ATtiny85 Pogo Pin Backpack

Depending on your project’s needs, an ATtiny85 microcontroller can be perfect. While it has a limited number of IO, if you simple want to flash a few LEDs or take an input or two, it can can be a very compact and cost effective solution. In fact, Facelesstech used one of these chips in a wrist-mounted wearable platform that we previously featured here.

One interesting feature (or lack thereof) of the setup is that it doesn’t break out the programming pins in order to save space. While this is well and good if you never ever want to change how your device functions, it’s extremely inconvenient if you’re making a prototype. In order to reprogram his chip without any desoldering, he came up with a pogo backpack programmer.

He elaborates on how it was made in this blog post and the video below, but uses six pogo pins to make contact with the ATtiny85 from the top, as well as a couple of make headers to keep it aligned. Once secured with a clothespin, six pins are then available for programming needs.

If you’d like to make your own copy of this useful device, board files are available on GitHub.