I'm trying to get together up backup hardware for legacy designs/products that use the Atmega8515, and I was researching the simplest way to flash these devices. By simple, I mean both in terms of hardware and software. The target hardware is out of my hands, there is no provision for ISP, so I have a separate board with a 10-pin ISP header, power input and a 40 pin ZIF socket to flash the chips before they are used.
What I'm struggling with is, there are a number of programmers, but the more official ones (AVR one, ICE, ISP MKII etc..) do no provide power to the target, and although it is just an extra step, I'm unsure who is going to need this in the future, or how qualified they will be, so the simplest way would be if the programmer powers the target, that way they only need a USB connection, and don't have to faff about with power supplies.
Ideally I wanted something that uses Atmel Studio (older versions, 6.2) as well as AVRdude as a possible backup. But the combination of drivers, operating systems (I'm "assuming" it won't only ever need to work with windows 10) and hardware means I have quite a few decisions and compromises to make.
So, I'm left with the following:
USBasp:
- Doesn't work in Atmel studio. So it relies on one host interface. AVRDUDESS is a nice GUI but still.
+ Works with AVRdude, almost all versions.
+ Powers target
+ Has 10 pin header
+ cheap
- Non standard way it handles USB, so no guarantees it'll work on any host hardware.
- No enclosure. Again, I don't know if the folks using this will be actual engineers.
Olimex AVR ISP MKII clone:
+ Works nicely in Atmel Studio, but ..
- AVRdude cannot seem to program the EEPROM. (this issue is what started me looking for other options, so perhaps an X-Y problem?).
+ Powers target.
+ Has a 10pin ISP header that plugs straight into my ZIF board.
- Requires custom driver that windows 10 may override. This will probably just add another hassle on top for the guys using this, and it seems from the forums, many have had issues with it.
AVR ISP MKII original (well, after-market):
- No longer available officially. I can purchase one from hobby site sin the UK, but I don't know how "official" their driver support is.
+ Works with Atmel studio (in theory)
+ Works with AVRdude, although I haven't tried. Has anyone had any issue with it?
- Has 6 pin ISP header, so requires either an external adapter, or internal
- Doesn't power target. Again would require a quick mod for convenience.
+ Has nice enlclosure with a standard USB B socket, so appears rather simple to set up (USB in, ISP out, done).
AVR one:
+ Works with Atmel studio
- Has lots of adapters, and seems requires no less than two adapters (that come with it) to plug into a 10 pin standard ISP header.
- Does not power target
- Seems necessarily complicated considering it will only be used to program flash and EEPROM in a 20 year old device.
A custom board and setup is out as the bosses want support available, which is obviously better if it uses off-the-shelf programmer rather than support from one guy.
As always I think I'm over thinking it. The more complicated the installation of host software, drivers, and the setup of the hardware, the more complex the documentation has to be. I also don't like relying on one host software, but perhaps I should just stick to Atmel studio. They'll have to install 2GB software just to flash the devices, but at least its official. AVRdude would be nice as a backup, but finding hardware that works with both is proving tough.
Any idea? experience? Apologies for not a simple question.