STK600 AVR board on Linux using C" /> STK600 AVR board on Linux using C">

Silviu Tantos (razius)

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Programing the STK600 AVR board on Linux using C

meta = {'category': tech, 'date': 27-09-2012}

tags = [avr, debian, linux, ubuntu, ]

Setting up the developing enviroment

Note: I’m assuming you have a .deb based distribution and a AVR STK600 board with a ATmega2560 microcontroller that you are programming using an USB cable.

Installing the software

We need to install the following programs and their dependencies:

  • gcc-avr: The GNU C compiler (cross compiler for avr)
  • gdb-avr: The GNU Debugger for avr
  • avr-libc: Standard C library for Atmel AVR development
  • avrdude: Tool to download the compiled code and data to the Atmel AVR microcontroller

Install them by running the following command:

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$ sudo apt-get install avrdude avrdude-doc gcc-avr binutils-avr avr-libc simulavr gdb-avr

Setting up the permissions

In order to download the firmware on the device as a regular user we need to setup some udev rules for device permissions otherwise we get the following errors:

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avrdude: usb_open(): cannot read serial number...
avrdude: usb_open(): cannot read product name...
avrdude: usbdev_open(): error setting configuration 1...
avrdude: usbdev_open(): did not find any USB device...

Create a new file under /etc/udev/rules.d/ named 41-atmega.rules with the following content:

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SUBSYSTEM=="usb", ATTR{idVendor}=="03eb", ATTR{idProduct}=="product_id", OWNER="my_username", GROUP="my_group", MODE="0666"

Where you need to replace product_id, my_username and my_group with your own values.

my_username is the username that you login to the system, you can find it by running the following command:

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$ id -gn

my_group is the primary group of your username, you can find it by running the following command:

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$ id -un

product_id is the USB Product ID assigned by the manufacturer, you can find it by running the following command:

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$ lsusb |grep Atmel | awk '{ print $6 }' | awk 'BEGIN { FS = ":" } ; { print $2 }'

Reload udev to apply our rules:

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$ sudo /etc/init.d/udev reload

Finally, be sure to disconnect and reconnect the AVR board for the new rule to be applied.

Creating a new project

Create a new file named test.c with the following content:

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/* Sample C program to turn on all leds on the AVR */

#include <avr/io.h>

int main(void) {
    DDRA = 0xFF;
    PORTA = ~0xFF;
    return 0;
}

Create a new file named Makefile with the following content:

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CC=`which avr-gcc`
CFLAGS=-g -Os -Wall -mcall-prologues -std=c99 -mmcu=atmega2560
OBJ2HEX=`which avr-objcopy`
AVRD=`which avrdude`
# Modify TARGET to match your C static without the .c extension (it's test.c in this case)
TARGET=test

program : $(TARGET).hex
    $(AVRD) -p atmega2560 -c stk600 -P usb -v -v -U flash:w:$(TARGET).hex
%.obj : %.o
    $(CC) $(CFLAGS) $< -o $@

%.hex : %.obj
    $(OBJ2HEX) -R .eeprom -O ihex $< $@

clean :
    rm -f *.hex *.obj *.o

Now all you have to do is run make in the project folder to build the binary and upload it to the AVR Board:

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$ make
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