This is just a quick post about a board I made to program a whole bunch of ATmega 328′s for some kits I’m making. I am ordering the 328′s in bulk, so they are brand new and do not have an Arduino bootloader on them. One of the ways you can get an Arduino bootloader on a factory fresh 328 is use an Arduino Uno and a USBTiny. Sure, I could pop about 100 of these into an Uno, but that would be a lot of work as well as wear and tear on the 28 DIP socket on my Uno.
The answer? A ZIF socket! These are fantastic! Anyone who has installed/upgraded a CPU in a computer knows what these are. ZIF stands for Zero Instillation Force. That means you drop the chip in the socket very easy, then pull a lever down to secure the contacts and prevent the chip from bouncing out of there. Making swapping out a bunch of chips to program them a lot easier, faster, and less prone to damage to the pins or chips!
Adafruit publishes a wide range of writing and video content, including interviews and reporting on the maker market and the wider technology world. Our standards page is intended as a guide to best practices that Adafruit uses, as well as an outline of the ethical standards Adafruit aspires to. While Adafruit is not an independent journalistic institution, Adafruit strives to be a fair, informative, and positive voice within the community – check it out here: adafruit.com/editorialstandards
Stop breadboarding and soldering – start making immediately! Adafruit’s Circuit Playground is jam-packed with LEDs, sensors, buttons, alligator clip pads and more. Build projects with Circuit Playground in a few minutes with the drag-and-drop MakeCode programming site, learn computer science using the CS Discoveries class on code.org, jump into CircuitPython to learn Python and hardware together, TinyGO, or even use the Arduino IDE. Circuit Playground Express is the newest and best Circuit Playground board, with support for CircuitPython, MakeCode, and Arduino. It has a powerful processor, 10 NeoPixels, mini speaker, InfraRed receive and transmit, two buttons, a switch, 14 alligator clip pads, and lots of sensors: capacitive touch, IR proximity, temperature, light, motion and sound. A whole wide world of electronics and coding is waiting for you, and it fits in the palm of your hand.
Have an amazing project to share? The Electronics Show and Tell is every Wednesday at 7:30pm ET! To join, head over to YouTube and check out the show’s live chat and our Discord!
Python for Microcontrollers – Adafruit Daily — Python on Microcontrollers Newsletter: New Python Releases, an ESP32+MicroPython IDE and Much More! #CircuitPython #Python #micropython @ThePSF @Raspberry_Pi
EYE on NPI – Adafruit Daily — EYE on NPI Maxim’s Himalaya uSLIC Step-Down Power Module #EyeOnNPI @maximintegrated @digikey
@George – The ZIF socket dosn’t touch the pins, but there is no way to plug the 6 pin cable in with the amount of clearance left from squeezing the ZIF socket in there. Maybe you could dremel the ZIF socket and/or the 6 pin connector and get it to work, but by default it is too tight of a squeeze. It also will stand off the board a little bit due to the bussed resistor on the Uno, or the Op Amp on the Duemilanove, ending up underneath it. It’s also a very tight squeeze for the reset switch and the crystal, but should go in ok. Hope this helps. 🙂
Thanks for the +101, and just for the record, that was done at night when mama was recovering and sleeping. No feelings or marriages were hurt during the making of this video. I love my tronix, but I love my wife more. 🙂
When using the adafuit dip zif, does it block the programming header? I found this pic, but couldn’t see if it blocked access to the 3×2 header:
http://www.adafruit.com/index.php?main_page=popup_image_additional&pID=382&pic=1&products_image_large_additional=images/large/zifsocket28duino_LRG.jpg
@George – The ZIF socket dosn’t touch the pins, but there is no way to plug the 6 pin cable in with the amount of clearance left from squeezing the ZIF socket in there. Maybe you could dremel the ZIF socket and/or the 6 pin connector and get it to work, but by default it is too tight of a squeeze. It also will stand off the board a little bit due to the bussed resistor on the Uno, or the Op Amp on the Duemilanove, ending up underneath it. It’s also a very tight squeeze for the reset switch and the crystal, but should go in ok. Hope this helps. 🙂
How hard would it be to put 100 (or any number) of sockets in a parallel sort of fashion to flash a lot of chips all at once?
+1 for messing with an arduino at the hospital the day your daughter is born, +100 for video blogging it.
My 2cents though is in circuit programming is better in most cases, plus lets you change/rescue a mis-programmed or corrupted chip.
Thanks for the +101, and just for the record, that was done at night when mama was recovering and sleeping. No feelings or marriages were hurt during the making of this video. I love my tronix, but I love my wife more. 🙂