How microcontroller hardware programmer works?

microontroller hardware

Hi,
What does a microcontroller programmer do? How it programs an MCU?

I want to design a specific microcontroller programmer. What stuffs should be taken care of?

Please explain or send me few links regarding designing a microcontroller hardware programmer.

Thanks a lot.

make your own 8051 programmer

Hi
mcu programers are interface circuits.
so mcu rogrammer depends on mcu manufacturer and type of it.
regards

how 8051 works

But I guess a commonn factor works for programming the microcontrollers... such as writing in the flash memory or somehting like that... i dont know exactly...

so how that is handled? suppose if i want to build a programmer for pic18 microcontrollers, then where should I start? how would I think for AVR or 8051 or ARM programmers?

Hi
just search the web
you can find many in edaboard, too.
regards

read the datasheet of the particular microcontroller for which you want to design the programmer.

by the way, do you plan to design a microcontroller programmer? well, that might be just like re-inventing the wheel because there are loads of programmers for all popular microcontrollers on the internet

fireball003 said:

Hi,
What does a microcontroller programmer do? How it programs an MCU?

I want to design a specific microcontroller programmer. What stuffs should be taken care of?

Please explain or send me few links regarding designing a microcontroller hardware programmer.

Thanks a lot.

Click to expand...

Maybe you are wanting a more basic explanation.. It programs the MCU by controlling the pins in a certain order. The programmable MCU's have hardware inside that if you control the programming pins in the right order, it will store the program you send it into the internal memory.

Design and build are close words in many languages, maybe you already meant 'build' not design really. Even if you are wanting to design one yourself, first it to find a good design on the net and build one and use it some. Then build and learn a few others, then worry about designing. But I think you meant 'build' more than design already..

IC-Prog is a pretty good place to start. http://www.ic-prog.com/index1.htm Go here, click 'supported programmer types', and 'tait classic programmer'. That's an ok programmer to start for PICs, or there are others for other types of MCUs there. Then use with the IC-Prog program and some microcontrollers and that will get you going.

Thanks a lot for your replies.

Yes, Alan69 is right. I want to know basic of a programmer, dont intend to create a new one.

Programming a microcontroller is nothing but writing in the internal flash. Then why can't we program all the microcontrollers in same way? What's the differnce? What's the point?

Thanks a lot.

fireball003 said:

Programming a microcontroller is nothing but writing in the internal flash. Then why can't we program all the microcontrollers in same way? What's the differnce? What's the point? Thanks a lot.

Click to expand...

Yes, all involve writing data to the internal flash. The answer to your question is the same as asking why people speaks so many different languages to mean the same thing.

Each brand of microcontroller has hardware built-in and expects the data communication to be presented in certain format otherwise the MCU will not understand what to do with the data. There is also different number of pins used for the programming activities.

The points is there is no urgent need for a universal standard and none of the exisitng programming protocols can claim istself to be the best over others.

since you want to build a programmer by your own i suggest you to start with the STK200 for the AVR microcontrollers.
http://elm-chan.org/works/avrx/stk200.png
the STK200 is an in system programmer it needs very little hardware and you can use different SW to program with it ... like AVR-dude or the programmer with codevision compiler.

samcheetah said:

read the datasheet of the particular microcontroller for which you want to design the programmer.

Click to expand...

I offer you datasheet of target MCU.
you can find more information about system of programming in it.
regards

there two main type of programing
1)parallel
like atmel 89c51 and 8051
2)serial
like avr and pic

but all need what is called vpp (programming voltage) it simply high voltage (relative to 5 volt)
it is about 12 to 13 volt on one pin of the microcontroller
i hope that help
good luck

amredries said:

there two main type of programing
1)parallel
like atmel 89c51 and 8051
2)serial
like avr and pic

but all need what is called vpp (programming voltage) it simply high voltage (relative to 5 volt)
it is about 12 to 13 volt on one pin of the microcontroller
i hope that help
good luck

Click to expand...

Hi
1- AVR and 8051 use parallel and serial programming. (both of them)
2- just parallel programming needs vpp (high voltage)
regards

hi hr_rezaee

1)when you look at datasheet of 8051 you find you need 3 ports for programing even if there serial programmer you mus find in some hardware which change from serial to parallel

2)every microcontroller have flash memory even if it is seria programming must have vpp because it is the nature of flash memory (flash memory need this volt to be written on it ) only eeprom may programed at 5volt

regardes

amredries said:

hi hr_rezaee

1)when you look at datasheet of 8051 you find you need 3 ports for programing even if there serial programmer you mus find in some hardware which change from serial to parallel

2)every microcontroller have flash memory even if it is seria programming must have vpp because it is the nature of flash memory (flash memory need this volt to be written on it ) only eeprom may programed at 5volt

regardes

Click to expand...

Hi
i am sure that AVR MCUs do not need hi voltage (in serial mode).
regards

hi hr_rezaee

thanks for your reply

you are are right Avr dosn't need this vpp voltage