Dragon Rider 500
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The ECROS Technology Dragon Rider 500 turns the Atmel AVR Dragon into a Development and Prototyping System comparable to the STK500. With the Dragon attached safely and snugly underneath, the Dragon Rider presents the familiar array of sockets for a variety of microcontrollers, 10-pin headers for the general-purpose I/O ports a reset button and jumpers for various options.
More about the AVR Dragon
The AVR Dragon is a low-cost programming and debugging interface for a wide range of Atmel microcontrollers. As well as the older ISP and High Voltage programming methods and the JTAG programming/debugging interface, it supports the new debugWIRE debugging interface. All-in-all, it offers a sub-set of the features of the JTAG ICE MkII at one sixth of the price. It has a couple of drawbacks, among which are the open board format and the inability to perform debugging on devices with more than 32 kbytes of program memory (which is probably an artificial limitation imposed by Atmel). However, it is only a programming / debugging interface and falls far short of the flexibility of the older STK500. The "prototyping area" mentioned by Atmel in the literature is only a place to put a socket to carry a device being programmed. A separate target board is needed to get anything running. The Dragon Rider 500 is intended to add to the AVR Dragon the features that Atmel users have been accustomed to on the STK500.
Dragon Rider 500 Features
Basic Features (Included in the Basic Parts Kit)
- Connects to AVR Dragon power, ISP, JTAG and High Voltage headers
- Supplied with pillars for support and "bumpon" feet for AVR Dragon
- AVR Dragon STATUS LED carried to top via a light pipe
- Target sockets for 40-, 28-, 20- and 8-pin DIP microcontrollers
- 10-pin, STK500-style headers for Ports A, D, B and C
- Switchable power from AVR Dragon VCC header
- Decoupling for VCC, AVCC and AREF
- Reset button with pull-up and series resistor
- Jumpers connect RESET, XTAL1 and XTAL2 to reset button and crystal OR to general purpose I/O port headers (28-, 20- and 8-pin targets)
- Jumpers route ISP to appropriate port pins (no need for ribbon cable)
- Jumpers route JTAG to appropriate port pins (no need for ribbon cable)
Advanced Features (Included in the Advanced Parts Kit)
- High Voltage Programming via headers and ribbon cables (as STK500)
- High Voltage Programming configured by STK500-style PJUMP and BSEL2 jumpers
- LM431 precision voltage reference
- Oscillator crystal and loading capacitors
- Sub-regulation of AVR Dragon supply for 3.3 volt target operation
Add-On Features (Require Add-on Parts Kits)
- Power Supply - power the target system independent of the Dragon
- Serial Interface - level-shifted COM port interface with female DB9
- 2 x 16 LCD - 2 line by 16 character LCD with contrast adjustment
- LED and Switch - six buffered LEDs and five push-button switches
User's Guide
For more information, please download the Dragon Rider 500 User's Guide (Current revision: Preliminary, D, March 2, 2008).
Compatible Microcontrollers
- ATmega16 and 32
- ATmega8
- ATmega48, 88 and 168
- ATtiny2313
- ATtiny13
- ATtiny25, 45 and 85
For detailed information on using these microcontrollers with the Dragon Rider, please click a link in the navigation bar at the top left of this page or refer the the appropriate section in the User's Guide.
Price and Ordering
The Dragon Rider 500 and Parts Kits are available at the following pricing:
† The Complete Parts Kit includes both the Basic and Advanced Parts Kits (but not the Add-on kits). Refer to the feature listings above for more information and also to the Parts & Assembly page.
‡ The LED / Switch Add-on Parts Kit is included in the Quick Start Parts Kit. Refer to the ATmega88 "Quick Start" Parts Kit page for more information.
¶ The Ribbon Cable Accessory Kit consists of two feet of 10-way grey ribbon cable and six 10-pin sockets. From this you can assemble three cables of the type supplied with the Atmel STK500 (but longer) for use with the Dragon Rider. You can also make a cable to daisy-chain multiple add-on circuits to the same port, so read the descriptions of the Add-on Parts Kits before you cut the cable. To squeeze the insulation-displacement sockets onto the cable, you will need a vise or some other suitable tool.