I don't know if this has been covered but:

Have you considered making a kit available that enables us to build the hardware that let us put your bootloader on our own chips? I bought a nerdkit a few months ago, and I'm enjoying using it and I'm still working on my project. However, sooner or later, I'd like to be able to build a couple of real projects for real people, and so I'd need to be able to mess with the bootloader (in principle anyway).

I know that you have linked to some hardware which I could buy, and that you include some code relating to the bootloader in your code samples. But what I'd like to buy from you is a complete bootloader kit which I can build and which has instructions and explanations of the same high quality as your nerdkit. If I could use the USB stuff that came with my nerdkit, that would be a bonus as well :)

What do you think? lxowle.

ps: I just wanted to say that your nerdkit and associated documentation is of really high quality. I use ubuntu, mac os and xp, and by following your instructions, everything works first time. I'm impressed.

I'd also be interested in this, or links to stuff that does this which I can buy on eBay or somesuch.

Any tips on a bootloader stuffer thingy that works well on linux btw?

mengjins2zn8 on eBay has re-listed his $10-with-shipping AVRISP MkII do-it-yourself kit. I have one; it works like a charm. That's got to be the cheapest USB full-fledged programmer available. And yes, avrdude works with it.

No shipping overseas :/ I contacted him and asked if he'd be willing to make an exception.

Ah. He actually agreed. Hopefully I'll get one of those thingies soon :D

Hey Wayward - I've bought one of these kits and I run linux. What is the next step to programming a bootloader into a blank chip?

No hurry, I still have to build the thing and buy another chip to program :)

Thanks, lxowle.

Hey lxowle, here's another post I wrote about this programmer with some additional info for Linux users.

The programmer can supply your circuit with +3.3V/5V depending on the position of a jumper, or you can keep the circuit externally powered. It took me a little tinkering to figure it out, especially the correct connector pinout.

avrdude flags for this programmer are: -c avrispmkII -P usb . Have fun! :)

I went with the AVR Pocket Programmer, but I have read about it being pretty windows specific. It uses the USBTiny setup with avrdude, seems to work decently.