Earlier this spring, we released our open-source
ISP Shield for Arduino. After using them for a while, we've found a few ways to improve the design, so today we're releasing
version 2.0.
The ISP Shield is an Arduino "shield" (daughtercard) that makes it easier to use your Arduino as an AVR ISP programmer. It can be used to burn bootloaders onto new AVR chips, from directly within the Arduino programming environment, either in the on-board ZIF socket or on an external target board. More generally, it can also be used as a general-purpose AVR ISP programmer, using avrdude with the programmer type specified as "avrisp."
One of the tricky things about using the ISP shield is that there is a
known incompatibility between Arduino-as-ISP and Arduino boards that have auto-reset capability. Version 2.0 of our ISP shield design fixes this, by adding the ability to
temporarily disable auto-reset on the Arduino. Auto-reset override is an optional, jumper-selected feature that can be turned on and off.
(The other jumper shown above allows you to select whether or not the ISP shield provides 5V power over the ISP interface, a handy feature for programming chips on
simple target boards.)
The ISP Shield 2.0 is also our first printed circuit board to feature the OSHW logo-- the first of many, we hope. :)
The ISP shield kit is available at Evil Mad Science, and complete documentation is available at the Evil Mad Science Wiki.
