AVR-Chat

I'd agree, also 5V isn't enough to run the STK-500, and 12V is a bit too much.
The regulator on the kit is a bit underdesigned, 9V is better.
Get something from Goodwill, 9V at around 1A is good.


And what they said on the clock speed, assuming your chips are new,
they are set for 1MHz internal R/C, so you need to use < 250kHz to
program them the first time.
I find it easiest to just leave my programmers on that setting, since
it works with pretty much everything. (Unless you have <1MHz clock on
your system...)