W7 ¦ Embedded programming

Assignment for week 7

Data Sheet

I began by looking through the Ttiny44 microcontroller´s datasheet found at the homeworks page. There I found the necessary information on the pins that I needed later on when programming. Some of the abbreviation were more easily understood than others. Some needed deciphering.

Programming

Since I am totally new to programming I thought it best to find some tutorials on programming. I started looking at Youtube. I found it difficult to find courses that suited me. They either were way too advanced or they went into such detail but skipped the basics. I ended of watching the playlist: Free Online Programming Course in C for Beginner by Carl Herold

That was a good introduction into binary numbers. I found it a bit repetitious at times and even though it was basic computer science it failed to communicate to me the overall picture. But I learned a lot about binary and pointers!

The best course for me turned out to be Foundations of Programming: Fundamentals with Simon Allardice on Lynda.com

I can't recommend it highly enough for someone like me how is an absolute beginner in programming. It is 4 hours 15 min. It explained to me a bit of the history of programming and how it has evolved. It also helped me gain the necessary vocabulary and an understanding of the basic concepts.

From there I started watching C Essential Training with Isac Artzi

I Have not finished the course which is 7 hours and 22 min. But I aim to finishes that sometime soon. Everything is very well explained and the pace is just right for me, not too slow or too fast.

What help me the most to get comfortable with the whole electronics side of things, programming and understanding all the lingo was watching and following the Arduino Course for Absolute Beginners on Youtube from Open Source Hardware Group

Again I would recommend this to all who are taking the first steps into electronics and find themselves in the deep end. I used an Arduino from my son but I guess that it would also be useful to watch without following the steps. It gave me the soft introduction I needed and I gained a lot better understanding and more confidence in the whole process of dealing with a Ttiny44.

Programming the Ttiny44

My computer has problem with the WinAVR compiler. The WinAVR seems work fine on Windows 7 and 8 but not 8.1. (see week 10 for the solution to the probem.)

Therefore I followed the steps in the tutorial from HighLowTec. There they show a way to use the Arduino software to communicate with the Ttiny44.






All went well and I managed to get the LED and button to work together. One thing to mention is to remember to add a line of code in setup that activates the internal pullUp resistor of the button pin.



Files to download from this week



Technopedia

Good source to find out what all these new electronics abbreviation mean is a site called techopedia.

 

AVR turorials

AVR turorials.com is an exelent site There I found a lot of information that helped me understand better some of the topics troubeling me at the time.

 

Electronics tutorials

Electronics tutorials.ws is another exelent site

Floating Pins, Pull-Up Resistors and Arduino

Here the Pull-Up Resistor is explaned in a simple way. I found this very useful when trying to understand the button.



Lesson7: Embedded Programming

Here you can find the homework review for Embedded Programming on VIMEO



Review7: Embedded Programming

Here you can find the homework review for Embedded Programming on VIMEO.



EVALUATION CHECKLIST 2015 -
EMBEDDED PROGRAMING:

Skills Acquired:

  • Intro to AVR microcontrollers.
  • Able to understand datasheet basics
  • Understanding In-System Programming
  • Identify chip pinouts and their uses
  • Discern between using a bootloader (Arduino) vs ISP.
  • Difference between:
    • Programming -> one way, flashing data onto a chip
    • Serial Port (power and communication)
  • Know the difference between AVR and Arduino platform (plus no ISP).

Documentation Required for Completion :

  • Document what you learned from reading a microcontroller datasheet.
    • What questions do you have? (optional)
    • What would you like to learn more about (optional)
  • Description of programming process
  • Program board in as many programming languages as possible (at least one)
  • Your code must be documented (code must be executable, no screenshots!)
  • At bare minimum, the example code must be modified

What’s the Point?

  • Basic understanding of microcontrollers, ISP
  • How to talk to them in different languages
  • Able to understand underlying logic of a chip, so that you can go beyond the limitations of Arduino-like platforms.