old beaver,
I am very new to MPGuino, having just received my kit in the mail yesterday. You would be better off asking dcb, since he is an expert.
I have spent some time looking through the MPGuino forums. Below is a reference to a forum thread regarding building an adapter that you would slip over the ATmega to program it, thus eliminating the need for a dedicated socket on the board.
http://ecomodder.com/forum/showthrea...mmer-7311.html
Good luck...
Regards, Singletree5990
