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As the seller notes in the listing for this pogo pin programmer for ATtiny chips, one of the prime motivations for using surface mount chips is to decrease board size and simplify the layout. Having to route the programming signals to a 6-pin 0.1″ header breakout not only takes up more room on the board but also makes the layout more complex.

Their answer? Ditch the programming header and create an adapter that presses directly onto the soldered chip. Pogo pins create a solid connection, and the 3D-printed adapter fits snugly over the SOIC-8W chips. Then just program the chip as usual!

The adapter works with all AVRISP programmers. One end of the adapter has the pins to accept the standard 2×3 header, which is included with most programmers by default. Even if you don’t have an AVRISP-style programmer, you can rig one up using an Arduino or Raspberry Pi. The creator also notes that you can program loose chips with this adapter by simply placing it on a hard surface and pressing the adapter down.

Pin 1 is clearly marked, so no need to worry about getting the adapter reversed. If you find yourself working with ATtiny45/85 chips (or any chips with compatible pinouts), this can be a great way to save space on your board layouts and make firmware updates quick and easy. Batch programming is also simplified, as there’s no need to plug and unplug the header in between each board. Keep an eye out for upcoming PIC adapters in the same style!

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When you start out in the world of AVR microcontrollers, more than likely you connect a USB cable into some flavor of Arduino to transfer instructions. This paradigm can be sufficient for quite some time–years even–but at some point you’ll likely progress into the world of in-circuit serial programming via solder-on headers.

Plugging things in to headers works well, but what if your device has a pinout on the board but no actual pins? You could solder on headers for programming, but this adds space and time to a project. Another quicker option is to use a pogo pin header arrangement.

These aptly-named pogo pins contract under pressure, and extend to fill connection gaps. When properly arranged and applied to circuit board connections, pogo pins can make electrical contact for the few seconds needed for programming. You’re then ready to move on to the next thing immediately, making programming one device more convenient, and programming a large number of devices practical.

Pogo pins come in a variety of shapes and sizes; of course, you’ll need a jig to help get the required pogo pins in place. Naturally, Tindie sellers have a few solutions that may work perfectly for your AVR ICSP programming needs:

AVR ISP Pogo Adapter Kit: Geppetto Electronics

By far the most popular and well-reviewed adapter on this list is Geppetto Electronics’s AVR ISP Pogo Adapter kit, featuring six nicely labelled ICSP pins in the classic AVR .1in 2×3 header arrangement. The device is an arrangement of two identical circuit boards, which hold the pogo pins in place via solder connections. Connections are broken out to a 90º 2×3 connector on the back.

In-Line Programmer: Nico

This device by Nico is quite simple, breaking out the 6 pogo pins and connectors in-line with each other. This means that alignment-wise it functions in the same manner as plugging into a connector soldered onto the board.

Surface-Mount Pattern Programmer: Alpenglow

Alpenglow’s ISP Pogo Adapter Kit has an unusual spacing arrangement, adapted for a surface-mount programming header footprint. Each of the two rows of pins are spaced at .1in center-to-center, and the rows themselves are spaced .3in from each other. It’s a nice device for unpopulated surface-mount headers, but it won’t work for traditional ISP spacing.

I may or may not have neglected to read the full description, and ordered them for the wrong application. So don’t make the same mistake. At the same time, the programmers that theoretically arrived were brilliantly packaged and labelled with nice instructions.

1.27mm Spacing Programmer: PDEngineering

PDEngineering sells an ISP programmer with a 1.27mm 2×3 pin arrangement (i.e. .05in spacing). A specialized tool for this space saving header arrangement. Many development kits for Microchip ARM processors use this type of connector. Just read the description to be sure you’re getting what you need!

Round Programmer: JasonKits

JasonKits 5cm diameter round pogo programmer features accommodations for both a 6 and 10-pin input AVRISP connection. The device is designed to be easy to hold, though depending on what you’re programming, you may want to check for any potential clearance issues.

In-Line Kit: JC Devices

It’s a bit of a long story, but in my preliminary work for what eventually became this article, I wasn’t immediately able to find what I wanted in a pogo pin adapter. So I made my own ICSP programming jig, and put it up on my store, JC Devices. What I like about it is that it fixtures everything in-line like the second product on this list, using a pair of very small PCBs. There’s an option to buy a 3D-printed jig to help put them together, or you can print the jig yourself, which–in my admittedly biased opinion–I thought was pretty clever.

ICSP Adapters: Lots of Options… Or Make Your Own!

So if you want a way to perform in-circuit serial programming, Tindie sellers have a variety of options available. And if you don’t see what you want, the beauty of our online marketplace is that you can design your own version, then list it to see if it works for anyone else!

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A smart practice when creating a custom PCB is to add a SWD programming header to the board for programming and debugging purposes. The Model C version of the PogoProg is designed for use with 4-pin, 1.27 mm pitch headers that utilize SWDIO, SWDCLK, VDD, and GND pins.

That being said, it’s also useable with any 4 signal lines, so long as the pitch is compatible. If you work on a lot of custom projects, then you know how difficult it is to get by with make-shift programmers. A product designed for this purpose is exactly what motivated the makers at Electronut Labs to create the PogoProg.

This relatively inexpensive solution will also save you a great deal in the long-term, as sourcing pogo pins in small quantities can quickly add up. Instead, this device offers a pre-soldered option that won’t break the bank.

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If you use an Arduino or similar development board, chances are it comes with some sort of USB connection that you can just plug into and program via your computer. If, however, you’ve moved on to systems that need to be programmed using a separate in-system programmer (ISP or ICSP for in-circuit serial programmer), you’ll need to connect to solder pads on the board you’re using.

Or you could use pogo pins to do the job, allowing you to literally hold the connectors on your board. You could make this fixture yourself, or you could just buy one from Tindie. Seller FemToCow has one available here for 10 bucks ($9.99 plus shipping), which looks pretty good from the picture. And that’s all I can really tell you about the quality of this device.

On the other hand, the Mad Electron Engineering YouTube channel decided to do a review of it starting at 4:00 in the video seen below. It’s an interesting piece, going over why you might need one of these, and the fact that you can make one yourself that likely won’t be as good. Although the presenter is clear that he wasn’t paid to do an endorsement, at the end of the video he does say, “Thank you very much, I love it, it’s great.”

One couldn’t ask for a better review than that, and hopefully the video will help others see the benefit of this little guy. We love finding Tindie product reviews in the wild and hope to see more in the future!

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This is an ingenious little tool that will come in especially handy if you make your own PCBs and want to keep them small and slim. Ever made a tiny PCB only to have the programming header pins sticking out way above the rest of the board? This USB to UART programmer with pogo pins will do away with all of that while also letting you program your boards in the blink of an eye. You could of course put some other type of programming header on your board, but this way is easier, and much faster if you have 20 or 200 boards to program.

The creator of this little adapter is called Phoenic CNC, and they also make the OLEDiUNO  range of products. They are little cubes with OLED screens on the front. The cubes are made from layers of PCBs with each OLEDiUNO containing a different type of sensor. You can get GPS, Tachometer, Spectrum Analyser, Gear indicator for cars/motorcycles and so on.

You can see the pogo pin adapter being used to program some OLEDiUNO boards in the video below. It’s a really handy tool to have especially if you hate using header pins for programming your boards.

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