Hi all,

I have some blank ATmega 168 chips that are surface mount. The chip is labeled: Mega168A AU 1105 Here is the digikey link.

My question is, will I be able to put the NK bootloader on this chip? My gut says yes..but I wanted some input, there seems to be a few different versions of the 168 chip. It has a few extra pins that the dip package does not have. At heart it is a 168.

I haven't ventured into putting a bootloader onto a chip yet, however I have a blank dip 168 and an AVRISP programmer from sparkfun that I am going to test it out on...hopefully soon.

Thanks for your help! David

No problem at all putting the boot loader on that chip. The SMD version of the 328p has the two extra ADC inputs as well. Just look at my boot loader instruction in the Library to see how.

Rick

Thanks Rick! That was my gut feeling, but just wanted to make sure. I have looked over your instructions in the library(Thanks in advance for posting those). I will give it a shot later this week.

David

After a bit of troubleshooting. I was able to put the bootloader on a blank ATmega 168 :-D using the Sparkfun AVR pocket programmer. Worked out pretty well. I made a little breakout board for the 6 pin connector. I thought I had the orientation correct. But since I couldn't get the programmer to initialize and read the chip I broke out my multimeter and started to use the continuity test function on it to help diagnose what was going on. It turns out I had it wired up wrong...go figure.

So, as a quick test I plugged wires into the 6 pin female connector and away she went. After I got the bootloader up I quick tried out the old initalload program and, it worked. Very happy! Thank you so much for your tutorial Rick! EXACTLY what I needed, and written very well!

Now to try and program one of these smd buggers...

David

Glad it helped!

Would anyone be willing to sell me some SMD version of the 328p with the bootloader?

I program them after they are soldered to a PCB. Just make the SPI, RESET, and GND pins available for connection to a programmer. Otherwise a special socket is required for the chip and if I had one I'd load them for you.

I would be willing to buy the socket or PCB, send me an email at bfeldy@yahoo.com.

Damm to bad my Atmel STK600 died after only three months. I have all of the sockets for every Atmel device and a great programmer if only it worked.

Ralph

Ralph, what happened to your STK600?

Apparently according to to AVRfreaks they have a power supply short that eventually opens the circuit.

Some have reported tracing it down but never post any details as to where the open circuit is so that one could make a quick repair.

The alternative is to send it back to Atmel but they charge for the repair.

It's a real bummer I have over $500.00 worth of Atmel600 components maybe more.

Ralph

I had (still have) a project where I needed a tightly packed PCB with a Nerdkits boot loaded chip on it. Because I needed it small I didn’t want the boot load circuit on the PCB. Check out here I have even been thinking about getting the socket for this guy but the socket is $60 and I don’t know how to make a break out for it. Some examples PCB top PCB bottom

Scooter,

If you can use the TQFP-32 package this looks to be the least expensive socket and it can plug into your breadboard.

Programmer Socket Adapter Conveter

I all ready have a socket for the TQFP I want the socket for the QFN which I found here but I would have a hard time making a break out for it. maybe this one some day. Thanks for the ebay advice though.

scootergarrett--

I looked that QFN package up for you. 3M wants too much. I can go around them to the company that makes them for 3M and get them for a lot less. I will have to cost it out, but I can probably provide the QFN package, assembled with a PCB breakout board, for far less than what digikey is asking. I do the same thing with other 3M components for the same reason (for example, 40-pin gold-plated 3M ZIF sockets).

I'll post the store link in this forum when it's up. It's already a going business for other purposes, just am moving into retail now, to keep this community from dying.

BM

BM,

are you going to provide the socket for the QFN or just the boot loaded chip? at some point I will need to step up my game and start messing with the fuses. So if I had that socket I could change fuses before soldering to a custom PCB. Which with a Hot-air Rework Station and some solder paste is easy.

scootergarrett-

I will provide the socket. Depending on cost, I may even put it on a breakout board so it's easier to use on breadboards. I do that with other things (like box headers for ISP programming, etc).

Here's an example of one small one we started doing this year for the AVRisp MkII:

BM