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Thread

bulk programming

bulk programming

2005-10-02 by David Collier

I'm locking at building a design which would use an ATtiny25, and a 
couple of transistors on a tiny PCB.

The chip is really cheap, but I don't want to spend double that on 
getting it programmed and tested.

Naturally these would be built in a panel, maybe even 256-off on a 
single PCB.

If I want to I can score one side of the PCB, and allow connections 
across and between the units while the panel is still whole.

It may be a real help if I can test all 256 units on the big panel 
before breaking them up for installation.

---------------------

What are my options for programming up these 256 chips?

Can I buy them preprogrammed with either my own code, or a bootstrap 
loader?

Can I program many in parallel using a common sequence?

Is it possible for an ATtiny to load it's own code and program itself? 
( I might happily go up to an ATtiny45 if by doing so I could automate 
the programming )

I had a mad idea of trying to organise them all into a bucket-brigade, 
so each one programmed the one on it's left :-)

Re: [AVR-Chat] bulk programming

2005-10-03 by Jim Wagner

SPI programming of lots of chips on a single board would be
a challenge because, somehow, you have select one out of
many. The reset line functions as a sort of chip-select and
implementing that, with some sort of logic on your panel
seems like a looser.

The company I used to work for had 2313s pre-programmed at
Arrow, one of our Atmel distributors. That, however, was in
a DIP package. There has been some debate on the AVRFreaks
list about the wisdom of trying to pre-program SMT parts
prior to solder-down with no definitive conclusion. 

If I were doing it (as I may be soon), depending on the
volume, I would build the boards to drop very easily into a
programming fixture such that its not much more than a
button-push to program.

Jim


On Sun, 2 Oct 2005 14:51 +0100 (BST)
 "David Collier" <from_yahooAVRchat@dexdyne.com> wrote:
> I'm locking at building a design which would use an
> ATtiny25, and a 
> couple of transistors on a tiny PCB.
> 
> The chip is really cheap, but I don't want to spend
> double that on 
> getting it programmed and tested.
> 
> Naturally these would be built in a panel, maybe even
> 256-off on a 
> single PCB.
> 
> If I want to I can score one side of the PCB, and allow
> connections 
> across and between the units while the panel is still
> whole.
> 
> It may be a real help if I can test all 256 units on the
> big panel 
> before breaking them up for installation.
> 
> ---------------------
> 
> What are my options for programming up these 256 chips?
> 
> Can I buy them preprogrammed with either my own code, or
> a bootstrap 
> loader?
> 
> Can I program many in parallel using a common sequence?
> 
> Is it possible for an ATtiny to load it's own code and
> program itself? 
> ( I might happily go up to an ATtiny45 if by doing so I
> could automate 
> the programming )
> 
> I had a mad idea of trying to organise them all into a
> bucket-brigade, 
> so each one programmed the one on it's left :-)
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
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