3.a. Installing Windows Drivers and Software

If you use Windows XP, you will need to have either Service Pack 3 or Hotfix KB918365 installed before installing the drivers for the Pololu USB AVR programmer. Some users who installed the hotfix have reported problems using the programmer which were solved by upgrading to Service Pack 3, so we recommend Service Pack 3 over the hotfix.

Please note that these drivers will only work for the USB AVR programmer; if you have Pololu’s original Orangutan USB programmer, you will need to install the drivers specific to that device.

Before you connect your Pololu USB AVR programmer to a computer running Microsoft Windows, you must install its drivers:

1. Download and install the Pololu AVR Development Bundle (173MB exe). This includes the drivers and software for the Pololu USB AVR Programmer, along with WinAVR, AVR Studio 4, and the Pololu AVR C/C++ Library. If you are not sure which of these components you need, it is OK to install all of them. If you only need to install the drivers and software for the programmer, you can download those separately: USB AVR Programmer Windows Drivers and Software (3MB exe).
2. During the installation, Windows will warn you that the drivers have not been tested by Microsoft and recommend that you stop the installation. Click “Continue Anyway” (Windows XP) or “Install this driver software anyway” (Windows 7 or Vista).

Windows Vista and Windows 7 users: After the installation has finished, your computer should automatically install the necessary drivers when you connect a Pololu USB AVR programmer, in which case no further action from you is required.

Windows XP users: After the installation has finished, follow steps 3-7 for each new Pololu USB AVR programmer you connect to your computer.

3. Connect the USB AVR programmer to your computer’s USB port. The programmer is actually three devices in one so your XP computer will detect all three of those new devices and display the “Found New Hardware Wizard” three times. Each time the “Found New Hardware Wizard” pops up, follow steps 4-7.
4. When the “Found New Hardware Wizard” is displayed, select “No, not this time” and click “Next”.

5. On the second screen of the “Found New Hardware Wizard”, select “Install the software automatically” and click “Next”.

6. Windows XP will warn you again that the driver has not been tested by Microsoft and recommend that you stop the installation. Click “Continue Anyway”.

7. When you have finished the “Found New Hardware Wizard”, click “Finish”. After that, another wizard will pop up. You will see a total of three wizards when plugging in the programmer. Follow steps 4-7 for each wizard.

If you use Windows XP and experience problems installing the serial port drivers, the cause of your problems might be a bug in older versions of Microsoft’s usb-to-serial driver usbser.sys. Versions of this driver prior to version 5.1.2600.2930 will not work with the USB AVR programmer. You can check what version of this driver you have by looking in the “Details” tab of the “Properties” window for C:\Windows\System32\drivers\usbser.sys. To get the fixed version of the driver, you will need to either install Service Pack 3 or Hotfix KB918365. Some users who installed the hotfix have reported problems using the programmer which were solved by upgrading to Service Pack 3, so we recommend Service Pack 3 over the hotfix.

After installing the drivers, if you go to your computer’s Device Manager and expand the “Ports (COM & LPT)” list, you should see two COM ports: “Pololu USB AVR Programmer Programming Port” and “Pololu USB AVR Programmer TTL Serial Port”. In parentheses after these names, you will see the name of the port (e.g. “COM3” or “COM4”). If you expand the “Pololu USB Devices” list you should see an entry for the Pololu USB AVR programmer.

Windows XP device manager showing the Pololu USB AVR Programmer

Windows Vista device manager showing the Pololu USB AVR Programmer

Some software will not allow connection to higher COM port numbers. If you need to change the COM port number assigned to your USB device, you can do so using the Device Manager. Bring up the properties dialog for the COM port and click the “Advanced…” button in the “Port Settings” tab. From this dialog you can change the COM port assigned do your device.

Once your have successfully installed the device drivers and software, you can run the Pololu USB AVR Programmer Configuration Utility, which is available in the Start menu in the Pololu folder. This application allows you to change many of the settings of your programmer and can help troubleshoot problems. Please see Section 3.e for more information.

This software package also contains the installation files for the Pololu SLO-scope application for Windows. Please see Section 7 for installation and usage instructions.