DIY - USB to Serial Converter, with Stencil and Solder Paste Sample The Reactor Core uses the popular FT232R, by FTDI, for USB to serial communication. This is the same chip that was used by the early Arduino models (NG, Diecimila, and Duemilanove). It is also used on most USB to serial breakout boards. The FT232 chip is easy to use. FTDI provides free computer software drivers to make the conversion of USB to serial connections simple. This will allow you to program your bare bone Arduino or other AVR chip that needs a serial to USB converter. Built-in Arduino ISP The Arduino IDE has a fantastic option of directly programming microcontrollers (especially those used with Arduino) using ISP (in-system programming). This is such a great feature we included an ATmega328P microprocessor (equivalent to an Arduino Uno board) on the programmer. This allows you to program compatible blank ATmega microcontrollers with the Arduino bootloader. Once the bootloader is installed, then they are ready for use with the Arduino software. You can then switch back to the USB/serial connection to upload your sketches. ATtiny Microcontrollers and ZIF Socket The folks at High-Low Tech, a research group at the MIT media lab, has a great tutorial on using smaller ATtiny microcontrollers with the Arduino software. http://highlowtech.org/?p=1695. We love this option and have used an 8-pin ATtiny85 in several circuits. To make this programming easier, we built in a ZIF socket. You setup the Reactor Core as an ISP, place your ATtiny chip in the ZIF socket, select the type of chip in the Board option, upload the sketch, and then remove to install into your circuit. With the ZIF we will have support for both the ATtiny84, and ATtiny85. Using the ISP header you can connect to other compatible microcontrollers.
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