(:redirect Hacking/Programmer:)

If you have an external programmer (e.g. an AVR-ISP, STK500, or parallel programmer), you can burn sketches to the Arduino board without using the bootloader. This allows you to use the full program space (flash) of the chip on the Arduino board. So with an ATmega8, you'll get 8 KB instead of 7. It also avoid the bootloader delay when you power or reset your board.

Burning sketches to the Arduino board with an external programmer

Going back to normal USB/serial upload

Editing the Arduino preferences file

Burning the sketch

Going back to normal USB/serial upload

To go back to uploading sketches over the USB or serial port without an external programmer, you'll need to change back those lines in preferences.txt. You'll also need to burn the bootloader back onto the chip on the Arduino board.

AVRISP mkII

If you have an AVRISP mkII, you'll need to burn your sketches outside the Arduino environment. You can use a program like avrdude, avrstudio, or winavr. To generate the .hex file that you'll be burning, press the upload button in the Arduino environment. The .hex file will be saved in the applet sub-directory of the sketch's directory (which you can find by selecting Show Sketch Folder from the Sketch menu of the Arduino environment).

First, change:
serial.download_rate=19200
to:
serial.download_rate=115200

Burning sketches to the Arduino board with an external programmer

If you have an external programmer (e.g. an AVR-ISP, STK500, or parallel programmer), you can burn sketches to the Arduino board without using the bootloader. This allows you to use the full program space (flash) of the chip on the Arduino board. So with an ATmega8, you'll get 8 KB instead of 7.

To use an external programmer you need to make three changes to the Arduino preferences.txt. Make sure to edit this file when the Arduino IDE is not running.

First, change:

to:

Second, change upload.erase and upload.verify from false to true.

After you've made these changes, you can burn sketches to the board with the normal upload button or menu item in the Arduino environment. The board needs to be powered, but you don't have to press the reset button before uploading.

To go back to uploading sketches over the USB or serial port without an external programmer, you'll need to change back those lines in preferences.txt. You'll also need to burn the bootloader back onto the chip on the Arduino board.