ATTiny85 - How to Program With Visual Studio Code (VSC) and PlatformIO

The ATTiny85 doesn't program like other microcontroller boards as it doesn't have a dedicated USB interface chip. Instead the USB function is done in software and means that to upload a new program you have to do it in the first few seconds after power up. This Instructable shows how to program it and deal with two common problems.

The ATTiny85 series is a cheap microprocessor used in many small projects for simple control, but is capable of doing a lot more. A future project will (hopefully) be an advanced logic probe with OLED screen so I needed to find out how to upload software to the Tiny85.

We show how to overcome the following errors:

Could not find USBtiny device (0x1781/0xc9f)

[upload] Error 3221225781

You will need an ATTiny85 microcontroller circuit board, and VSC installed on Windows or Linux.

VS Code is a free development environment from Microsoft. The PlatformIO extension make it way more powerful than the Arduino IDE, and is now my favourite editor and compiler.

The video walks you quickly through the process of setting up and problem solving.