I decided to retire my bulky STK500 AVR programming board, with its bulky and obsolete serial cables. The AVRISP MKII has a USB interface, a low price (at Digikey), is supported by AVR Studio, wil; let me create my own programming boards using ZIF sockets, and even provides a DebugWire interface. I can pack it with my netbook for remote development. Whats not to like?
Well, I had some problems getting it running. First, I had some USB driver issues - be certain that the Jungo drivers (provided with AVR Studio) are loaded before connecting the AVRISP MK2 for the first time. If you have AVR Studio already installed, there is an option to load them in the "programs and features" subsection of the vista control panel. If theres a problem, reload them - and be certain to delete them first, not just disable them.
I got my driver issue settled, then tried to connect to a chip via the ISP connector. No luck. Apparently, ISP really means "in system". The VTG pin reports the system voltage, it doesn't provide it. This functionality is different than the STK500 where the VTG pin can provide power to the chip. I added a power connector to my ATMEGA168/88/48 programming board and things worked when I added external +5 power.
But then I wondered, USB can provide +5v power, why doesn't the AVRISP MK2 do so? I can understand why VTG doesn't provide power - who knows what kind of beast the AVR microcontroller is part of. But why not the option to provide access to the USB +5v supply? I read up on USB connectors, cracked open the AVRISP, and tapped into that +5v supply myself.
Opening the AVRISP is easy, its held together by plastic latches that are easily slid aside without breaking them. Next, attach the red lead of your power cable (which I assumed you've prepared with a red and a black wire leading to an appropriate connector) to the top, left wire coming out of the back of the USB connector.
Connect the black wire to the case of the USB connector - which is grounded. The easiest way to do this is to connect to the solder tabs which attach the USB connector to the circuit board.
Finally, thread the power cable through the AVRIPS MK2 plastic shell, with some strain relief, snap everything back together, and things are good for programming.
