The first thing I did when I progressed from Arduinos to programming Atmel 8-bit microcontrollers in the raw was build a programming and prototyping board. [BTW, for once, this is not going to be a multi-post project. I’m putting a bit of background here, but will put full, constantly updated details on the GitHub page.] Arduinos make it easy for… Read more »
Things went from bad to worse with the breadboard prototype of the SmartParallel serial to parallel printer interface. All was fine for a while. Lines of text sent from my Mac via an FTDI cable were duly printed on the Epson MX-80 F/T III dot matrix printer. But then, every now and again, the printer would randomly reset. After a… Read more »
Some time ago, I wrote about how I’d hacked together a board to program and experiment with AVR ATMEGA328P microcontrollers. Well, now I’ve stepped things up a bit. Mk.II The key features of the old board were a ‘zero insertion force’ (ZIF) socket for the microcontroller chip and a 2×3 HE10 socket to take the ISP cable from my programmer… Read more »
Sometimes, before you can make a thing you have to make the tools to make the thing. Or to put it another way … while having a bunch of breadboards tenuously connected by a rats nest of inscrutably coloured wires might be impressive (when it doesn’t look like a bomb), on occasion it’s good to have a tool that simplifies… Read more »