Custom Programming Rig for Flashing ATMega32U4s with Unique Memory Contents
If you’ve been following the successfully-funded story of the Multipass Mini you can expect to get your device relatively soon – for everyone else the product will be available later this month on Tindie. That’s the story of a fantastic ‘maker pro’ product already. But also interesting is the story behind what goes into programming a Multipass Mini, namely the custom memory contents in the ATMega32U4’s flash and EEPROM. To do so required building this custom programming rig, documented here on limpkin.fr with files available here on GitHub. If you needed a rig for anything similar you’ll definitely want to have a look at this design!
Each programming tile is therefore composed of :
– one 6 pin ISP connector
– one current-limited power switch
– one QFN44 programming socket
– one 16MHz crystal and its 2 load capacitors
– one button used by the user to start the programming process
– 3 LEDs rows: green / orange / red displaying the programming status
– one I2C GPIO expander to control these LEDs, power switch, button
Make a robot friend with Adafruit’s CRICKIT – A Creative Robotics & Interactive Construction Kit. It’s an add-on to our popular Circuit Playground Express, FEATHER and other platforms to make and program robots with CircuitPython, MakeCode, and Arduino. Start controlling motors, servos, solenoids. You also get signal pins, capacitive touch sensors, a NeoPixel driver and amplified speaker output. It complements & extends your boards so you can still use all the goodies on the microcontroller, now you have a robotics playground as well.
