I hacked my Arduino Uno....

To facilitate the ability to program standalone chips I removed the ATMEGA328 and the dip socket. I milled out an adapter board so that a ZIF socket can attach via standard header pins.

This has been a awesome tool during prototyping. I start my projects with an Arduino Nano on a breadboard. Once I am ready to start making circuits boards I will out a board that includes space for a zif socket. I then can add & remove the mCu with firmware updates very quickly without the added complexity of an ICSP.

73 de NG0R