ISP programmers permit users to program devices in the finished circuit, as opposed to inside a lone socket programmer. Within the field, this has a plethora of benefits for firmware updates and in production. As luck would have it, we happen to be premier providers of these excellent designs.
It’s not that common of a practice to program ICs prior to their soldering onto a PCB. Alternatively, microcontrollers come with what we refer to as an in-system programming header. Remarkably, certain IC creators, like Microchip and Atmel for example, include an exceptional ISP strategy for their IC programming operations. We call it in-circuit serial programming (ICSP).
The ICSP header
The majority of compatible and actual Arduino boards possess a 2×3 pin ICSP header. It’s even possible to encounter those that have more than one. This depends on the number of ICs that reside on the PCB though. The header breaks out a trio of SPI pins, (namely SCK, MOSI, and MISO), and reset, ground, and power. These pins are the ones you will need to attach your programming apparatus to. This will allow you to reflash your board’s firmware.
On particular compact boards, you might not be able to spot a connector. Nonetheless, there should be another location where the pins are broken out. Regardless of whether you’re using a DIP IC or SMD IC, you should have access to the ISP pins in some manner. Specific models may only include ISP header test points. If yours does, it would be a good idea to get your hands on an ISP Pogo Adapter.
At Kanda, you can use our ISP programmers to customise your merchandise at a later stage in the assembly cycle. ISP circuits are relatively straightforward objects and only require a small quantity of ingredients. These include a few capacitors and resistors, and an ISP header.
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