The ATmega32U2 microcontroller in ATUSB needs to be programmed before the board can be used. I'm describing here what the process will ultimately be like (the boot loader still needs a bit of work until all this will be as planned).
The firmware consists of two parts: a DFU-capable boot loader and the actual application. The application implements access to the registers and memory of the AT86RF231 transceiver. The ATmega32U2 apparently comes pre-programmed with Atmel's DFU-like boot loader, but this one expects an 8 MHz crystal while what we have is an external 1 MHz clock (provided by the transceiver). To obtain the 8 MHz clock needed for operating the ATmega32U2, we first have to send a command to the transceiver. This means we need to flash our own firmware in any case. The boot loader is flashed via the ICSP protocol using the atusb-pgm adapter. The adapter is a ribbon cable with a UBB on one end and a board with pogo pins on the other end: http://downloads.qi-hardware.com/people/werner/wpan/tmp/atusb-pgm-20110203.jpg The programming is done by plugging atusb-pgm into a Ben, pushing the board on the ATUSB such that the pogo pins connect to the exposed ICSP pads, and then running avrdude on the Ben: http://downloads.qi-hardware.com/people/werner/wpan/tmp/atusb-programming.jpg There is an orange LED on atusb-pgm that happily flickers to indicate progress. Once the boot loader has been loaded, the application can be flashed over USB, with dfu-util. (This also tests USB connectivity.) To build avrdude and the firmware, you need the following qi-hardware projects: ben-blinkenlights and ben-wpan avrdude should be built according to the instructions in ben-blinkenlights/avrdude/README This avrdude also includes a patch that makes it fast-forward over Flash sections that are not being programmed. This way, programming the boot loader, which is at the very end of the Flash, requires a bit less patience. The instructions end with scp commands to install avrdude on a Ben with host name "jlime". Change as needed. Xiangfu has made an ipkg with a recent version of the "enhanced" avrdude for the qi-hw OpenWRT distribution. The firmware requires very recent versions of the AVR cross-compilation toolchain. ben-wpan/atusb/fw/README explains how to build it. After that, a simple "make" in ben-wpan/atusb/fw will generate the boot loader (boot.hex) and the application (atusb.bin). I'll provide pre-compiled versions when we approach production. To upload the files to the Ben, run "make upload" if your Ben's host name is "jlime". Otherwise, use "make HOST=name upload" To run avrdude, first bring atusb-pgm into position, then run make prog or make HOST=name prog If the programming and verification is successful, the LED will flicker for a few seconds and then avrdude will thank you for using it. Otherwise, you'll see an error message and have to try again. The application will be downloaded by plugging atusb into a PC and running make dfu (if an application has already been flashed, i.e., if this is an upgrade and not the first programming, then the make dfu has to be issued within two seconds after plugging the atusb into the PC.) For (non-production) direct flashing of the application, without using a boot loader, use make prog-app - Werner _______________________________________________ Qi Hardware Discussion List Mail to list (members only): [email protected] Subscribe or Unsubscribe: http://lists.en.qi-hardware.com/mailman/listinfo/discussion
