• Programmer Constructed
  • Programmer Constructed

Programmer Constructed

The ATMEGA328p (aka Arduino) chip on the Game Frame controller board is the tiny surface mount style, with 32 pins around the edges of an 8mm square. I was having an issue with these cool ISP programmers I bought from South Korea, where under certain conditions they would fry the chip. Debugging this meant replacing these tiny chips, which is really time consuming and hard on the PCB and other components. In search of a better way, I discovered this Japanese-made test socket for TQFP-32 chips from Adafruit. It basically works like a ZIF (zero-insertion force) socket for traditional through-hole chips, but for surface mount. After an hour setting up the breadboard with the ISP header, crystal, and LED (minimum components for programming and testing the chips), I have an extremely efficient test station for programming SMT chips! I was able to confirm the programmers are working fine, which is a relief.

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