Datasheet

Starting the Bootloader

About the bootloader

A bootloader is a tiny piece of software residing on the microcontroller that that helps load your own

code into the remaining space.

One of the challenges with the Trinket is that we wanted to have a built-in USB bootloader, but the

ATtiny85 doesn't have built-in USB hardware! There are existing USB bootloaders that can work on

the 't85 but they use other companies' USB VID/PIDs. Since it not permitted by the USB developer's

group (http://adafru.it/cDW) to use others' VID/PIDs we had to adapt one of these existing

bootloaders to use our USB ID, but we also wanted to not have to re-compile avrdude or the

Arduino IDE since that's such a pain.

So instead, Frank (our awesome engineer with mad USB chops) (http://adafru.it/cDX) created a

USB bootloader that combines the elegance of V-USB with the well-supported and tested nature of

the USBtinyISP. This bootloader looks just like a USBtinyISP - and since it uses the unique Adafruit

VID/PID we own and that we added to avrdude so long ago, it works with only very minimal

configuraton tweaks. No need to recompile anything, whew!

Trinket USB Drivers for Windows

If you're using Windows be sure to follow the Windows Driver Installation

page (http://adafru.it/fSQ) to install the appropriate drivers for your Trinket.

For Mac OSX or Linux you don't need to install any drivers.

Special Notes on using Trinket with Linux

Linux is fairly picky about who can poke and prod at the USB port. You can always run avrdude or

Please note: you cannot use the Adafruit USB VID/PID for your own non-Trinket products or

projects. Purchase a USB VID for yourself at http://www.usb.org/developers/vendor/

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Trinket is not supported on Linux operating system at this time - try Mac OS or Windows!

However, you can try the following - it does work for some computers

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Industries

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