Objective Development Forums

to use the usb interface to program the chip?
Example: lets say you have a USB joystick, you mounted the chip etc in an enclosure and you are playing your favorite flight sim. You decided that maybe another feature would be nice and you add it to your code. Now do I have to remove the chip from the joystick enclosure and put it in my programming board or can I use the USB interface to install the new hex file without taking apart my Joystick?

Take a look at this.

Thank you very much for the reply, I will have to look into that.

Before I get started with using the bootloader.
Would someone give me a general description of what the boot loader is and what functionality it provides. I'm using Atmega168 if it makes any difference. I bought a ARVISP mkII to program it.

You may also have a look at USBaspLoader.

A boot loader is a short program which sits at the end of the controller's flash memory and takes control after Reset. The boot loader waits for commands via USB and programs the rest of the flash memory.