ATiny816 Breakout Board

November 2025

Atmel's ATtiny816 is the perfect microcontroller for an upcoming project that requires components to be as small as possible. QUT's CAB202 (Microproessors and Digital Systems) used a ATtiny1616 in its QUTy board. I had already learnt a decent amount to be able to understand what was going under the hood. With a QFN packaged chip, having a breakout board was essential to prototype it.

The USB-C only has the function of delivering power as the serial communcation for the ATtiny is UPDI (Unified Program and Debug Interface). Needing only three wires, I used exposed pads so that a simple pogo pin jig could program the chip.

Thankfully I still had my QUTy board from CAB202, otherwise it would have been a couple of days waiting for a UPDI programmer. I was able to Frankenstein the USB to UART chip to a pogo pin stick I made.

ATiny816 Breakout Board

November 2025

Atmel's ATtiny816 is the perfect microcontroller for an upcoming project that requires components to be as small as possible. QUT's CAB202 (Microproessors and Digital Systems) used a ATtiny1616 in its QUTy board. I had already learnt a decent amount to be able to understand what was going under the hood. With a QFN packaged chip, having a breakout board was essential to prototype it.

The USB-C only has the function of delivering power as the serial communcation for the ATtiny is UPDI (Unified Program and Debug Interface). Needing only three wires, I used exposed pads so that a simple pogo pin jig could program the chip.

Thankfully I still had my QUTy board from CAB202, otherwise it would have been a couple of days waiting for a UPDI programmer. I was able to Frankenstein the USB to UART chip to a pogo pin stick I made.