Sally Williams @ Fab Academy 2015

Assignment: 

• read a microcontroller data sheet (ATtiny 44)
• program your board to do something, with as many different programming languages and programming environments as possible

I decided that I would use the Arduino Integrated Development Environment (IDE). Wikipedia: "An IDE is a software application that provides comprehensive facilities to computer programmers for software development. An IDE normally consists of a source code editor, build automation tools and a debugger. Most modern IDEs have intelligent code completion."

Resources and useful guides

Tutorials link from 2015 archive.   

Downloaded and installed Arduino software and Java for OSX
Downloaded ATtiny support (driver, also known as 'core') from the Github repository.
Downloaded and installed the FTDI driver which enables the USB device to appear as an additional COM port available to the computer.
Followed good tutorial on installation and programming an ATtiny microcontroller with Arduino v1.6, at highlowtech.org

 

Download, installing, connect, power

I followed the tutorials to download and install the Arduino software, ATtiny support (driver) and the FTDI driver. I took power from my laptop to the LED and BUTTON (aka 'Hello Echo') board (made in previous week) and connected the FAB ISP to act as a programmer. 




Important note on theATtiny 44A Microcontroller Pin-Outs
Note that the pinouts on the microcontroller are not the same numbers in the Arduino code.
Check the corressponding numbers in the diagram and chart below:




Launching the IDE

When I first went to launch the IDE, the ATtiny would not show up in the Arduino Tools/Board list.  The file structure, following an automatic unzip, kept a folder called "attiny-ide-1.6.x" in the pathway, which prohibited the board showing up as a choice. So, on the Mac, at least this needs to be removed so that you end up with the following folder structure :  Documents > Arduino > hardware > attiny > avr




Now, by launching the Arduino IDE software again, and through 'tools' in the top menu, I was able to select the specifics for my set up: board, clock, processor, port and programmer.

Burn the Bootloader

Run the "Burn Bootloader" command from the Tools menu. This configures the fuse bits of the microcontroller. This step is only required once for each microcontroller. (This doesn't actually burn a bootloader onto the board; you'll still need to upload new programs using an external programmer).

Exploring the examples
I spent some time trying to follow, understand and make very simple but successful modifications to the existing examples in the Arduino IDE, such as 'Blink' and 'Fade'. This was my first entry into coding and slowly, I began to see how programmers build and develop programmes.

I used the very useful feature in Arduino whereby, by selecting specific syntax (double click on the word itself - if in colour), then selecting 'ctrl click', the IDE opens up a window on the arduino website describing the meaning or function of that syntax. This helped me follow the logic of Structure, Variables and Functions (see image below). In class we also received very key tutorials from our mentors, thank you!




Assignment: programming my board to do something

As my final project involved digitally counting and recording 'moments of mindfulness' (a digital counter of sorts), I decided that I would try to write a very simple code to simulate this simple series of events. For my own understanding, (and with the concern that this knowledge could be too easily forgotten, without enough practice), I tried to write detailed commentary, around the code.




 
Download code here