AVR Freaks

Hi AVR freaks, and thanks for being here as I embark on my AVR journey!

I just compiled and ran my first blinky light project for the ATMEGA328P (code below).  The code isn't particularly interesting, but I thought people might be interested that I used my TL866A to program the chip, and how I did that, so I wrote up a little mini HOWTO.

The programmer is this one:  http://www.autoelectric.cn/en/tl...

I bought it from a monopolistic online retailer, installed the software from the website, and it works great.  The English is a little clunky, but not too hard to follow.

To flash a program I followed these steps (see image of the MiniPRO application, sorry for the amateurishness):

1. Typed my program in AVR studio
2. Compiled with ATMEGA328P as my device target
3. Put my chip in the MiniPRO ZIF socket
4. Plugged in the MiniPRO to my laptop
5. Ran the MiniPRO desktop application
6. Opened the hex file generated by the compile step.  In my case it was: "C:\Users\YOURUSERNAMEHERE\Documents\Atmel Studio\7.0\simpleBlinky\simpleBlinky\Debug\simpleBlinky.hex"
7. Once it had loaded into the MiniPRO application, selected the chip from the "Select IC" dropdown
8. Then flashed it using the program button with the big "P" in the upper right.

I was then able to give it 5V of power with a LM7805 on a breadboard and drive an LED connected in series with a 1K resistor (sorry for the lack of schematic, you can probably all figure it out).

This approach seems better to me than using the in-system programming setups I found all over the internet for a number of reasons: 

1. I don't have to figure out how to wire a USB ASP or whatever you call it to my breadboard and my computer.
2. If I build a prototype, I don't need to include a programming interface at first.
3. When I go into production, I can flash chips more easily.  ("Production" ... haha....).

I hope this helps someone, and I would be interested in feedback or questions.  I also look forward to more AVR projects!

#include <avr/io.h>
#include <util/delay.h>

int main(void)
{
	DDRB |= (1 << PB0);

    /* Replace with your application code */
    while (1) {
		PORTB = 0b00000001;
		_delay_ms(1000);

		PORTB = 0b00000000;
		_delay_ms(1000);
    }

	return (0);
}