Week 7 – Embedded Programming

 

Read a microcontroller data sheet.  Program your board to do something with as many different programming languages and programming environments as possible.

 

Goal: Make a digital spirit level (carpenterÕs level) with an accelerometer and LEDs.

Result: Days of debugging my board.

 

 

Useful Resources:

 

The C Book

Fab Academy Tutorial

ATTiny 44 Data Sheet

 

Spent the first half of the week working my way through the C Book, the AT Tiny44 Data Sheet, and installing/learning Arduino. On Saturday I went into the IDC lab with the intention of trying blink.

 

I had no luck with the Fab ISP so I tried the AVR ISP2.  Still no luck.  Blinking red lights (which I was told meant the board wasnÕt getting power.  I remade the board with no luck, then had it pointed out to me that my reset wasnÕt getting power.  I added a jumper wire without success. I redesigned the circuit and remade the board – still blinking red lights. I checked every connection to ensure continuity and an absence of shorts.

 

With help I identified a flaw in the circuit, remade the board, and plugged it in.

 

Green light

 

 

I then opened arduino (having loaded the ATTiny 44A files) and went to burn bootoader.  I received the following message:

 

 

I tried using Makefile to load Echo, and received a similar error:

 

 

make: *** [program-avrisp2] Error 1

Simon-Colleys-MacBook-Air:echo simonscolley$ make -f hello.ftdi.44.echo.c.make program-avrisp2

avr-objcopy -O ihex hello.ftdi.44.echo.out hello.ftdi.44.echo.c.hex;\

   avr-size --mcu=attiny44 --format=avr hello.ftdi.44.echo.out

AVR Memory Usage

----------------

Device: attiny44

 

Program:     840 bytes (20.5% Full)

(.text + .data + .bootloader)

 

Data:         33 bytes (12.9% Full)

(.data + .bss + .noinit)

 

 

avrdude -p t44 -P usb -c avrisp2 -U flash:w:hello.ftdi.44.echo.c.hex

 

avrdude: stk500v2_command(): command failed

avrdude: stk500v2_program_enable(): bad AVRISPmkII connection status: Unknown status 0x00

avrdude: initialization failed, rc=-1

         Double check connections and try again, or use -F to override

         this check.

 

 

avrdude done.  Thank you.

 

Tried other peopleÕs machines – same result, so I went back to look at the board, and came across the following:

 

 

My trace overlapped the terminal on the microcontroller, but wasnÕt connected.

 

 

Which brings me to my significant learning of the week.  In Eagle, it is possible for wires to overlap terminals (on jumpers or microporcessors) and not be recognized as a contact.

 

 

This can be solved by emhasizing the connection manually

 

 

 

Which showed me the following in Schematic (after removing the wires that had previously appeared to be doing something):

 

 

My reset pin was getting straight VCC without passing through a resistor ( I should have noticed that), and the same pin needed to be connected to the appropriate pin on the 2x3 jumper.

 

Here is the modified board.

 

 

Frustrating exercise for no result as yet, but I have learned a lot more about electronics and Eagle and am looking forward to programming the new board.