Anyone know when they'll be back in stock, maybe because of the new pick and place machine it'll come back in stock earlier

Will this be back in stock in time for the "free day" on the 7th of January ?

I try to put zenner diode by myself. but pattern is too narrow for solder by hand. I gave up and found easy alternative way...
1) cut back of patter JP1
2) put LED on JP1
LED usually drop about 2V. that means...
VBUS(5V) - LED(about 2V) = VCC(about 3V)
so AVR will run with 3V and USB D+/D- line swings 0 to 3V.
I tried some LEDs for best result. and little red LED which drops 1.875V( VCC: 3.125V ) is the best.
LED drops just 2.00V ( VCC: 3.00V ) did not work properly.
hope this helps.

I can't believe that there hasn't been a new rev. to fix the missing Zener diodes in this design. USB levels are supposed to be 3.3V not 5V. I complained about it support several months ago. It's a very simple fix, and it makes it compatible with most USB controllers without a hub.
DO NOT BUY until they fix their design.

I just bought one of these, and had the problems described above running it in Linux (ubuntu 8.04).
Plugging it in directly into a USB port of my PC the OS doesn't recognise the device properly. Plugging it into a USB hub (in my case built into the monitor) works. The blue LED should light up immediately, the "stat1" red LED should light up after a few seconds.
The other problem I had was avrdude complaining "Operation not permitted". This is due to read/write permissions in udev (running Ubuntu 8.04) Setting up a udev rule fixed the problem. Check here http://www.ladyada.net/forums/viewtopic.php?p=21579 for details.
Sometimes I need to run avrdude to make the red LED come on (avrdude will quit with an error "could not find USBTiny"). After the red LED turned on avrdude will work fine.
So there are a few problems to make it work, but with a few workarounds it's a great compact programmer. I also have the STK500 clone USB AVR programmer from Sparkfun which works fine out of the box - but it's a lot more expensive, much bigger, and it doesn't power my circuit either.

Here is what I had to do to get my Pocket Avr working
Cut the trace and power it externally.
I was unable to successfully program any chip until I did this.
http://wtfmoogle.com/arduino/poketavr.jpg

My programmer(/avrdude) randomly report error in the middle of run. and programmer fleezes both Stat1/2 LED on.
I noticed this board lacks 3.6V Zener Diode on USB D+/D- line. (Original USBtinyISP has)
so I cut pattern back of JP1, and switched to 'Power Target' to feed 3.3V from ISP connector. then avrdude runs perfectly.
(Ubuntu 9.04 / ThinkPad X31)

Has anybody had success with this programmer using avrdude under Mac OS 10.5? I'm getting the following error:
new-host:~ stuart$ avrdude -c usbtiny -p m16 -P usb
avrdude: Error: Could not find USBtiny device (0x1781/0xc9f)
avrdude done. Thank you.
(I'm using avrdude version 5.6 (from CrossPack), which should supports usbtiny)
Any thoughts would be greatly appreciated. Thanks!

PSmith - that's absolutely amazing how helpful you have been, and thanks for taking the time to answer so quickly as well.
I have also seen an 8-pin AVR development board on this site too, which also looks useful. I might get that to have a permanently setup development environment and to leave my breadboard free of clutter.
Once again, I can't thank you enough for your help here.

Apologies for sounding like a noob, but can someone offer me a link on how to actually connect an 8-pin AVR, such as an attiny13 or 23 to this device? I understand that I'll need a programming cable (such as product# DEV-09215).
After that, I'm not sure how to connect the programmer+cable to the processor. Presumably, there's a correspondence between the pins on the programmer and the processor but I don't know what this is. Hardware setup tips for this would also be appreciated.
Once again, I apologise as my background is programming an not electronics and I've found the documentation out there to be difficult to get what I need. I'm not just being lazy!
Thanks in advance for any help received.

Hey,
I just bought the AVR programmer and I'm trying to figure out how to wire it to the Serial Controlled Motor Driver
http://www.sparkfun.com/commerce/product_info.php?products_id=9571
using the broken out pins of the Atmega 328P chip so that I can make changes to the firmware.
The broken out pins on the motor driver are GND, 5V, ADC 7, ADC 6 PC 5, PC 4. Which pins correspond to the Programmer?
Thanks.

Sparkfun doesn't guarantee that this will work with the ATtinys'. Does anybody have any troubles with programming the tinys' with this??

Hi. I just one of these but am having problems getting it to work with AVRDude. I am running XP and have installed the drivers fine, as per the driver listed above.
Tried the above command but it didnt work.
I get this error:
avrdude.exe: Error: Could not find USBtiny device (0x1781/0xc9f)
Any ideas? I havent used one of these before, and am use to using a Parallel programmer, so am a bit stumpted.
Thanks

I got one, it worked fine until some point.
I was programming an ATtiny2313, with AVRdude 5.10
I read the fuses:
avrdude -p attiny2313 -P usb -c usbtiny -F -U hfuse:r:-:h -U lfuse:r:-:h
I got the values 0xDF 0x64 (factory ones). OK.
I programmed my chip:
avrdude -p attiny2313 -P usb -c usbtiny -U flash:w:main.hex
everything OK, fuses OK (factory values).
I burn fuses:
avrdude -p attiny2313 -P usb -c usbtiny -e -U lfuse:w:0xdf:m -U hfuse:w:0x9b:m -U efuse:w:0xff:m
AVRdude tells me that everything is OK.
Then I did:
avrdude -p attiny2313 -P usb -c usbtiny -U flash:w:main.hex
Still everything OK... AVRdude tells me that fuses values are 0x9b and 0xdf as expected. During this, target board had a crystal 12MHz.
Then any command fails. I always receive "avrdude: initialization failed, rc=-1", device signature is always 0x000000.
I tried with and without crystal on target board, I tried with a separated power supply. Nothing works.
I'm surprised since the programmer proved to be working
Does anybody got some ideas about this?

This programmer worked fine and successfully flashed an ATmega168 with avrdude on the first attempt with the blink_1MHz.hex file, and also another 10 times there after with slightly modified blinking hex files. I may have accidentally powered the breadboard from a wallwart with the 5Vcc from the programmer plugged in as well but I don't think this should have been a problem.
The programmer is still recognized by windows Vista and says its working correctly however when I begin to flash the initialization fails, rc=-1 and when run with the -F flag it says device signature is 0x000000 and the expected Signature for the ATMEGA168 is 1E 94 06. I should also note that the D- status LED is constantly on when the board is sitting idle with the Power and Stat 1 LEDs on as well. Is this normal?
I'm beginning to think the programmer may be broken as I have a second never used ATmega168 that the programmer can't read a signature from either. The first one still blinks an LED too! Or can the chip still be bricked? Any help would be appreciated.

I did a short writeup on installing this under Windows 7 x64. Hopefully this will help you guys out:
http://andrewbrobinson.com/avr-pocket-programmer-under-windows-7

I was actually able to use this programmer to program the Arduino Mega Board through AVR Studio. Go to this website and follow the instructions. I hope this helps. Thanks.
http://www.ladyada.net/make/usbtinyisp/stk500compat.html

I hope someone does tiny10 ISP. The Tiny Programming Interface has one less line. The pocket programmer could probably program it with a suitable software hack.

I have successfully programmed my Atmega8 with the pocket programmer after including -F and scrapping the -B 1 as suggested in earlier posts, changing the command to:
avrdude -F -c usbtiny -p atmega8 -U flash:w:main.hex
Programming has worked fine from the command line, but I haven't been able to connect AVR Studio directly--any pro tips on that? I'm trying to increase the clock speed for finer servo control.

does this thing comes with a usb cable?? and can it work with atmega 8535??

Successfully used this on WinXP to burn the Arduino bootloader via the Arduino Duemilanove ISP header with the USBtinyISP option in the IDE.
Installed the driver (via Control Panel -> Add New Hardware) as suggested here, connected the programmer to the Arduino board, and it worked.
Thanks for the comments here everyone, this seems to be the only source of documentation for this programmer.

Just got my pocket programmer working the second try after removing the -B 1 as someone mentioned above me. I'm using ATTiny2313 with WinXPSP3 just fine. See timing details below if interested...
Thanks,

Everett

C:\msx_mous>avrdude -c usbtiny -pt2313 -U flash:w:msx_mous.hex
Reading | ################################################## | 100% 0.02s
Writing | ################################################## | 100% 4.06s
Reading | ################################################## | 100% 2.27s

Hey Sparkfun!
I wanted to add to what I said about the driver issues people have been having. Windows Vista x64 and W7 x64 are hell to use with unsigned drivers. I had to hack my windows to make it work and even then it is spotty.
But there is hope!
It looks like someone has made an open source AVR programmer that uses VUSB in HID mode, which is says is compatible with AVRdude.
http://www.obdev.at/products/vusb/avrdoper.html
I would imagine that since that one uses an HID interface, it doesn't need a separate driver at all? That would solve driver signing issues...
Could you try to integrate that functionality into this device? I do find the hack in windows 7 to be a bit weird, so sometimes I have to reboot to get Windows 7 to see the device - which has been a problem before (last night I wanted to do a quick reprogram but was in the middle of something and couldn't reboot).
But, when it works, it works! I did wish it emulated an STK-500 though, so I could use AVRstudio to set the fuses. Setting fuses with AVRdude isn't as nice, even with the GUIs I've been able to find.
Oh, and the 6 pin side of the ISP cable seems too fragile, since its not straight-through. I'd love a straight-through version.
Thanks!
-Taylor Alexander

Part 3/3:
-- My test app -- Sorry about the FORTRAN substitutions ---
/*
* ez_blink.c - Simple LED blink test.
*
* Blink any LED(s) on PORTC on and off at about 1 sec intervals.
* Does not use interrupts.
*
/
/ Note: Calculate for 2 passes through the loop: LED ON + LED OFF */

define AVR_CLOCK (1000000L) /* Default is RC Osc=8MHz, /8 */

define LOOP_CYCLE_COUNT (17L) /* Plus 32 for overhead, ignored */

/* Overflows for clocks faster than about 2MHz */

define LOOPS_PER_SECOND \

((uint16_t)( (AVR_CLOCK/LOOP_CYCLE_COUNT) /2))  

include .LT. inttypes.h .GT.

include .LT. avr/io.h .GT.

int main(void) {
volatile uint16_t led_count; /* Don't optimize away/
DDRC = 0xff; / Set PORTC to All Output /
PORTC = 0x00; / Set all pins LOW (LED ON) /
while(1) {
for(led_count=LOOPS_PER_SECOND; led_count .GT. 0; led_count--) {
}
PORTC ^= 0xff; / Invert pins */
}
return(0);

}

Part 2/3:
(4) The Latest version of avrdude is 5.10, January 2010. It reportedly includes the mega328p, but if you stick with v5.5 you will need to add a mega328p description to /etc/avrdude.conf. See the info here:
Developing for the ATmega328P under Linux
http://www.pololu.com/docs/0J31/all
Links:
AVRDUDE - AVR Downloader/UploaDEr
http://savannah.nongnu.org/projects/avrdude
Mfile - A Makefile generator for AVR-GCC
http://www.sax.de/~joerg/mfile/
My setup, for comparison: Dell Latitude D630 laptop, Ubuntu Linux 9.04 (Kernel 2.6.28-18), gcc-avr_1%3a4.3.2-1, avr-libc_1%3a1.6.2.cvs20080610-2, binutils-avr_2.18-4, avrdude_5.5-7, and gdb-avr_6.4.90.dfsg-2.1.
(cont'd)

Part 1/3
I ordered the Olimex 28-pin AVR board (DEV-00029), a 28-pin ATMega328P (COM-09061), and the Pocket AVR Programmer (PGM-09231). The Olimex board doesn't mention the 328p specifically as supported, but I'm pleased to report that I am successfully programming the combination from my Linux laptop.
In order to save someone else some digging around, here are a few notes:
(1) The Pocket AVR Programmer is not a USB serial device; Linux will not create a /dev/ttyUSBx link, and one is not needed.
See http://www.ladyada.net/make/usbtinyisp/faq.html
(2) These AVRDUDE options are working for me:
avrdude -p atmega328p -P /dev/ttyUSB0 -c usbtiny -v -v \
-U flash:w:ez_blink.hex
(The -P option may not be necessary.)
(3) You will need to add an entry in /etc/udev/rules.d/
See http://www.ladyada.net/make/usbtinyisp/avrdude.html

...continued:
Also, it's not necessary to install WinAVR because the Arduino software installation already includes avrdude. Just add the full path of your ...\arduino-00xx\hardware\tools\avr\bin folder to the windows path and copy the avrdude.conf file to that same folder from ...\arduino-00xx\hardware\tools\avr\etc. In XP the path can be edited by right clicking on My Computer, Advanced, Environment Variables. Make sure to use semi-colons to separate entries in the Path list.
The simplest way to use this programmer is to take the HEX file that is created in your sketch folder when the Arduino IDE uploads a sketch to the Arduino board and burn this file to a freestanding AVR. With the standard fuse settings (1MHz internal oscillator) the sketch will run at 1/16 normal speed. To correct this, you can edit (in Wordpad) the boards.txt file in arduino-00xx\hardware. Change the line that says atmega328.build.f_cpu=16000000L to say 1000000L before you compile (ie before you upload to the Arduino). The sketch will run at 16x speed on the Arduino but at normal speed on the standalone AVR.
Go AVR!

I just wanted to report success with this unit to program both ATmega328p and ATtiny2313 devices. There have been no problems at all and as far as I can see, the 'zener issue' is a red herring because the D+ and D- blue LEDs serve the same voltage limiting purpose in this circuit as the zeners do in other circuits. If anyone is having compatibility problems with their USB port it is probably because the D+ and D- signals are a bit on the low side (2.8V across the blue LEDs), not because they are too high.
A couple of things to note for those who, like me, are just starting out with Avrdude and standalone AVRs:
* The part code for the ATmega328 is m328p, not atmega328 as stated in the description above.
* The usage avrdude -p ? causes a list of all supported parts and their codes to be displayed.
* the -B flag seems to be unnecessary.
* The -v flag (not mentioned) is nice because it provides a readout of the current fuse settings (as in avrdude -c usbtiny -p m328p -v)

I'd just like to point out that I used this programmer (received back in Sept. 2009) to flash an arduino mini pro with the following command:
avrdude -c usbtiny -B 1 -pm328p -U flash:w:bootloader.hex
No extra diodes needed, but I did have it connected to my monitor's usb hub...

I have recently purchased this programmer, it connects fine with AVRdude after loading the drivers. Is there compatability with AVR Studio? I would like to load a hex file into a attiny25, but just can't seem to find where the hex files for my project is located in AVR Studio.

I've been having fun with this programming AtTiny13's. Two problems -- the schematic shows the top view of the cable plugs (cable side) not the bottom view (hole side) so if you're looking at the holes you have to reverse everything. I used a continuity tester to determine the position of VCC on each connector and marked the position with a dab of nail polish, just so I wouldn't forget. Also, I found it necessary to drop the -B 1 from the avrdude command line. I'm connecting through a secondary hub, and the extra delay was causing connection problems with -B 1 specified. Even without it, the whole process completes before you can release the enter key, so it isn't really needed. I didn't need to use the -F option.

I have not had a good experience with this device, or avrdude. I am running x64 Windows 7 Home Premium. The drivers from Sparkfun are not digitally signed, and whether that caused my problems I am not sure, however after installing the SparkFun Drivers and rebooting my computer I had no USB support on my computer, at all.
My mouse, Keyboard, USB Stick, everything I own would not communicate with my computer after installing the driver - it scared the hell out of me.
I managed to repair the issue by running the Windows 7 install CD and doing a 'revert' - thankfully Windows had made an automatic backup before applying the driver, phew.. at least they got something right in 7.
From what I have read, if you are not using Windows XP this device is not for you, spend the extra $20 or so and get the DigiKey device instead, you'll waste more than $20 in time trying to get AVRdude to communicate with it.

I didn't have any hardware issues with this, but I had major software issues. Tried it on 4 separate machines, one Vista Ultimate 64 bit, one Vista Home 32 bit, one Windows XP in a VM using VMWare and the USB passthrough, and one (old) Windows XP box.
Wanted to get this explicitly to migrate towards the Vista machines because the the old XP machine is the only one with a parallel port to use the classic bit-bang programmer. Turns out I couldn't get it working in Vista. Period. I tried installing unsigned drivers with the appropriate boot setting, running avrdude as an administrator, self-signing the drivers, nothing in Vista nor the VM. The classic XP box worked fine, red AND blue lights and a successful program. Of course, already had the parallel programmer. Oh well. Somewhat disappointing.

Board labeled 12-04-09 is working just fine to program my "AVR Stick" using the command line in the description from a 2008 MacBook running Snow Leopard.

Are the copies now in stock still missing the aforementioned diodes? I'd really love to snag one of these over the USBtinyISP, but it would be nice to know that it'll actually work!

Works great with my ATTiny13a and the 8-pin Olimex prototype board also sold by SFE. The only thing is that the command SFE gave needs to be modified. I changed it to the following:
avrdude -c usbtiny -F -P USB -pt13 -U flash:w:main.hex

Ok I finally got mine working, and I thought some would be interested in the additional steps that were necessary. First I was using the attiny48, which didn't have an entry in the avrdude config file. You can add attiny48 (t48) entry to the avrdude config file by following this:
http://www.mail-archive.com/avrdude-dev@nongnu.org/msg01823.html
If you just type in "avrdude -v" at your command line it will tell you where to find the config file.
I also had to use a usb hub in between the pocket programmer and my computer for windows xp to recognize it.
Finally, the programmer was having problems with the command line given above for programming. I ended up using the following:
avrdude -c usbtiny -B 10 -pt48 -U flash:w:display.hex -vvvv
The main change was making the B option 10. Until I did this I was getting "programmer operation not supported errors".
The -pt48 sets it up for the attiny48.
I also included the -vvvv option to get more information, as I was having so many problems until I set B to 10.

woa, this sold out fast.

I just got it today from one of the local "distributors" here in Toronto and can't get it to be recognized by Windows 7, Windows XP or my Intel MBP. !
So I'm basically out 20 bucks?
If this thing doesn't work, why are distributors still selling this? The manufacture date is 8/12/2009, :(
And this was my very first sparkfun product to boot ... what a shame!

I too have had issues with using this programmer on some USB ports. Using a USB hub solved the issue, however it was not ideal.
After reading here about the missing zener diodes, I had a go at modifying a USB cable by adding the zener diodes inline. This seems to work a treat.
The programmer is now recognised when I plug it directly into my computer or into a USB hub.

Just got my package today. The Pocket AVR Programmer worked on Linux without any problems (straight off the computer main-board, no USB hub, I tried two different USB ports one on the box front and one on the rear. both are OK).
System is Fedora 11 (kernel 2.6.30.9-96.fc11.i686.PAE). Main board is ASUS P5Q. avrdude-5.8-1.fc11.i586 (installed from default Fedora repositories using yum).
I did have to add a file to the UDEV configuration as described here:
http://www.ladyada.net/make/usbtinyisp/avrdude.html

I was wondering if the issue of not being recognized by some usb controllers/power issues have been addressed yet. I know plugging it into a hub seems to be a viable workaround for the moment, but i would actually like to take a new gizmo out of the box, plug it in and have it just work, without having to goof around with a crummy hub(which i neither have nor want as my machine has 12 ports already).

I have bought one. It come with a 10 pin cable (looks like DEV-09215). When I connect it to my ATmega16 header board which does have a standard ISP port, the programmer didn't work (a typical "rc=-1").
Finally, I found that it was the given cable which caused this problem. When I use jump wire to connect the two ISP sockets manually, it worked.
So, briefly:
A Microcontroller with standard 10 Pin ISP Socket on its header board
+
The cable that come with this programmer
+

This programmer

Does not work
I'm sure my MCU header board is OK because I've used it many times. What I am not sure is which one caused it. Is it the cable, or the pin arrangement of the programmer?

I have found that this works perfectly on linux ubuntu, or atleast the version i have purchased, the setup just has to be done perfectly, also, the +5v has to be connected to your powerline if you are not powering your board through the programmer. also if using this on a breadboard that hasn't been setup for programming the avr yet, a 10k ohm resistor between ground and +5v makes the success rate of programming higher
hope this helps anyone
also, in linux there is not a setup config for avrdude for ATmega328, look at this site for help if you run into this problem: http://spiffie.org/know/arduino_328/ide.shtml
the directory also, for those who don't know for the avrdude.conf is /etc/avrdude.conf , just add the def to the end of the file and the atmega328 will be shown as m328p

So I pretty much had ever problem listed on these posts (so thanks for all the responses!): needing to use a USB hub, incorrect pin-out, not working under windows 7, etc...
I also had one problem that no one else mentioned; I hope someone can help me with it. When I try to use the ISP feature (ie, while IC is in my application circuit), the programmer doesn't work (gives the "initialization failed, rc=-1 ... Device signature = 0x000000"), however when I pull the IC out and just wire up the programmer, it works fine (no pull up on reset). Any ideas why this may be? Thanks

Hi, Does this programmer work with the atmega644p chip? We are trying to burn the bootloader on the chip for the motherboard for our cupcake cnc kit. Alas, we get the dreaded initialization failed rc=-1 error. Any help? Thx

Hey guys, everything is working except for the chip verification. Any ideas?
C:\Users\User\Desktop\blink_1MHz>avrdude -F -c usbtiny -patmega168 -U flash:w:T
est.hex
...
avrdude: 144 bytes of flash written
avrdude: verifying flash memory against Test.hex:
avrdude: load data flash data from input file Test.hex:
avrdude: input file Test.hex auto detected as Intel Hex
avrdude: input file Test.hex contains 144 bytes
avrdude: reading on-chip flash data:
Reading | ################################################## | 100% 0.09s
avrdude: verifying ...
avrdude: verification error, first mismatch at byte 0x0007
0x00 != 0x0c
avrdude: verification error; content mismatch
avrdude: safemode: Fuses OK
avrdude done. Thank you.

I purchased one of these programmers about a month ago, my vista laptop wouldn't recognize it so I figured I should buy a usb hub. When plugged into my new 7 dollar usb hub vista does not recognize it and indicates it may have malfunctioned. I also tried it on desktop running xp without hub and it also says it has malfunctioned. Any suggestions would be appreciated.

I am pretty disappointed with this unit. I have been bumping my head against it for 2-3 months, and it has a habit of either not being recognised when it is plugged in, or not programming properly once it is recognised.
I chalk this up to the design. Since the USB interface is implemented on the onboard AtTiny, rather than say, an ftdi 232, I think the fault lies in the USB implementation on the AtTiny.
I think it would be a good move to re-engineer this board before version 2 is released. $5-$10 more for the board would be worth it if it meant higher reliability.
As far as the overall quality of the PCB and soldering, I can't complain. Just a design issue.

Has anyone tried this with an ATTINY2313 ? If so What are the results?
thank you for any feedback

I bought one of these before I read the complete description.....great price. Unfortunately I can't get it to work. I'm one of the mentioned linux users. Ubuntu jaunty.
I just hate buying something that never was going to work. I like "just out of the box".
Anyone found a working solution?

The whole -B 1 speed thing messes up AvrDude, I spent a long time trying to figure out why it wasn't working until I omitted the "-B 1" flag. Works fine now.

Has anybody used this programmer on an Xmega AVR?

MAC ISSUE? THIS IS PROBABLY YOUR PROBLEM!!!!
If you are having issues with this device not working then I'm guessing your are using an intel based mac. It seems Apple started using a different USB chip or maybe different firmware in these macs. These chips are much more careful about monitoring the voltage and current levels being drawn by USB peripheral when they see a potential issue they shut down the USB port to protect the computer from damaging itself, this is done without telling you or giving you a warning. A work around to this problem is to plug it into a hub and let that manage your power, this should make your device work properly. Perhaps in a revision of this board sparkfun will place two 3.6V zeners to regulate the power on the data lines, this should fix most of these issues.

Does this work with AVRstudio? If it does, is there anything special i need to do to get it set up?

Is this compatible with AVRstudio?

Sadly this programmer does not work under WinXP SP3, Vista and Ubuntu. Under windows no driver wizard pops up, no new devices in device manager. Only power led lights up.
Under Linux the same message "hub 5-0:1.0: unable to enumerate USB device on port 1". Tested on two laptops and desktop pc.
More sadly I have not any usb hubs around to test.

I'm having issues with my laptop not recognizing the USB device. The instructions above mention installing the driver. Does this simply consist of right clicking the inf file and selecting install? I'm using XP Pro.

The installation problem is solved or at least worked around.
I figured there is something subtly different between the USB ports on my two machines and a way to "clean them up" was to insert a USB hub.
I literally dusted off and inserted an old 4-port hub and presto the programmer is recognized. The drivers installed OK. I still can't get AVRdude to see it but that is another matter.
Eddie,
eddiem: Update on my "dud" programmer.
My old Dell latitude notebook (win2K) does "see" the programmer. The programmer is obviously OK but somehow incompatible with my big PC.
When plugged into the XP desktop only the blue light comes on but in the notebook a red light comes on as well and the "new hardware" wizard kicks in.
My PC is a dual core 3.4 Ghz intel machine. It shouldn't make any difference but something is unhappy.
If I can get it working on the dell I can get around my immediate problems.
Eddie.M.

Update on my "dud" programmer.
My old Dell latitude notebook (win2K) does "see" the programmer. The programmer is obviously OK but somehow incompatible with my big PC.
When plugged into the XP desktop only the blue light comes on but in the notebook a red light comes on as well and the "new hardware" wizard kicks in.
My PC is a dual core 3.4 Ghz intel machine. It shouldn't make any difference but something is unhappy.
If I can get it working on the dell I can get around my immediate problems.
Eddie.M.

Nice looking unit but I seem to have a dud.
It lights up but the PC does not seem to notice it is plugged in. I've tried a couple of different USB ports and cables. I even rebooted the PC. Both ports and cables work with other devices (arduinos, logic analyser, cameras etc).
I see no apparent defects on the board.
I will try it on my work PC tomorrow.
Eddie,

How come when I plug mine in a wizard doesn't pop up asking about the drivers? Is there something wrong with my USB port? Is there a way to get it to open the wizard anyway?

Yes. I'm seeing this same issues on OS X 10.5. By running USB Prober I can see these failure messages
"The IOUSBFamily was not able to enumerate a device."
A google search turned up this link: http://wiki.embedded-projects.net/index.php?n=Main.MacAndUsbprog which leads me to believe that there is potentially an issue with the firmware of the programmer?

Did I get a bad board? the status 1 led is always on. when I run AVRDude the Status 2 blinks then i get the message initialization failed, rc=-1
avrdude: AVR device initialized and ready to accept instructions
avrdude: Device signature = 0x000000
avrdude: Yikes! Invalid device signature.
avrdude: Expected signature for ATMEGA168 is 1E 94 06
Ive checked the connections 100 times

hum,Looks good!

How great is this? Exactly what I've been wanting.

Hi,
Looks very good and suitable for travels!
Is this compatible with Arduino IDE?

Ahhhhh darn! I just built Adafruit kits for such a purpose! Looks good!