[avr-chat] AVR ISP and/or AT90LS8535 questions.

[Andy Warner]

I've finally broken the last of my cheapo AVR ISP
(RS232) programmers. I'm fairly sure I fried the
AT90LS8535, by hotplugging it into a target
board by mistake one too many times.

I used to just buy another; they were cheap enough.
Alas, no longer, because they're obsolete, and I can't find
any stock at the usual distributers.

So, I'd like to ask, in no particular order:

o what's your favourite RS232 AVR ISP programmer,
  perhaps one that's a little better protected against
  transients/wear and tear than the AVRISP ? I use
  terminal servers to connect to the programmers, so
  I need something that implements a real protocol, not
  just bit-bashing. USB-based solutions need not apply
  at present.

o Anyone know of a secret supply of AVRISPs, at
  a reasonable price ?

o Anyone have a couple of AT90LS8535 chips (also
  obsolete), because I can still program the part (I know
  this because I tried to reclaim it by reloading the firmware
  using avrstudio) - and I would be happy to replace this
  chip and see if it came back to life (there's not much else
  in there to go wrong really.)

o Anyone know of any other techniques to debug/repair these
  units ?
--
Andy