Introduction: Spark Fun AVR Pocket Programmer With Windows 7

About: My name is Logan Carlson, I am a recent graduate of Florida Polytechnic University with a degree in Computer Engineering. I try to build all the time and post my projects, but it is time consuming so I have no…

The next step has the instructions for downloading the driver for the Pocket Programmer and the instructions for setting it up. Hope this helps!

Step 1: Solution

Instead of downloading the drivers, or following any of SparkFun's directions, you must download the USBTiny driver from Ladyada.net. This is the only solution that worked for me using windows 7. Others have used other successful solution, but this one seems by far the  easiest. I saw this off of a post on this forum: avrfreaks.net, so I give them the credit. But all you need to do is download those driver files, and point your device manager's driver update to that file for the correct driver. Then, if you don't already know, to start using the programmer you will need to download WinAVR, which includes many things that are needed. Then open the command line and type: avrdude -c usbtiny. This will bring up the list of  microcontrollers, choose yours and type the same thing again but add this : -p (microcontroller name). Where I put Microcontroller name is where you put the microcontroller you have from the list that you just saw.
Hope this helps anyone who needs it! Let me know if you need any other help.