[2] make a circuit programmer


(This week assigment: Electronics Production)


For this assignment we have to cut and solder the FabISP circuit microcontroller and then use it to program other circuit microcontrollers. The FabISP is an in-system programmer for AVR based on the ATtinny44 microcontroller.


We used the Roland Modela milling machine and the Fab Modules to score and cut the PCB board. We used a 1/64 bit to score the circuit and 1/32 bit to cut the outside of the board.


The image of the board was produced in Eagle and then exported as a PNG file.


For soldering, I used double tape to place the components of the circuit (diodes, resistors and capacitors). This is very useful because you only search for the components one time.


Soldering the USB port was the most difficult part. I used the copper tape to desolder which worked pretty well.


We have to program the board before it can program other boards. This was very difficult because Windows 7 considers these peripherals to be “hazardous.” We have to download Firmware, WinAVR and the USBtinyISP driver. Unfortunately, this didn't work in my PC and I have to programm the board using a Mac.