AVR Cable Question

[bridleman4]

The $50 robot is working out for me so far, but I've hit a roadblock because sparkfun.com is out of "AVR STK Serial Port
Dongle Programmer" cables and has been for a couple of weeks now.  I don't know when they'll be back in stock, and the other recommended cable, AVR ISP2 Programmer, is too pricey for me.  I found this cable on eBay at http://cgi.ebay.com/STK-compatible-ATMEL-AVR-programmer-AVR-Tiny-Mega_W0QQitemZ120131263252QQihZ002QQcategoryZ1504QQssPageNameZWDVWQQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem#ebayphotohosting

Is it the same thing?  Will it work for what I'm trying to do? Thanks.

[ed1380]

if you want to continue with this hobby don't skimp out.
don't get something cheap. cause I did and have wasted alot of money cause of it. heres a count up

$25-pc baord/atmega16/etc -first parts ordered
$17-programmer - waste of money
$25-another pc board/etc to make sure it's my fault not the programmer's
$20-shipping to have it programmed, cause it was needed for a school project.
$2-resistors for parralel port programmer

and it still don't work.

I spent $67 and am nowhere, but if I had bought the arduino right away for $40 I'd be far better off.

[rgcustodio]

ed1380 has a good point. Newbies trying to make their own ISP programmers end up buying items costing more than a relatively good ISP programmer from Atmel.

Most can not comment if an ISP programmer is OK (or usable) since most use a different ISP programmer and software combination. This combination could be different from person to person. I think a page should be made for the purpose of gathering user experiences about different ISP programmers (commercial, self-made, etc) and software. It would certainly help newbies.

[stinkerbomber]

I made my own parallel programmer for the $50 robot as I could not find a cable locally and did not want to wait any longer to start building 
 
All I needed were an old printer parallel cable (not plastic moulded as I needed to change some connections inside), a 74HC244, a cheap shotky diode, resistor and cap. The circuit may be found here:

http://www.olimex.com/dev/images/avr-pg2b-sch.gif

The only modification to the $50 robot schematic was the addition of a 22pF capacitor connected between pin 19 and GND of the ATmega8, though I suspect this was not needed. I've programmed the same board several times using Ponyprog2000 choosing LPT1 with AVR isp API  and using the photovore tutorial making my own modifications. It took only a few seconds to write and verify the program. 

Another example of a parallel cable using closely related circuitry may be found here:
http://wiredworld.tripod.com/tronics/atmel_isp.html