Building STK500 AVR ISP programmer

with USB
ScienceProg 30 June, 2013Projects

Programmer is one of the first things to think of when starting to deal with microcontrollers.
Luckily it is not hard to build fully working programmer almost for any microcontroller as there
are tons of open source projects around. So I decided to build stk500 compatible programmer
which is actually taken from tuxgraphics.com. I decided not to search for same parts as in original
schematics but use whats on desk. As result I got mix of through hole and SMD soldered board
that works great.

Short info about STK500 V2 programmer

This programmer is a clone of original AVR STK500 programmer. It works on all main
platforms including Windows, Linux, BSD and MacOS X. This is mainly because as USB to
serial converter there is a FT232RL chip used with full driver support. Probably main reason to
build it is that programmer works in AVRstudio where microcontrollers can be programmed
fluently from same IDE. Also it works fine with AVRDude which would be main application
for Linux users. This clone gained quite big popularity so you can find lots of variations mostly
different PCB versions. So mine is yet another one PCB.
STK500 programmer hardware
As I mentioned this is quick build from parts found on shelf, this isnt best PCB. Because it uses a
mix of SMD and through hole parts. Anyway it works as supposed so no problem with that at all.
Lets get in to some details. I found a FT232BL chip that wasnt used in some earlier project, so I
decided to use it instead newer FT232RL. It is pretty same chip but older generation. Additionally
you need to use external 6 MHz crystal and couple more components. Drivers are still supported
up to Win 7 so it can be still used actively.

Atmega8 is in DIP package which is easier to remove and program with other programmer
which can be a bit problem if building first programmer at all. Ask friends to program chip or use
dirty parallel port programmer to flash it.
In this programmer I used an USB miniB SMD Connector that came to my hands. There is also a
solder holes left in case you want to solder an USB cable directly. Programmer has 10 pin and 6
pin programmer headers. I usually use 6 pin ISP header, so I made cable only for this one.

Flashing Atmega8
Is I mentioned you need to program ATmega8 first before use. Latest firmware for it can be
found here. And dont forget to set fuse bits correctly. FYI fuse bits in PopnyProg should be as
follows:

Or simply pass them to AVRdude as follows:

Low byte: 0xEE;

High byte: 0xE9.

Running programmer on AVRStudio

When running programmer in AVRStudio, select STK500 platform and COM port which was to
USB serial converter assigned. In my case it is COM5. After clicking Connect it suggests to
upgrade programmer firmware just skip by pressing Cancel as upgrade function wont work for
it. Next screen youll see is a STk500 programming dialog where you can select device and
program it.

Just a little note about ISP mode settings! If you are trying to flash new AVR where default
1MHz clock is running, you should select proper ISP frequency as it has to be less than the
target.
To flash 1MHz Atmega you should go with 115.2 kHz while 8MHz will do fine with 1.845 MHz.