On 22.02.17 09:50, Dave Cole wrote: > Is anyone using the ATMEL ICE and Atmel Studio 7 IDE to do Arduino > programming and debug? > > http://blog.solutions-cubed.com/debugging-arduino-sketches-with-atmel-studio-7/
The Atmel ICE referenced there is fancier than the one I used more than a decade ago, at least in the range of targets it supports. (I just use the GNU toolchain, as "Unix _is_ the IDE" in my little world, and GUIs don't seem worth the inconvenience.) > Apparently when using that combo you can do breakpoints during debug. ISTR that even the old one provided several breakpoints, which are needed if you have to capture which way the code branched, and there are several possibilities. > The ICE uses the 6 pins on the Arduino rather than the USB port Yes, it talks SPI to on-chip hardware which does the actual RT breakpoint matching, IIRC. (So the USB port is a completely unrelated peripheral in this context.) > and circumvents the regular Arduino boot loader that is used with the > Arduino IDE. Yes, it also functions a programmer, just like an STK500 or any of the AVR programming dongles swarming on the intertubes. It's great for programming a new bootloader too, if needed. > However Atmel Studio can also be used without circumventing the > Arduino boot loader as well. So what is the best way to go? Debugging and programming need not be performed with the same device, but is most convenient if the debugger doesn't have to be disconnected when downloading new code. That should be possible with USB download as well, probably, so whatever is easier with a cup of coffee in the other hand. > I need to do some code debug which is going to be really difficult to > debug without using breakpoints. For the first two decades of RT embedded software development, I always had an ICE, and believed they were essential for the task. Over the following decade I learned that a hell of a lot can be done without, and stopping at a breakpoint can be inferior to capturing a snapshot byte or two in RAM, then logging them via the UART, to a monitoring PC. BUT, even in that last decade, there _were_ times when we made sure there was an ICE at our elbow, even if it had to be shipped in from Japan, as in the case of the NEC V850 target. At $60, I'd snaffle one, just as insurance for meeting project deadlines. (Even if the project is just DIY stuff.) > Print statements via the Arduino IDE is not going to cut it. Life is > too short. When developing an 8-channel PABX phone interface card, using an ATmega64, I made sure we had the UART going first, and logged such things as per-channel state transitions via that. It turned out better than an ICE, because it gave more insight _and_ didn't stop the multi-threaded multi-instance state machines; the itty-bitty OS kept chugging, with its timer service, so that software timers could still elapse, even as we were capturing debug guff. A breakpoint is a crowbar in the gears - not always the best debugging solution in RT applications. Development can be faster without an ICE, if you hold your mouth right. ;-)) > Is using the Atmel ICE the way to go, or is simply using the Atmel > Studio 7 IDE sufficient for difficult debugs. > The Atmel ICE interface is only $60, Atmel Studio is a free download, > so its really not expensive. Yep, it's amazingly cheap, and it is comforting to know it's in the box under the desk. I'd give it a whirl, but e.g. building the code up from a little round-robin scheduler blinking a LED, to running two tasks, each blinking at a different rate, to multi-threaded multi-instance state machines, means each capability increment has little to debug, and logging might be just as good, in practice. It's cheap peace of mind, innit? Hopefully attempting to answer your questions is a bit more useful than chirruping names and numbers of other CPUs that you're not using. Yes, we all have our favourites, and the use-my-cpu-with-cream-cheese-and-pickles non-answers crop up on other lists as well. Sigh. Sometimes I pick up a sub-$10 (including postage and USB cable) Arduino board and a bare "shield" on Ebay, just to use as cheap quick hardware, blow away the bootloader, and use it as a bare ATmega328P, hitting it with GCC and a programmer. (Just don't tell anyone that I do most of the programming in assembler, especially the state machines, for which I have a mini "language" created with assembler macros.) Erik ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Check out the vibrant tech community on one of the world's most engaging tech sites, SlashDot.org! http://sdm.link/slashdot _______________________________________________ Emc-users mailing list Emc-users@lists.sourceforge.net https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/emc-users
