Week 8

Embedded Programming

Assignment

·      Read data sheet for ATtiny44a

·      Using the Fab ISP (in-system programmer) programme the ATtiny44A microcontroller on your Hello Button + LED board that we made during the Electronics Design week   

How I got started

I started by checking out the data sheets on the ATtiny44 and made a copy of the pin layout then got stuck into downloading software for the Mac. This was a lengthy process but with attention to detail and perseverance and with all downloads in place I was able to get started with programming. The goal is programme the board we made get a programme loaded onto the board and make small changes to it to get used to programming. I made a start by following the step by step tutorial Embedded Programming – Arduino IDE first in Ubuntu then on the Mac. As my Fab ISP was not responding I borrowed one ( thank you David) until I have time to make another asap.

Hardware

The FAB ISP we made in class

Hello button +led board

Ribbon cable

FTDI cable

Software

Checked FTDI driver installed

Download the Arduino IDE software

Download ATtiny board files

GCC and avrdude

Xcode

CrossPack-AVR

Check data sheet for useful info on the ATtiny44

My progress with programming so far

 I borrowed a FAB ISP as mine was not working and needs time trouble shooting. I am going to make a few more as may be helpful to have a spare and its good practice making them! I started by following the tutorial Embedded Programming – Arduino IDE and downloaded the board files so the Arduino IDE could communicate with the ATtiny44. After restarting Arduino I could see the ATtiny44 under Tools- Board in the menu.
I connected the programmer to the ISP header on the LED+Button board with an FTDI cable and then configured it to run at 20MHz. I had problems with Burning the Bootloader with errors at first. After checking my set up I realised the  FAB ISP and hello board were not correctly connected and when this was changed hey presto everything ran smoothly and I was able to follow the tutorial on both the Mac and Ubuntu with no problems. I changed the pin numbers to match up with those on my board. I spent some time making small changes to the Button and Blink example and got very excited about making the LED flash at different speeds.

What next

•  Lots more practice this week    
• Programming in C
  
• Continue exploring programming with Arduino board until I get a new FAB ISP made
• Make new FAB ISP and have another go at programming
• Build a Fabduino
  

Other useful info

ATtiny 44 / Arduino Pin-out numbering