Week 04: Embedded Programming¶

Demonstration and Comparison of Embedded Development Toolchains¶

On the 4th of ou week, this section demonstrates and compares the development workflows used for programming embedded microcontrollers. Different embedded architectures use different toolchains, programming environments, debugging tools, and communication methods as follow.

The goal of this exercise is to understand how software is developed, compiled, uploaded, and debugged in embedded systems.

Starting with the ebedded concept with Local instructor, Rico¶

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Embedded Architectures Tested¶

The following architectures and development environments were explored:

Architecture	Microcontroller	Toolchain
AVR	ATmega328 / ATtiny	Arduino IDE / AVR-GCC
ARM	SAMD21 / Cortex-M	Arduino IDE / PlatformIO
RISC-V	ESP32-C3	ESP-IDF / Arduino
Simulation	ESP32	Wokwi Simulator

1. AVR Architecture Workflow (ATmega / ATtiny)¶

Toolchain¶

Arduino IDE our focus
AVR-GCC compiler
avrdude uploader

Installation Steps¶

Step 1 — Install Arduino IDE

Go to https://www.arduino.cc/en/software

Download Arduino IDE for your OS.

Install the program.

Launch Arduino IDE.

Step 2 — Install Board Manager

Open Arduino IDE

Navigate to Search for Tools → Board → Boards Manager

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Arduino AVR Boards

Click Install

Step 3 — Connect the Board

Connect Arduino board using USB cable

Select board

Tools → Board → Arduino Uno

Select port

Tools → Port → COMx

Programming¶

Example Code

void setup() {
  pinMode(13, OUTPUT);
}

void loop() {
  digitalWrite(13, HIGH);
  delay(1000);
  digitalWrite(13, LOW);
  delay(1000);
}

Upload Program¶

Click Upload in the Arduino IDE to upload the program to the microcontroller.

Workflow¶

Code → Compile → Upload → Run

Debugging¶

AVR debugging options:

Method	Description
Serial Monitor	Print debug messages
LED Indicators	Simple hardware debugging
AVR Debugger	Hardware debugging tool

Example Debugging Code¶

Serial.begin(9600);
Serial.println("System started");

Open the Serial Monitor from:

Tools → Serial Monitor

Method	Description
UART	Serial communication
SPI	High-speed peripheral communication
I2C	Sensor communication
USB	Programming and serial communication

Communication Protocols¶

Protocol	Use
UART	Serial communication
SPI	Sensors and displays
I2C	Sensor networks
CAN	Industrial communication
USB	Data and programming

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