Looking to buy a programmer for MPGuino with Atmega 328p
 

I am an extreme novice to this. I just purchased a new prebuild MPGuino and installed it in my Metro. I would like to work on the code a bit but need some hardware.

I found a "real" Arduino Uno R3 on Amazon for $25
I also found a fake Arduino Uno on Amazon for $15

$10 would be a nice savings for me because I am a cheap ass and I will probably fail miserably so I don't want to waste much money.

Any suggestions for software or links for cheap programming hardware?


FWIW, I think my goal will be to create a single screen with a large readout of Current and Instant MPG. I'm not sure if anyone has done this yet or not. Also, I would like to remove the ability to change the contrast which I constantly do by mistake for some reason.

Why not buy the micro controller and simply swap the micro controller into the arduino?
You don't need to buy a new arduino for every project.
http://www.instructables.com/id/The-...Teach-You-in-/
As for programming:
http://hackaday.com/2010/10/25/avr-p...-the-hardware/
I'm working on building a MPGunio clone that ditches everything unneeded to give fuel consumption readout, target cost is $10 and an hour to assemble and install.

Sorry, the links and message were over my head. I can probably figure out hooking a $15 board to my computer via USB, loading some drivers, pulling the chip out of my MPGuino and running some software to access the code. Spending a few hours reasearching/building a programmer and troubleshooting it to save $12 isn't my idea of fun. I appreciate the help though...