We found this Arduino AVR ISP programmer particularly interesting. AVR microcontrollers can utilize an interface called In-System-Programming. ISP allows the chip to be programmed or reprogrammed ...

[Minifloat] is using his TI Launchpad development board as an In-System Programmer for AVR chips (translated). There are a ton of homebrew AVR programmers out there, and using an Arduino for ISP ...

Optional software plug-ins are available or in development for a range of non-JTAG ISP devices, which includes Altera EPCS and Xilinx configuration SPROMs, Microchip PIC, Atmel AVR plus other ...

"The Art Controller is an open-source, hackable relay board that can be reprogrammed. "While no programming is required— the microcontroller comes preprogrammed to do everything listed above ...