ATmega/ATtiny Microcontroller Programming Shield for Arduino As ISP R2 - #3

20 Jun 2019

This is the first part of R2 User Guide.

Parts

1) ATmega/ATtiny Microcontroller Programming Shield for Arduino As ISP R2.

2) Arduino UNO compatible microcontroller board:

Genuine Arduino UNO R3 is recommended but most of all compatible boards will work with no problem.
USB cable to hook it up to your PC is also required.

3) Microcontrollers to be programmed:

ATtiny 13, 25, 45, 85

ATtiny 24, 44, 84

ATtiny 2313, 4313

ATtiny 261, 461, 861

ATtiny 48, 88

ATmega 8, 48, 88, 168, 328

ATmega 8535, 16, 32, 164, 324, 644, 1284

4) Arduino IDE:

Preparations

1) Arduino as ISP:

If you have an Arduino compatible board, you can simply turn the board into a programmer just by loading a sketch ‘ArduinoISP’.
To do so, get your Arduino connected to your PC using its USB cable first.
Run Arduino IDE on your PC and open the sketch under File > Examples > 11. ArduinoISP > ArduinoISP.

Click on 'Upload' button to get the sketch compilied and uploaded to your Arduino.

If the sketch is loaded with no error, your Arduino is now a programmer ‘Arduino As ISP’!
To be able to program your microcontrollers using it, choose the programmer under Tools > Programmer: > Arduino as ISP. Do Not Choose ‘ArduinoISP’.

2) Boards Manager:

If you can’t find your target microcontroller from the list under Tools > Board:, You need to install some Boards Managers to your Arduino IDE.
I personally recommend you to install MCUdude’s MicroCore, MiniCore, MightyCore and SpenceKonde’s ATTinyCore.
To install them, go to Files > Preferences and copy following URLs.

MicroCore : https://mcudude.github.io/MicroCore/package_MCUdude_MicroCore_index.json

MiniCore : https://mcudude.github.io/MiniCore/package_MCUdude_MiniCore_index.json

MightyCore : https://mcudude.github.io/MightyCore/package_MCUdude_MightyCore_index.json

ATTinyCore: http://drazzy.com/package_drazzy.com_index.json

Paste them in Additional Boards Manager URLs: and click 'OK'. You can add more than 2 URLs bt using ','.

Wait a moment to get the list of Boards Managers loaded, find a Boards Manager to install and click 'Install' to get it installed. After installing all Boards Managers required, click 'Close'.

You should now be able to find your microcontrollers from Tools > Board:.

3) Hardware

This is the easiest part of the preparation.
Turn the R2’s power off before placing it on your Arduino.
Gently plug the R2’s male header pins in the Arduino’s female headers.
If nothing goes wrong, Heartbeat(Green) will slowly blink even if the R2 is still powered off.