There are quite a number of techniques for burning the Arduino bootloader to the microcontroller but we will focus on using the easiest method which involves the use of the Arduino board as an In-System Programmer (ISP).ĭuring the manufacturing process for electronic devices, microcontrollers are usually programmed after they have been mounted on the PCB. Burning the Bootloader to a Microcontroller Once it locates and runs your program, the Arduino continuously loops through the program and does so as long as the board has power.Īsides from the need to use the Atmega328p in standalone mode, flashing the microcontroller with the bootloader may be necessary when you need to replace the microcontroller on your Uno board for instance or when you need to restore a bricked board which no longer allows code uploads. When the computer isn’t trying to upload code to the microcontroller, the bootloader instructs the chip to run the code that’s already stored in memory.

If this is the case, it accepts the code from the computer and stores it in a specific location in the memory of the microcontroller in such a way that the bootloader itself is not overwritten.

It monitors the serial communication line to see if the computer is trying to program it.

The bootloader is very similar to the BIOS Running on a PC and performs two tasks: This hex file is called the Arduino Bootloader. hex file which can be installed on AVR chips that allow you to program the board over a serial port, ensuring all that is needed to program a microcontroller (after installing the hex file) is a serial connection between the microcontroller and the Computer which can be achieved using a USB to UART adapter. It’s not beginner friendly, thus to eradicate these issues, Arduino created a. hex files, not to mention the huge knowledge of the C programming language required to write the code.

Programming microcontrollers can be a bit tricky, as they require special programmers and.

Arduino nano burn bootloader