AVR-Chat

Hi guys,

I have been working a bit with BASCOM, STK500, and the mega48,88,168 
chips.  Having good results with all that.  Now I am moving up to a 
whopper - the mega2560 chip which is a whole different world for me 
on a number of fronts.

For mounting, I purchased a Schmartboard which allows me to work 
with the thing (I hope) mechanically.  These are the issues I am 
mostly concerned with....


1) ISP, I have never used ISP yet. It appears as though I just place 
a 6 pin header on my board - wire that to the correct pins (SPI) and 
plug the cable in for programming.  I will NOT be using SPI on my 
project so it looks like those pins will only be used on my project 
as PCINT input pins.  Any comments or suggestions about ISP for a 
first-timer?

2) Coupling, someone suggested there could be coupling problems with 
this chip and the mounting method. I don't know much about 
electronics so I have no idea.  Should I just add some 1 uF caps at 
every power entry point to prevent this problem?

3) Is there anything "Different" to watch out for when using this 
chip as compared to the mega48,88,168 chips that I am familiar with?

Thanks for any and all comments and suggestions!

Chris