USBasp is an open-source in-circuit or in-system programmer for AVR microcontroller platform. It is widely available and is a cheap alternative to official programmers from Atmel/Microchip. USBasp was created by Thomas Fischl and was initially released in 2005. The programmer uses ATmega8 or ATmega88 and is interfaced to PC through USB. It doesn’t use any special USB controllers, instead makes use of the V-USB firmware-only USB driver. USBasp uses standard AVR-ISP headers and is supported by programmers like AVRDUE, ProgISP and IDEs like Arduino.
Following are some common issues you might encounter while trying to use USBasp and their possible reasons and solutions. The most common issues are,
- Outdated firmware on USBasp.
- Outdated programmer.
- Wiring issues.
- Clock source issues.
- Wrong fuse bits.
- Incorrect voltages.
- Programming speed issues.
- Programmer compatibility.
- Windows driver issues.
Buying a USBasp Programmer
There are many variants of USBasp programmer available in the market with different form-factors. Most of these come from China and costs around Rs.150 or less.
