Sometimes radio technicians who are engaged in the design of electronic devices need to use microcontrollers in their designs. Microcontrollers need firmware - that's what programmers are for.
What is a programmer?
A programmer is a hardware-software device that is used to read or write information to a storage device (internal memory of microcontrollers). If the radio amateur needs to program the microcontroller device once, you can use a conventional programmer that connects to the COM or LPT port. For example, the simplest programmer for AVR chips is a 6-wire, 4-resistor cable (PonyProg programmer).
Using a conventional programmer, you can load hex programs into many AVR microcontrollers without wasting time and money. In addition, the programmer can be used as an in-circuit programmer, so you can program the AVR microcontroller without removing it from the device.
Such programmers are connected to a computer using a special program (which is also called a programmer). It transfers the firmware from the computer, and the device only writes it to the microcircuit memory. Programmers can be connected via a serial or parallel port, via a USB connector, etc. Modern programmers are usually connected via USB.
The USB programmer is intended for programming microprocessor devices of a certain company (depending on the brand of the programmer) in assembled form. It greatly simplifies the software configuration process.
How to connect a USB programmer?
To use the device, you must connect it to one of the USB ports on your computer. After that, a message will appear on the computer about the connection of a new USBasp device, and the LED on the programmer itself will light up, which means that the device is successfully connected.
Then you need to install the drivers so that the OS can work correctly with this device. After that it will be possible to connect the microprocessor device to the ISP interface. The second LED will light up during programming.
As a rule, the programmer has two interfaces - one for connecting a microcontroller, the other for connecting to a computer. In order to connect the microcontroller, you can use the ISP serial programming mode. And this device is connected to a computer via a standard USB connector.
To control the programmer, you need to install special programs. It is best to use windowed applications. For example, you can use ExtremeBurner, Khazama, avrguge and others to work with the device.
