Cheap AVR programmer

For my Home automation over Ethernet project I’m using an AVR micro controller. Several companies offer in system programmers for these controllers. Since I don’t need in system debugging a simple programmer will be enough form me.

The programming cable is a printer port cable (parallel, LPT) with some resistors to protect the port. I don’t use optical isolation, it’s a direct connection. This brings some risks but is cheap, very cheap.

To make the programmer I used an printer old cable, and soldered resistors on the end as follows:

All resistors are 220R. This cheap AVR programmer works great. To send the programs to the AVR’s memory I use Ponyprog, a free tool compatible with the programming cable.