/ tuesdaytooling

Tuesday Tooling: PROGRAM-O-TRON

Send in the clones!

First things first!

Proto-Pic supplied this board for my review...back in May 2018. It fell behind my desk and a team of archaeologists found the board last weekend. As the board was provided free of charge I need to be clear, Proto-Pic did not ask to see or influence the review in any way. No money changed hands either. They just offered me the kit for review. Sorry its a bit late!

So what is it?

PROGRAM-O-TRON is a tool to program certain ATMega chips without the need for a computer.

Sorry what?

dimensions
Ok the PROGRAM-O-TRON can...

  • Copy a chip inserted into the holder, and then paste the contents to another compatible chip. Just by using the copy and paste buttons!
  • Write a hex or Fuse file from SD card to the chip. You can have up to six files on a card, each file numbered to correspond to the button. For example button 1 has a file on the SD card of 1.hex, button 2 has a Fuse file 2.fus.
  • Using the ICSP header we can program a chip already soldered into a project, just connect the ICSP pins of PROGRAM-O-TRON to the ICSP header of your board (Arduino have these)

BOARD
The PROGRAM-O-TRON has a really simple layout, which lends itself to the task at hand.

So what chips does it work with?

Via the ZIF socket

  • ATtiny25
  • ATtiny45
  • ATtiny85
  • ATtiny13A
  • ATmega168PA
  • ATmega168V
  • ATmega328P
  • ATmega328PB
  • ATmega328
  • ATmega48PA
  • ATmega88PA

Via the ICSP connector

  • ATtiny24
  • ATtiny44
  • ATtiny84
  • ATtiny25
  • ATtiny45
  • ATtiny85
  • ATmega48PA
  • ATmega168PA
  • ATmega168V
  • ATmega328P
  • ATmega328PB
  • ATmega328
  • ATmega164P
  • ATmega324P
  • ATmega644P
  • ATmega640
  • ATmega1280
  • ATmega1281
  • ATmega2560
  • ATmega2561
  • At90USB82
  • At90USB162
  • ATmega8U2
  • ATmega16U2
  • ATmega32U2
  • ATmega16U4
  • ATmega32U4
  • ATmega1284P
  • ATmega1284
  • ATtiny2313A
  • ATtiny4313
  • ATtiny13A
  • ATmega8A
  • ATmega64rfr2
  • ATmega128rfr2
  • ATmega256rfr2

Animated-GIF-downsized_large--4-

Hi reader!

I never put my blog posts behind paywall or pop ups because quite frankly that is annoying and prevents anyone from accessing the content. I will always keep my blog content free of charge. But I do ask that if you are able and willing, that you buy me a "coffee" as it helps me to pay for hosting this blog, and to buy stuff to hack from Poundshops / Dollar Stores / Aliexpress which are used in free projects and reviews on this blog. It is You dear reader who make this possible, and I am immensely grateful for your support.
Thanks!

So how do I use PROGRAM-O-TRON?

Example 1: Copying an ATMEGA328PU chip

  • Insert the ATMEGA328PU into the socket with pin 1 at the top left, nearest the lever.
  • Close the lever.
  • Power up the PROGRAM-O-TRON and wait until the LEDs settle.
  • Press COPY to dump the contents to the PROGRAM-O-TRON.
  • When done, remove the ATMEGA328PU, and place the ATMEGA328PU which you wish to flash to!
  • Close the lever.
  • Press Paste
  • Wait for the LEDs to settle.
  • Remove the freshly flashed ATMEGA328PU and put it into your project!

Example 2: Flashing a hex file.

  • Create an Intel hex file (don't worry I'll be doing this later!) and rename the file to 1.hex.
  • Save 1.hex to an SD card formatted as FAT32 (standard Windows format)
  • Insert the SD card into PROGRAM-O-TRON.
  • Insert the target chip, for example an ATMEGA328PU.
  • Power up PROGRAM-O-TRON.
  • Press button 1 to flash 1.hex to the ATMEGA328PU.
  • Wait for the LEDs to settle.
  • Remove the ATMEGA328PU and insert into your project.

How can I flash an Arduino sketch to many ATMEGA328PU?

Here is a use case.
I have written a cool Arduino sketch that I want to copy to lots of ATMEGA328PU chips which will be in a breadboard. I could plug in each ATMEGA328PU into an Arduino Uno and flash each one. Or I could compile the sketch in the Arduino IDE. Copy the hex file to the SD card and use PROGRAM-O-TRON to mass flash the chips.

So how can I do that?

First we need to find out where the Arduino IDE saves a hex file to when compiling a sketch.
Compile-Verbose
Open the Arduino IDE, and click on File >> Preferences.
Screenshot-from-2020-04-21-15-51-23
In the new window look for Show verbose output during
Screenshot-from-2020-04-21-15-52-09
and click on compilation.
Board-Select
Now open the Blink example sketch. Then go to Tools >> Board and ensure that Genuino / Arduino Uno is selected.
location
Click on the Verify icon to compile and check the code. After a few seconds the console output at the bottom of the Arduino IDE will show a lot of text. We can poke around in here and learn where the hex file is. In my case it is saved in /tmp/arduino_build_271256/ as a temporary file.
Screenshot-from-2020-04-21-16-06-28
Sure enough inside that directory are a number of hex files.
make-hex
In particular I want the file Blink.ino.with_bootloader.hex which I copy to my SD card and rename to 1.hex.
buttons-1
I then put the SD card into PROGRAM-O-TRON, and insert the ATMEGA328PU. I power up the PROGRAM-O-TRON and press Button 1 to flash the hex file to the chip.
I then pop the chip into my Arduino to test, and after a few moments I see a blinking LED.

So who is this aimed at?

PROGRAM-O-TRON is aimed squarely at people who need to bulk flash chips. So the makers who are selling kits online.

So where can I get one, and how much.

MAIN-1
PROGRAM-O-TRON is available from Proto-Pic and it retails for £53.00 inc VAT. Yes this is a big price for such a board, but if you are bulk flashing boards then this piece of kit will save you a lot of time.

Happy Hacking