[avr-chat] cheap DIY programming cables: anything on USB ?

[Vincent Trouilliez]

Hi,

I mean to buy an AVR dragon at some point, but as usual with anything
that must be imported from the US, an affordable product quickly
becomes quite expensive ! Especially so, since I noted that the price
of the Dragon has increased significantly since I last checked it a
year or so ago. IIRC it was around 40 Euros before tax, now Farnell
lists it at 55.

So to the point: I currently have a DIY cable with a parallel
interface, which is getting annoying as my printer is also on a
parallel port, so I keep having to unplug/replug it.
So the Dragin is hte mid term plan, but the short time plan would be to
make a cheap/DIY cable that would free my parallel port, so I can use
avrdude and print at the same time, how ambitious ! ;-)

So is there any DIY cables (or pre-built, but mega cheap, and
available in the Euro zone) that run on a USB port ?

I don't want to use the serial port since this already used to debug my
AVR project.

I would add an extra parrallel or serial add-on card to my computer,
but somehow they hard to find, not numerous, an dincredibly expensive
for what they are, then add shipping, and hey presto.. it's not worth
it anymore. That's why I think the most economical is probably to build
a new/different cable.


Regards,

--
Vince