Arduino 1K Bootloader - Using it

The 1K bootloader is a modified (but feature full) version of the official 2K Ardiuno bootloader. It's obvious advantage is saving a full KB of flash for larger sketches.

Because you'll have more available program space, you need to tell the Arduino IDE this, otherwise it'll continue assuming your using 2KB for your bootloader.

Open the file hardware/boards.txt in your favorite text editor and find the section for the board your using (it'll be something like diecimila.name=Arduino Diecimila or Duemilanove). Find the line that says xxx.upload.maximum_size= and add 1024 to whatever number is there (eg 14366 becomes 15360 and 30720 becomes 31744).

Alternately, you can just use my boards.txt which includes updated sizes for everything but the ATmega8. You could also create a new entry in your menu. The syntax is pretty straight forward.

Seriously, your on your own here.

The hex files are available on the download page, and the updated boards.txt contains the correct efuse values, so if your programmer is supported, you should be able to use the Arduino IDE's burn bootloader function.

The makefile also includes correct fuses and ISP code, if you'd like to go that route.

Seriously, once you've installed a new boards.txt and burned the bootloader, all you have to do is click upload, just like before.

If all you do is upload the new bootloader, thats fine too. The 1K bootloader will work just fine with the default Arduino IDE settings, there's just an extra 1K of flash waiting to shine.