1. Overview

The Orangutan USB Programmer is a compact solution for programming our Orangutan robot controllers or 3pi robot through a USB port. Our programmer incorporates a USB-to-serial adapter and emulates an AVR ISP programmer so that you can program your Orangutans or 3pi with any software that can talk through a serial port to an AVR ISP. The unit also doubles as a USB-to-serial adapter (TX and RX only), allowing you to communicate with your Orangutan, 3pi, or any other microcontroller, through a terminal program.

Unlike some other AVR programmers, the Orangutan USB programmer does not recieve its power from the circuit to be programmed. Instead, it receives its power via the USB A to mini-B cable that connects it to a personal computer. This cable is not included with your programmer; if you do not already have one, you can purchase it separately from our web site. The 6-pin ISP programming cable that connects the programmer to your target device is included.

Note: The Orangutan USB programmer should be able to program all AVR microcontrollers that support paged program and EEPROM memory, but we can only support Orangutan and 3pi programming at this time. This product is not needed for the Orangutan X2, which has its own built-in AVR ISP programmer.

For a Spanish version of this document, please see Pololu Orangutan USB Programmer Guia Usuario (1MB pdf) (provided by customer Jaume B.).