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Programming AVR microcontrollers using an ARM dongle

AVR microcontrollers have a built-in, SPI based programming mode that is ideally suited to bitbanging thorough a parallel port. Unfortunately machines with parallel ports are getting rarer so I got wondering if I could use a ARM JTAG dongle that I have lying about instead.

The short answer is yes:

  • Connect TCK (9) to SCK, TDI (5) to MOSI, and TDO (13) to MISO
  • Use the patched copy of avrdude 5.8 on the wiki
  • Run using avrdude -c signalyzerlite -p m48 -e -U flash:w:program.hex or similar

It’s nice, fast, USB based, and should be applicable to Arduino boards.
More information is available on the wiki…

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