This week's summary

This week's exercise was to take our modified Fab Lab Echo Board and to program it using as many techniques/languages as possible. In addition, we were tasked with reading the data sheet for the microcontroller to get a better understanding of it's operation.

Tools and References

Arduino 1.0.5 (for Windows) was downloaded from http://arduino.cc and the Attiny add ons (and instructions) were downloaded from http://highlowtech.org/?p=1695
Also referenced was the tutorial at http://academy.cba.mit.edu/content/tutorials/akf/hello_echo_c.html
 

Steps

Echo and ISP connections

Modified Echo Board (left), USB to serial adapter (center) and ISP board (right)

The first attempt was to try to program the Echo Board using the previously built and tested ISP board. This could not be accomplished on my Windows PC but was done successfully on a colleague's MAC (with the exact same hardware connections). The Blink program was used for this purpose and the result indicated that the hardware (boards and cables) was good.

The Windows PC was used for several programming attempts using both my fabricated ISP, an AVR Mark II and an Arduino Uno. All of these failed due to USB or Serial port errors such as the one shown below.

Serial Port Error

Example of serial port error when attempting to upload Blink program


Multiple attempts were made to remove and replace the Arduino program. One of these attempts used the ZIP file instead of the Installer with negative results (see below). The Installer was used again and the program appeared to download properly.

Arduino UnZip failure
ZIP error when attempting to download Arduino

Further attempts using the Uno on a different Windows PC resulted in the following sync error.

Arduino Error

Back to my PC, I attempted to program from the Windows shell using the tutorial instructions, to no avail.

Terminal Error

Windows shell error


The missing link!

After many failed attempts, I discovered that there are separate USBtiny drivers required for Windows. Once I downloaded these I was able to program the Echo board and modify the blink pattern using the Arduino interface and my ISP board.

http://mightyohm.com/blog/2010/09/fixed-usbtinyisp-drivers-for-64-bit-windows-7/  (USB drivers for tinyisp for Windows)

The Outcome

Eventually, I accomplished the goal this week and learned a lot in the process.

Data Sheet

I did scan the data sheet and there is a lot of information in there. It is amazing that there is so much activity inside a small SMT chip.

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