USB Tiny AVR Programmer FabIsp for ATTINY85 downloader

I was a little skeptical buying a knock-off of SparkFun's TinyAVR programmer but decided to try it out. It's worked flawlessly so far! I recommend following the advice of of the first reviewer (installing drivers, etc.) when you receive it. Setup was easy and I was flashing an attiny85 in minutes.

I followed the tutorial on the page of the original TinyAVR Programmer at Sparkfun.A lot easier to set up than using an Arduino. In fact, I bought this programmer because I don't have an Arduino Uno, and really don't have the need. So far I have only tested it with Attiny85 and it's great! The construction looks well and clean. I might buy another one as a backup.

The first one came broken but the second one worked great. Was able to get several 85s programmed and doing what I needed them to do.

Be prepared to spend some time with Google as this item comes with no docs or instructions of any kind. For the price (which is 1/2 what the "name brand" version goes for, I guess that's fair. More annoying is the fact that the connection points for an in circuit type clip programmer are too small for standard .1mm connection cables. I removed mine and soldered the cables right to the PCB of this device. Works great but the closeness of the activity LED to the sockets and it's super small size resulted in the LED melting from the heat of the soldering iron. Oh well, at least it works...

I downloaded the USB driver for this programmer board successfully, but my Arduino IDE menu showed the port grayed out. On a whim, I uploaded the blink sketch anyway and it worked without showing a port! I modified the blink rate to be sure it was really writing to the chip and it was. I can't program a UNO without a port number in the IDE, but it doesn't seem to matter in this case. The only disadvantage I've found so far is the serial monitor won't work without an assigned port. If I find problems when I use the Attiny chip in a project, then I may have to come back and lower the rating I gave this board. Update: while the port is not shown in the roll down menu at the top left of the Arduino IDE, the port being used is shown in the lower right of the IDE window. And, while the Attiny does not have the serial port used on the UNO board, a serial monitor can be created for the Attiny in the sketch.

The media could not be loaded. I almost returned this because it didn't seem to work. I plugged it in and Arduino IDE wouldn't detect a port. For most info I used the "Tiny AVR Programmer Hookup Guide" (google that) and used the Zadig method to install the driver. That didn't work (or so I thought) then I did tried the 2nd method and still no port in Arduino IDE. I installed the Adafruit driver and still nothing. Found mention of an Instructable and although that got me close it still didn't tell me what I needed to know. So to save you all that trouble here's the solution: Once you've installed the driver (I probably had it working at Zadig), in the Arduino IDE select USBTinyISP as your programmer. That assumes you installed the ATTiny board (open Boards Manager and search for ATTiny). The video above is of the ATTiny running a modified version of the blink sketch. I modified it so I could tell the sketch was running and it wasn't just the default blinking LED. Built-in LED is on pin 0.

Couldn't get the right drivers. Finally gave up and bought an ISP tool.

If you program ATTiny85's AT ALL, get this programmer. It's just as good as more expensive options. It even fits in the 3D printable enclosure for the more expensive version, found on thingiverse.Zero issues with setup or use. Save yourself the headache of strapping an Arduino to your ATTiny85's every time you want to program one.