Technical Description

The Basic Board The basic version of the controller board comes complete with an Atmel AT90S1200 microcontroller. This is the target controller. This controller is wired to the header, which acts as the processor bus. The second controller is not accessible to the user directly. Its only function is to program the target processor with the user’s code and data. The MAX232 integrated circuit is wired to both processors via a DPDT push button switch. This allows the serial connection to be used by not only the programmer section of the board, but also by the target processor. Processor Bus The processor bus is a single row header along the bottom of the circuit board. It contains all of the processors I/O, power, ground and reset. They are arranged from left to right (as in the drawing) as follows: Ground VCC No Connection Ports D0 – D6 No Connection Ports B0 – B7 Reset Powerful and Easy to Use The combination of an integrated programmer with a very easy to interface single row connector for signals make this a very powerful, yet easy to implement microcontroller board. It ships complete with a 9-pin serial cable and a CD-ROM with software and data books in PDF format.

Controller Board Drawing The board with a ZIF socket I found an old 20 pin ZIF socket (probably from a HC05 project) and I decided to try it on the board to make a stand alone programmer. I had to reorient the reset buttons and a cap, but it works fine. Please note that this version of the board is not for sale. ZIF Board (back)