Guides

Log

2/20/24

Working through Chapter 5
- bought FTDI cable from Amazon and had to install driver from official website (simple installation process, just have the cable plugged in while it installs)
- read through the UART0 section of datasheet and code for UART functions - essentially figuring out which bits in which registers to set with the help of mnemonic definitions
- plan for next session is to write it down (for memory sake), probably solder up the speaker, and work on the chapter’s project

2/18/2024

Worked through Chapter 4 of the book
- learned about the common bit operations (bit twiddling as it’s reffered to in the book), _BV() macro, and the loop condition i < 255 when working with unsigned integers

2/15/2024

Was working on the Automatic Dog Feeder Arduino project, then fell into a rut, but back at it again
Worked through Chapter 3 of the book, learned about how hardware registers are used in code and how a MOSFET works

2/1/2024

TTIL to not buy kits if I will not be using 95% of the things in it
Instead order the required components separately and only pay for what you need

~Took a break because of other interests~

12/28/2023

Following “Make: AVR Programming” by Elliot Williams
Plan is to use the Arudino as the target for flashing (using it for both the programmer and the Atmega chip)
After that, I will do research on using a dedicated hardware programmer and getting the chip by itself separate from the Arduino (https://www.digikey.com/ordering/shoppingcart), and perhaps some of the other hardware stuff I need later in the book

~Took a break because of school~

10/13/2023

Started out intending to go through Real-Time C++ - Efficient Object-Oriented and Template Microcontroller Programming by Christopher Kormanyos
- My plan was to go through Chapter 2 learning how to build and flash the led program onto the Arduino and then going over the details of the program
The book mentioned needing to build the GNU GCC cross compiler with MinGW/MSYS, so I attempted to that and failed miserably.
- For some reason, gcc didn’t work on the MSYS terminals but I assumed that I could just use the one I already have working on Command Prompt (however it worked, I don’t know)
- Then I figured I probably need to build it on my own anyways, so I tried unpacking the required programs but lzip was not doing it for me so I gave up
- At this point, I had and still have no idea what I am doing
- But I did find some good pages to help me understand more about MSYS
  - https://www.msys2.org/
  - https://www.msys2.org/docs/environments/
I gave up on the book and found a YouTube vid from Low Level Programming
- Development is on a Linux environment and I didn’t want to bother figuring out how to install all the necessary programs/compilers on Windows so I switched over to WSL
- Typed all the code out and ran make but got:
```
  avrdude: stk500_getsync() attempt 1 of 10: not in sync: resp=0x00
  ...
```
- Searched the internet for why that is the case, and found a solution: I needed to reinstall the driver since the Arduino wasn’t showing up as “Arduino” but as “Univeral Serial Bus” on Device Managers:
- But the avr problem was still showing up, so I figured it had to do with the COM ports not translating over to WSL
  - ports show up on WSL as /dev/ttyS# where # is the COM port #
  - Have to switch over to WSL 1 since WSL 2 doesn’t support serial ports (the link also contains instructions on how to change it)
- Still didn’t work…so I tried to upload an Arduino sketch with the IDE and it worked so the Arduino isn’t broken
- Tried to flash again and it worked!! I don’t know what that’s the case but it worked
Tried with the CPP code from the book but avr-g++ doesn’t include the standard library
- https://stackoverflow.com/questions/22749477/how-to-use-c-std-with-avr-compiler
- https://stackoverflow.com/questions/22749477/how-to-use-c-std-with-avr-compiler
- https://electronics.stackexchange.com/questions/462124/can-i-use-c-stl-in-avr-gcc#:~:text=Unfortunately%2C%20avr%2Dg%2B%2B%20does,to%20find%20out%20which%20ones.
tried to use the toolchains but still have no idea how it works