[sdiy] Need general advice for a uP

[Colin Fraser]

Sorry to come back to this after so long, but I've been in Lanzarote for the
last week ;-)

> The August 2001 issues of Nuts & Volts magazine
> (www.nutsvolts.com) had an
> article on the AVR's.  It included construction details for
> In-Circuit
> programmers for 8, 20, and 40 pin AVR chips.  They even have
> a picture of
> an 8051 being updated to an AVR8515!  You might want to check
> it out.  I
> just got a subscription, and for those with an interest in
> PIC's, Stamps,
> and AVR's, this magazine has a lot of good data (articles,
> suppliers, ...).

There are a couple of in-system programmer add-on boards that you can buy
pretty cheaply for these CPUs (AVR and 51 flavours) that take the form of a
small daughter-board that plugs into the CPU socket in the target system,
with a small DIL header at one end.
The CPU then plugs into the daughter-board, and a parallel cable from your
PC plugs into the DIL header.
With the 8051 compatible ATMEL flash device, you can ISP to your heart's
content, then assuming you haven't used any 'extra' ATMEL features, revert
to a cheapo generic 8051 when you're finished coding.
Have a look at
http://www.equinox-tech.com/Downloads/PDF/ISPSocketStealerAppNote.PDF
Farnell sell them for 49 ukp (Farnell Part no. 795252)

While I'm on the subject of ISP, the device I use is an EPROM emulator which
is built into a 28 pin DIL device.
It is the same outline as a normal DIL IC, but about 3 or 4 times the
height.
It also has a DIL header on to of the chip, into which plugs a cable that
goes straight into the PC.
It's called a MicroRom.
Probelm is, I only have one, and the supplier I bought it from (Maplin)
discontinued it some time ago.
Anyone seen something similar to this currently available ?
If mine ever breaks I'll be gutted.

Colin f