Dragons and Squids

For someone who knows what they're doing, the AVR Dragon really is a neat tool. I've seen lots of posts where people have mentioned an interest in an AVR programmer with a ZIF socket. Buy a ZIF with your Dragon, and it's just what you've been looking for! Lots of posts from folks who want HV programming, JTAG, ISP, etc. all in one device. It's CERTAINLY what you've been looking for.

But something you can use right out of the box? (The very attractive red box with stylized Chinese and Norse dragons, that is.) Er, no.

At least not for me. But I'm new at all this. Ok, well the more I looked around the more I realized it really wasn't all that useful right out of the box.

For one thing it didn't include any way to socket an AVR device. Keeping in mind that people have been asking for an AVR programmer with a ZIF socket, this was likely done on purpose for a couple of reasons: 1 - Sockets cost money. ZIF sockets cost more than other kinds. The less that's installed, the cheaper you can offer it. More likely, 2 - If someone really wants a ZIF socket, they can install one.

For another it didn't come with any cables. This was the bugaboo for me. Considering that you only need to make seven connections in order to use the ISP programming functionality on the Dragon, this isn't a huge deal. I can make six or seven point-to-point jumper wires. But darn it, I don't want to have to. Because they're messy.

So I found a neat Instructable:

http://www.instructables.com/id/EVM00HSXH6EZ7C8ZID/

It's how someone took a Dragon and a bunch of other stuff off of Digikey, and made a pretty general-purpose useful set of cables (among other things.) I went this route.

But I took it one step further. I got connectors for the ISP header and for the HV Prog header, just like in the article. But I also picked up some connectors for a JTAG cable as well, and bumped up the quantities on the other parts to make sure I could build the rest of the JTAG cable, too. Oh, yeah, and I got the ZIF socket. Oh heck yes.

In the end I spent more on cable bits than I did on the AVR Dragon + STK500 bundle. Ah well. Such is life. Luckily one thing I didn't have to buy was a crimp tool. The tool for the pins mentioned in that article runs about $500+, depending on how "professional" you want it to be. (e.g. do you want to crimp the wire and insulation strain relief in one go, or with two squeezes of the tool?) My advice for anyone building cables for a Dragon: Get a job at a place that already owns all the tools and doesn't mind your using them.

My cable bits should be in next week. Can't wait.

The best part was that in all the reading I did on how people are cabling up their Dragons, I ran across the neatest name for cables that have a ribbon connector at one end and single-pin connectors on loose wires at the other: Squid cable. I don't know if that's "the right" term, or a technical term, or if it was just what the author came up with out of their noggin. I don't care, either. I just love the name.

So how do you connect a Dragon to a STK500? With a squid!

--or--

"I'll have the Dragon Steak with Squid."

Dinner? Or embedded processor development? YOU decide.

Tom