduino: a small 8 pin processor would work just fine. But how to program them? It turns out you can use an Arduino as a programmer. Check out the instructions:

High-Low Tech – Programming an ATtiny w/ Arduino

Sadly, I only have the ATtiny13’s lying around: you need a bit more flash space to use the Tiny Arduino library. Still, pretty neat, and getting the slightly larger devices only costs about $2.25 each, quantity one from digikey.

Addendum: Here is another sketch that turns the Arduino into a programmer that can be used with AVRdude. I’ve written some simple programs using avra: perhaps it is time to dust off those skills…

My Sat Tracker, using Fritzing…

I was going to tidy up my breadboard layout for the satellite tracker I’ve been working on, and I thought it might be nice to use some software to test out various layouts. It also has the side effect of documenting the circuit, at least minimally. I decided to give Fritzing a try, which is compatible with my low attention span and skill level.

Here’s my first attempt: it doesn’t include the rotary encoder that I put on the board, because it appears I’ll have to setup a custom component to make it work. But as far as it goes, it’s not bad. They already had the Sparkfun RTC clock board that I used, and I just reused a generic 8 pin IC for the AT24C1024B that I wired onto the I2C bus. 5V supplies are all red, grounds are black, and yellow and green are the serial data and clock signals respectively.

When the project is complete, I’ll make the fritzing file available.