Connecting the AVR Dragon to AVR Breadboard Circuits

Created on: 17 October 2012

The AVR Dragon is a programmer/debugger for AVR microcontrollers from Microchip (formerly from Atmel). When building a breadboard circuit with an AVR microcontroller, it is necessary to connect a programmer such as the AVR Dragon to the microcontroller to load programs to it and to debug it.

One way of connecting the AVR Dragon or other programmer to the microcontroller on the breadboard is to use single solid core wire. Just use the wire to connect from the IDC connector on the ribbon cable from the AVR dragon to the tie points on the breadboard.

This photo shows the JTAG connector of the AVR Dragon connected to a breadboard circuit.

The AVR Dragon is not supplied with any connecting cables. You will need to get a USB cable and also get or make your own ribbon cables with IDC connectors.

The ISP (In-system Programming) header is a 6 pin header (3 by 2 pins) and the JTAG connector is a 10 pin connector (5 by 2 pins). The 20 pin connector on the AVR Dragon is for HV (high voltage) programming of AVR microcontrollers.