New to AVR/Atmel

[ohaya]

@power911

@ohaya

Funny thing is that that (the clip) is one of the things that was kind of holding me back from getting into this. I remember seeing threads where people had all kinds of problems with clips (don’t fit, work for awhile then don’t contact, etc.).

Like I said, now that I’ve ordered, i guess I’ll know soon, but if anyone else has more experience, please post!!

I’m guessing I’m in the same boat as you.
I have everything except the clip and I’m still hesitant for paying a huge money on a small clip

I have a couple of different clips coming in. One of the Pomonas and another one. I’ll post what I find when they get here cuz it’s hard to tell from the pics.

[ohaya]

You have to love Amazon Prime. First piece of the puzzle arrived today:

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00D7SCT6A

I figured this’ll give me some flexibility to hook up the clip as needed…

[ohaya]

Well, I got a clip, and the clip part looks ok, but the pins that connect to the programmer are spaced too close together, so I can’t get the jumper cable wires plugged in.

AARGH!

Can someone who has a working setup point me to the specific clip and wiring exactly, so I don’t have to keep buying different ones to get something working?

For now, I’m going to see if I can solder wires directly to the clip, but they are REALLY tightly spaced so I don’t know…

Thanks,
Jim

EDIT: This is the one I got so far:

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B012CF5J74

I have a Pomona one coming in, but I’ve read that might have problems on the clip end because it’s too large/wide.

[Halo]

@ohaya

Well, I got a clip, and the clip part looks ok, but the pins that connect to the programmer are spaced too close together, so I can’t get the jumper cable wires plugged in.

That clip appears to have 1.27mm pin spacing on the top pins. The cable is for 2.54mm.

You can probably fit it if you bend every other pin out. One pin left alone / straight up, the next pin bent 45 or 90 degrees and so on. Any one pin and the pin next to it would form a V or L viewed from the side.

Do you have any small heat shrink tubing? You can also remove the plastic shroud from the jumper cable pins and use heat shrink instead. Then they fit in smaller spaces. But I’d just bend the pins out.

[ohaya]

@Halo…

@ohaya

Well, I got a clip, and the clip part looks ok, but the pins that connect to the programmer are spaced too close together, so I can’t get the jumper cable wires plugged in.

That clip appears to have 1.27mm pin spacing on the top pins. The cable is for 2.54mm.

You can probably fit it if you bend every other pin out. One pin left alone / straight up, the next pin bent 45 or 90 degrees and so on. Any one pin and the pin next to it would form a V or L viewed from the side.

Do you have any small heat shrink tubing? You can also remove the plastic shroud from the jumper cable pins and use heat shrink instead. Then they fit in smaller spaces. But I’d just bend the pins out.

Hi,

That (remove the shrouds and solder directly with heat shrink around) is just what I did. So, I think that I have the USB module wired to the clip.

Now, how can I test this?

Can I just clip it to the MCU (with the correct orientation) and plug in the USB into a PC and maybe read from the MCU?

Sorry for being so ignorant…. trying to figure this stuff out “on the fly” :(…

Jim

[ohaya]

I’m following info in this thread:

what programmer to buy

Hey guys iv been reading on programmers that few members bought and need help selecting one with the cord, Also im running windows 8 on my laptop is that going to be a problem ? also things i might need downloaded thanks for the help

I got the USPASP driver and libusb installed, so now I see a libusb device in Device Manager (Win7).

I have the clip hooked up to an MCU that is on a driver.

I run avrdude:

avrdude version 6.1, URL: <http://savannah.nongnu.org/projects/avrdude/\>

e:\INSTALL-FILES-ATMEL\Exploded-AVRDUDE>avrdude -p t13 -c usbasp -n

avrdude: warning: cannot set sck period. please check for usbasp firmware update
.
avrdude: error: programm enable: target doesn’t answer. 1
avrdude: initialization failed, rc=–1
Double check connections and try again, or use -F to override
this check.

avrdude done. Thank you.

Am I supposed to have the driver powered on?

What is wrong?

[ohaya]

I noticed that when I run that avrdude command, two things happen:

- The 2nd red LED on the programmer flashes

• An emitter that I have hooked up to the driver (which is not powered… just hanging in the air) flashes.

But I still get that target doesn’t answer message :(??

EDIT: If I run avrdude with that -F parameter, I get:

e:\INSTALL-FILES-ATMEL\Exploded-AVRDUDE>avrdude -p t13 -c usbasp -n -F

avrdude: warning: cannot set sck period. please check for usbasp firmware update
.
avrdude: error: programm enable: target doesn’t answer. 1
avrdude: initialization failed, rc=–1
avrdude: AVR device initialized and ready to accept instructions
avrdude: Device signature = 0xffff75
avrdude: Expected signature for ATtiny13 is 1E 90 07

avrdude done. Thank you.

[Halo]

Check that the clip contacts is really touching the pins. Sometimes the contacts inside the clip need to be adjusted / bent to make contact. People have complained that even expensive Pomona or 3M clips can have problems.

Double check that your wiring from the clip to the programmer is correct.

[ohaya]

@Halo…

Check that the clip contacts is really touching the pins. Sometimes the contacts inside the clip need to be adjusted / bent to make contact. People have complained that even expensive Pomona or 3M clips can have problems.

Double check that your wiring from the clip to the programmer is correct.

I think the clip was not on the chip correctly. It’s working now I think:

e:\INSTALL-FILES-ATMEL\Exploded-AVRDUDE>avrdude -p t13 -c usbasp -n

avrdude: warning: cannot set sck period. please check for usbasp firmware update
.
avrdude: AVR device initialized and ready to accept instructions

Reading | ################################################## | 100% 0.02s

avrdude: Device signature = 0x1e9007

avrdude: safemode: Fuses OK (E:FF, H:FD, L:72)

avrdude done. Thank you.

SO COOL :)!!!

[Halo]

Yep, it is indeed working properly.

You can ignore the “warning: cannot set sck period”. Most usbasp come with older firmware but it’s not really necessary to update it.
Plus you’d need a 2nd programmer to program your programmer. Yo dawg i heard you like programmers!

[ohaya]

Some pics of the cabling:

Basically, I had to solder the jumpers to the 4 pins on the top side of the clip, but I was able to use the jumpers as-is for the bottom side 2-pins, the RST and GND.

[OscarM]

I’ve ordered similar hw as well, but haven’t received the clip yet. Haven’t read up on anything about it yet though. What programming language is used, C?

[ohaya]

@OscarM

I’ve ordered similar hw as well, but haven’t received the clip yet. Haven’t read up on anything about it yet though. What programming language is used, C?

C, I think, from the code I’ve seen. Especially for the ATTINY13A, apparently very memory-limited, so something like C might be a little too much overhead (memory and…).

[ohaya]

So, I have a question: When I have the USB programmer connected to the MCU on an unpowered MCU via the SOIC8 clip, and, say, I run that avrdude command, and if I happen to have an emitter connected to the driver (which I do), the emitter lights up and while the command is running, the emitter flashes.

What is happening there that is causing the emitter to flash? When the avrdude command runs, does that actually cause the MCU to execute something and that just happens to cause the inputs to the 7135s to toggle?

I guess what I’m wondering is: When the programmer is connected to the MCU via the SOIC8 clip, does it power the MCU up and start the MCU running/executing the firmware?

[Halo]

It not the attiny that is flashing the led really, it’s the programmer. You’re using several pins to communicate, one of which happens to also be pwm.

[ohaya]

@Halo…

It not the attiny that is flashing the led really, it’s the programmer. You’re using several pins to communicate, one of which happens to also be pwm.

Ahh. Ok. So the MCU is actually not executing instructions during this process, but the PWM pin just happens to be toggling, which is causing the emitter to flash since the 7135s’ Vdd pin is also connected to the MCU PWM pin?

Is that correct?

EDIT: So, I could use this to program an isolated (e.g., only clipped to the SOIC8 clip and not even soldered onto a PCB) MCU chip and then solder the chip onto a PCB afterwards, and that would work correctly?

[Halo]

Well, MCU is executing instructions but it’s been put into programing mode via it’s reset pin. The only thing it does is talk to the programmer. They talk back and forth, not just one way.

Yes, you can flash bare chips. The attiny is provided power from the programmer.

Btw, you don’t have a battery connected while programing, right? You shouldn’t.

[ohaya]

@Halo…

Well, MCU is executing instructions but it’s been put into programing mode via it’s reset pin. The only thing it does is talk to the programmer. They talk back and forth, not just one way.

Yes, you can flash bare chips. The attiny is provided power from the programmer.

Btw, you don’t have a battery connected while programing, right? You shouldn’t.

No, luckily so far, I’ve just been working with the SOIC8 clip clipped on an MCU on a driver that is outside of a light, isolated. Thanks for that though, I was wondering about that.

[ohaya]

I guess I qualify as “lazy”, but I was wondering if anyone knows if I take one of the .hex files from the .zip from this thread:

How To Build a Flashlight With Perfect Modes (picture heavy)

So, you want a flashlight with modes that are just right but can't find the one, no matter how hard you look? You are especially craving for a light that can be programmed with light levels ranging from hardly visible to full blast can't-see-anything-but-dark-spots-for-a-few-minutes when accidentally shone into your eyes? Onna stick In a P60-style host? Well, today's your lucky day. Building It First, you will need to organize a few parts. From left to right, the NANJG 101-AK pimped with a four…

and just use avrdude and burn that to a NANJG, will that work? I’m thinking of the “Extended” .hex file.

Thanks,
Jim

EDIT: I was able to use avrdude to burn the BLF-VLD firmware. I think, but not sure if it’s working (the modes don’t seem right), but the burn worked ok.

However, I used the usbavar.bat from Warhawk’s dropbox and I did notice that there are some weird character’s in the .bat file. If you do “type usbavr.bat” you see them and you have to re-edit the file with Wordpad to get rid of them. After that the burn worked.

Does anyone know how many the modes are supposed to work with the “fixed” version of the BLF-VLD?

Thanks,
Jim

[Halo]

Yes, a hex file should work directly.

Did you flash the fuses recommended for the firmware? Not familiar with the fixed BLF-VLD.

You’ve seen Toykeeper’s firmware and her firmware repository, right? She has lots of different firmware and some hex files in there too.