SainSmart USB ISP Programmer for ATMEL AVR ATMega ATTiny 51 Board

I am revising my previous unsatisfactory review of this product to point out some issues. This device will work with the Arduino IDE. But you have to find the proper USBasp drivers for it. SainSmart was quick to respond to my query on this device. But this website links for the drivers did not work. However, if you search for USBasp drivers on the web you will find them. Plug the device into your Windows machine, which I am using Windows 7. When Windows states it cannot find a driver direct it to the folder where you unzipped the files. It should then install the USBasp driver. Whey you bring up Arduino IDE, I am using 1.0.1, you should select the Tools menu, Programmer, and then select the USBasp. Then select the board for the particular microcontroller you want to program. I used the ATTiny 44 8 mhz because it has a good supply of data, PWM and analog ports in its 14 pin package. I only needed to add a 7805 regulator and 22uf electrolytic capacitor for this micro-controller to work with my finished circuit.Once you have written you program test to see if it is the correct size (since most of the ATTinys have a limited memory storage) by compiling it. If you are satisfied your program compiled correctly select File from the menu, and "Upload Using this Programmer." If you try uploading it by clicking on the button you may get an error stating you don't have a COM port selected and you will find that the Serial Port is grayed out. This is ok and do not worry your self about it. I did find that if you are using Arduino IDE 1.0.1 you will get and SCK error stating you need to update your firmware. I researched this on the web and it stated that even though you will get the error you program should load properly, and indeed it does. Someone stated that they did not get the error while using Arduino IDE 21, but the other machine I have has 23 and I have not tried it yet. Still I am happy with the fact that even though I get an error the program does load and work properly.Pins on the Device. My device had the pins labeled on it board which was a good thing. Pin 1 is not the Vcc as I had expected. After using a VOM (Volt Ohm Meter) I found that Pin 1 is really MOSI, Pin 2 is not being used Pin 3 is reset, etc...Opposite of Pin 1 is Vcc and the rest of the pins on that side or GND. Be sure you know which pins are which when you connect the device to your micro-controller, otherwise you may damage it.I love this AVR ISP because it does work with a wide range of micro-controllers and you really don't need ATMEL's studio which caused an error with my Arduino IDE when I tried to load it. I uninstalled ATMEL Studio. Also I do not need AVR Dude. The only issue I can see with using this device and Arduino IDE is the number of ATTiny boards that you can use so far I have only been able to find the following confiruations that I can add into Arduino IDE:ATTiny 13, 44, 45, 85, 84. Perhaps someone will come up with an 861 which I have and would like to experiment with, but for now I find the 44 and 85 the best for small projects.

I'm a huge noob of a programmer, just interested in the FPV part of the RC world. Getting this thing to work is stupid easy, just plug-n-play. With the AVRdude program, I was able to flash my KK2 flight controller board for my tricopter with v1.5 firmware. I hear v1.6 is out now, but I've read more problems than good things about it, and that the problems persist even if you decide to revert back to v1.5. Won't be trying that out.Anyway, I was able to flash my electronic-speed controllers (ESC's) as well with this nifty device. This is all I needed the device for and I imagine I will seldom use it, but it's good to know I have a reliable working device for the task of flashing my electronics.Reason for purchase:At the time of my purchase, Hobbyking.com was selling something similar to this product. Only difference is HK version had 6 pins and this one has 10. If you just google USBasp pinouts, it's not very hard to make a 10-to-6 pin converter with a couple of male-to-male servo extension wires.The huge problem HK was having with their product, is that it flat-out did not work. The "fuses" were not "burned-in," as a user who also purchased the defective product described, rendering the device unresponsive, unrecognizable by any OS, and overall useless. I went down the troubleshooting path of various drivers and OS's, nothing worked. Some gurus managed to get the piece of junk to work, but even when it did, it flashed at a painfully slow rate. Many users, including myself, reported this problem to HK customer support, and the product was removed from the website soon after.Just buying this USBasp programmer from SainSmart solved all of my problems and prevented any further headaches. It works wonderfully and I've gladly trashed the HK version. Thank you SainSmart.

The device didn't work out of the box. Though saying "No special USB drivers" in the description, my Win 7 box sure wanted drivers. There was a .zip file on the vendor site, basically full of garbage. As pointed out by another, only the schematic seems useful.I found Win 7 drivers elsewhere on the web. Then tried to use it with AVRDUDE. I couldn't get it to download code to my Amtel Tiny13 device. Googling the error message indicated it would be fixed by updating firmware on the programmer. I soldered jumpers onto the programmer so that I could reprogram it, and downloaded firmware to it using an Arduino (which in retrospect, I should just have used for the Tiny13 in the first place!). The firmware available out on the web just bricked the SainSmart Programmer.For $10, it wasn't worth my time or effort to return, which is why I soldered on jumpers and tried to upgrade it. All in all, I wouldn't recommend this to a Windows user. It's a hassle at best, and most likely not usable. You can use an arduino with a sample program built right into the arduino windows software to emulate a programmer for the Amtel chips. I'll just use that from now on.

I am revising my earlier negative review. For some reason, even though my mac does not appear to recognize PROPERLY this device (see below):USBasp: Product ID: 0x05dc, Vendor ID: 0x16c0 Version: 1.02, Speed: Up to 1.5 Mb/sec Manufacturer: www.fischl.de, Location ID: 0x26410000 / 9 Current Available (mA): 100, Current Required (mA):>>Unknown (Device has not been configured)The arduino IDE still manages to work. Magic! Strange, but as long as it works I am satisfied.The -1 star is because: (a) quirkiness described above, (b) SainSmart not providing ANY INFORMATION WHATSOEVER (not even in their webpage) about this device (or any other device, this is frustrating... come on, you are just copying things from others, at least put the links...).