i began by reading through data sheet for the ATTiny44 microchip.
i then looked at the tutorials and the programming link to see what it should look like. here are some questions that i have: 1. are certain pins more geared for incoming or outgoing information? 2. how does it actually work? how does a high or low movement contain information, and how is it translated? what does it look like? and how is it physically possible to make something so powerful, fast, small and so strong (enough to withstand the heat of a misplaced soldering iron occasionally)?
i connected my button board to the ftdi cable, and the fabISP with the miniUSB into the computer (to power each of them), and then iconnected them by ribbon cable, making sure to keep the same orientation of the wires and pins. the computer recognized both devices and then i went to the terminal. i followed the instructions to program using c in the ubuntu terminal for the echo programs, and then looking at the serial monitor in Arduino IDE to echo the letters i typed back.
Download the .c file and the .makefile onto your destop. Open terminal.
$ cd Desktop
$ make -f hello.ftdi.44.echo.c.make
$ sudo make -f hello.ftdi.44.echo.c.make program-usbtiny-fuses
$ sudo make -f hello.fti.44.echo.c.make program-usbtiny
i programmed both the .echo and .interrupt, however they seem to do the same function.
the limit of characters was 24 before they started wrapping to the next line.
to blink the light, i decided to use the Arduino IDE environment for programming.
after opening Arduino IDE go to the 'tools' tab and select 'board' which will open a menu from i selected Attiny44 20Mhz external clock. After selecting board, then select 'programmer' from the tools menu, and select 'USBtinyISP' if using the FabISP.
i then selected the 'button sketch' from file->examples->digital menu, and modified the pin numbers that correspond with my layout. pin 6 and LED connecterd to pin 5. click the arrow to upload sketch onto board...
the lights should come on and go off when the button is pressed.
doesn't work :(
wondering if it was because of/the way i connected two LED's and resistors. i removed one of the LED's and its corresponding resistor and used a 0 ohm resistor to bring the first LED to ground.
why is it still not working...
followed this tutorial closely again. it didn't work. why????
i am looking back at the pins i chose to connect to button and pin to see if they are appropriate. also going to check connections... also re-uploading the echo to make sure chip is working.
aha!
i was using the wrong pin numbers... calling it 5 and 6 when it was really 8 and 7. i switched the numbers of the pins to match the outside numbers, re-uploaded the modified button sketch and it worked. :)
click photo below for video.
then i uploaded the blink sketch and modified the timing a couple of times, and then added the button to stop the blinking. i am still working on the c version of this program. this is what i have in c so far.
click photo below for video.
now, lets see if i can apply this lesson to fix this other thing... someone gave our household a gift of a blinking jelly ring. i tried super hard to turn it off. it wouldn't. i figured ok, it'll die soon, it's cheap. 4 days of blinking in the box later, i decided to take it apart. click here for the deconstruction.
challenge to myself- create a better blinking board that fits inside of jelly ring, that can be turned off easily by tomorrow.
well, at least here are some questions that i have: 1. when the button makes contact it will turn on the LEDs and they stay on until contact is made again. the button could fall off and it stays on. what makes it that way as oppossed to the fab button which must maintain contact? 2. why do we continue to use our genius, time, precious resources to make useless crap?