My son Paul is the author of this guest post.

This Arduino sketch is useful for rescuing ATtiny microcontrollers rendered useless by incorrect fuse settings. It does this by putting the bricked tiny into high-voltage serial programming mode and writing the fuses to safe values.

Connection Diagram

Click to enlarge

The Arduino is connected to the tiny though 1k resistors and a 2N3904 transistor is used to switch 12 volts applied to the tiny’s reset pin. After uploading the sketch the Arduino sends “Hello?” repeatedly until
communications are established by sending a byte through the serial monitor. The Arduino then programs the fuses.

Serial Monitor log
Hello?
Hello?
Hello?
1
Entering programming Mode

lfuse reads as 62
hfuse reads as 5F
efuse reads as FF

Writing hfuse
Writing lfuse

lfuse reads as 62
hfuse reads as DF
efuse reads as FF

Exiting programming Mode

Download the program: hv_serial_prog.pde

Based on work by Jeff Keyzer.

Let me know if it works for you.

Related posts (auto generated)

1. There is Plenty of Sound in an Empty Barrel: Part 1 Paul has undertaken a number of projects of late. There...
2. The Scarlet Pimpernel at Davis High The "League of the Scarlet Pimpernel", made up of 19...
3. Guests Guest Writer Index To submit a guest post, contact me...