10 April 2013

Connecting an ISP Programmer to an ATMega8

Several people asked me how you connect an ISP programmer to an ATMega8. It never occured to me that this could be a problem for anyone. But anyway, here is a schematic.

Over time, I will write a tutorial on how to program AVR controllers.

Please note that the header shows Atmel's standard pinout for the 10-pin ISP header. Most programmers use that same pinout. But to be safe you should check your ISP programmer's manual.

I hope this is useful for someone!

2 April 2013

A Beginner's Guide to Driving LEDs - Part 4



The transistor as current source

In part 3 of this tutorial we looked briefly at several current sources, which contain integrated circuits. In this part, we will look in more detail at a simple current source built from a transistor, a zener diode and two resistors.