Programming ATTiny with Arduino Mega 2560

Question

For the past few days, I have been trying unsuccessfully to program an ATTiny45 AVR using an Arduino Mega 2560 as the ISP. All of the tutorials I have seen for using the Arduino as an ISP use the Uno and the Duemilanove. None of them mention the Mega2560.

I was wondering if something in the wiring or programming needed to be changed when using the Mega2560. For example, is a capacitor used between reset and ground? Or should a resistor connect reset to 5V? Before I go on forums and start posting my specific error messages, I thought I would check to see if the problem was a simple difference between Uno/Duemilanove and Mega2560 setup.

Answer 1

As far as I know there aren't any changed you need to do for Mega to be used as an ISP.

Can you post any specific error message that you are getting or what is the problem you are facing when using mega as ISP?

Answer 2

The past couple of days,I have been pulling my hair out too to get my Mega 2560 to program a stock ATtiny85 and 328 with bootloaders. Last night I finally got it working. These two articles helped me out:

1. http://arduino.cc/forum/index.php?action=printpage;topic=96735.0

Uploading the suggested modified AVRISP sketch and adding a capacitor between +5v and Ground on the mega did the trick for me and I programmed my 328p with the Duemilinove bootloader.

Then with this new setup, I used these instructions for programming my ATtiny85 and it worked out too:

1. http://hlt.media.mit.edu/?p=1695

Hope this helps,

Answer 3

For the benefit of future readers... I tried and failed to get a mega to program an ATTiny85. I eventually read buried in the comments of an article somewhere (forget where now) that it didn't work on the 2560, so I swapped it for an uno and it worked perfectly.