Electronics Fabrication: Making a Programmer

This week was one of my favorites. Making a custom electronics printed circuit board (PCB) in 5min! Below is Amanda giving us a rundown of the Electronics shop.

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One important note was that you had to use a 1/64th bit and 4 offsets for the traces, and a 1/32nd bit and 1 offset for the outline (to cut out the board). Fortunately, mods.cba.mit.edu already had these default settings.

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I milled, soldered, and created my own USB programmer (aka FabISP)! This week was all about following directions (link to tutorial).

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After connecting the fabISP to the computer I had to program it to be recognized as a USB. Make sure you download the firmware and connect the blue Microchip Atavrisp2 programmer to your fabISP (this is what programs your board to be a programmer). The detailed directions are specified in the above link.

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Configure the MakeFile to with your chip name (attiny85) and the programmer name (avrisp2). Then run "make" in the command line, assuming you're in the right directory.

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Finally, run "Make Flash," "Make Fuses," and "lsusb" in the following order and you should see your USB configured!

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Special thanks and credit to Brian and his amazing tutorial. Also, I recommend Linux for this week's project, so just use the lab computer unless you have a Mac or Unix station.