An universal programming adapter for the Atmel STK500 using AVR microcontroller

You have an STK500 development board for the AVR controllers from Atmel?
And you want to use it with a newer AVR controller which is not supported by any of the 8 sockets on board?
And you do not own an STK505 extension board?
Welcome to my world until yesterday!
This is my first instructable which will describe how I helped myself yesterday. You might find an update on my blog as well…

Step: 1 What you need

All you need to build yourself an adapter which will support all different kinds of controller pinouts for your ST500 is
– some piece of prototype pcb board
– some strip of female pin header connectors (single or double-row)
– a socket for the controller, preferably a zif socket
– solder wire and a soldering iron
I used a narrow 28-pin DIP zero-insertion-force socket, similar to the famous Textool brand, but labeled as TFXTDOL. For a 28-pin socket you will need two 28-pin long strips of the female header. For the connection to the ISP10PIN header on the STK500 you will need another two pieces of 5×2 contacts.

Step: 2 Put it together

Cut the female pin header strips to the corresponding lengths. Then solder the socket and the pin header strips to the circuit board – align the pin header strips along both sides of the socket.
Connect each pin of the socket to the corresponding pin(s) on the adjacent pin header.
Finally solder a 5×2 pin header strip to the top of the circuit board, next to the socket arrangement, but without aking any connections between the two areas.
Take the second 5×2 pin header, slightly bend the solder pins slightly outward and solder it from the bottom of the pcb onto the connections of the 5×2 header on the top side.
For more detail: An universal programming adapter for the Atmel STK500 using AVR microcontroller