Replies: 15 comments 15 replies
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For me I have access to Intel x86_64 Windows 10/11; Mac Mini M1 (ARM64) and Linux (Intel x86_64 and ARM64 with Raspberry Pi 400). I can also test FreeBSD, OpenBSD and NetBSD using virtual machines inside Windows or Proxmox V7.4 or v8 (low power Intel CPU based mini PC). The following tools are as on 23-Oct-2023. As for programmers, I have the following.
No plans to get as of now: I have the following boards as well.
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My main development system is FreeBSD, so for sure, I'm going to test this. |
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Brilliant idea. This is very, very helpful. Automation is key. Something along the lines of "tricky" .hex files (with holes, etc) for flash upload/download (one of each relevant class of AVR?), automated EEPROM r/w tests, etc. |
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I haven't thought that far! In the first instance I thought of neat little shell scripts that can test paged flash and eeprom r/w, byte read/write for non flash (or when it's the only method), maybe even write a few safe fuse bytes under carefully choreographed scenarios etc. But yes, the thought of an array of 45 programmers times 5 different MUCs (one per family) that are always connected to an RPi and will rush into action every time someone commits so much as removing a typo in a comment has something! It's just 225 devices, and with an estimated power of 2 W/device will "only" cost a few thousand USD/GBP/EUR per year to run... :) OTOH, if there was a clever way of multiplexing a dozen of key programmers with 5 MCUs through an interface that the RPi can control then this would be the most wonderful whacky (in a good sense) CI that certainly I've come across... |
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It is always difficult to carry out CI when HW is involved. There are similar discussions in libusb, libusbdotnet and pyusb. Ref: pyusb discussion In the end, emulated USB device is kind of used in libusb. So one way is to develop a "Software emulated hardware" to test avrdude, but it is probably not easy. |
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I am located in Singapore and I know Chinese so I usually buy stufff from Taobao (part of AliBaba group). For example I bought the JTAG ICE clone from Taobao for about US$7.64 (RMB 45 for the unit + 7% GST for Singapore + RMB 3 sea shipment = RMB 51.15 = about US$7.64 ). Sea shipment is cheaper but it will take me about 1 month to get the stuff. So sometimes I use local online stores like Shopee or Lazada, which has faster shipment (sometimes the stock is already in Singapore, sometimes it is from China). You can probably buy from AliExpress (part of Alibaba group) which offers global shipment. Or you can look at other places like Amazon. A quick search shows around US$7 to US$20 for the JTAG ICE clone. My one is the square box type and not the usbasp type. Similar search for AliExpress for AVRISP mkii. My one is at about US$15. The FT232RL with AVR ISP pin header (blue one) is at US$1.44 plus shipment. |
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For ATxemga break-out or development board, there are not many choices. I found the following from mcuzone. I have bought the ATxmega32D4 mini board from their Taobao shop (which has more options than their AliExpress shop) but I have not figured out how to progam using the PDI interface with the AVR Dragon or the AVRISP mkii clone. |
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Nice link here for DIY programmers, including various updi versions like serialupdi, updi-HV, and also usbasp/usbtinyisp
There are many usbasp clones out there -- mostly based on the original design using Atmega8/8A, but there are others using ATmega88/88A. In particular, there are Chinese clones (usually called USBISP) which are using ATmega88 and present as USB HID device. Those clones are using ProgISP and not compatible avrdude. However, some of them can be upgraded using the FW here (USB composite FW with WinUSB and HID). I was able to change one of them to use usbasp FW. But the other two clone failed. You need to short two test PCB vias and then use another programmer to upgrade the FW.
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STK500 schematics are openly available so there are also many clones (usually just the programmer portion). Very few of them will support HVSP/HVPP. But I can see there are different clones claimed to be STK500v2 compatible but may not exactly the same (some of them do not even use AT90S8535/ATmega8535). Waveshare seems to be the more famous clone for STK500v2/AVRISP (ISP portion, no HV programming) Then there are various clone schematics for AVR JTAG ICE. There are also clones of AVRISP mkii. For example, Waveshare AVRISP XPII seems to be the more famous one. But there are cheap ones which seem to work fine as well. There are also clones of JTAG ICE mkii (not many). But the price is not cheap. MCUzone has clones for STK500v2, JTAG ICE, and JTAG ICE mkii. They seem to have the cheapest JTAG ICE mkii clone at RMB480 plus GST + shipment (about RMB516.6 or US$77 to reach me by sea shipment). Probably it is good enough to own an official PICKit 4 at US$77 (or SNAP at US$34.09) than to look at JTAG ICE mkii clone. Most of the people will probably not need Atmel-ICE or Power Debugger. |
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@MCUdude wrote here:
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The following page is a good summary of AVR programmers (in German but Google Translate seem to work well). |
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I have never tried to use HV programming previously. Today I tried to use it using my STK500 clone (with HVPP sockets for M16/M32 and M8).
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For DIY UPDI programmers, either jtag2updi or serialupdi can be a good choices. serialupdi One of the better design of serialupdi programmer is from @MCUdude. He has also the microupdi programmer. |
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I have a AVRISP mkii which did not work. Today I used Microchip Studio to upgrade the FW from 1.23 to 1.24 and now it works.
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My main host side stuff.
Intel J4105 and Intel J4125 Mini PC running Proxmox Virtual Environment (PVE), Linux/BSD VMs and LxC Linux Containers. The Intel J4105 mini PC has 4 gigabit ports and I play with home networking stuff using it with a WiFi 6 Access Point attached to it. You can see that I am running OpenWRT now and two LxC conainers (one with Pi-hole and the other with Adguard Home). But it also runs BSD and Linux VMs so that I can carry out tests of avrdude and other open source projects as well. USB passthrough works better in PVE than VirtualBox. I am slowly building up PVE8 on the Intel J4125 mini PC (single 2.5Gbe adapter). |
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It will be good to create a list of testing facilities for the volunteer testers: OS, Programmers and AVR chips.
OS: Windows (not so sure who have ARM64 Windows machine), Linux (x86_64, ARM64), macOS (Intel or ARM64), FreeBSD, etc
Programmers: Microchip programmers supported by Microchip for AVR chips (PICKit 2 is not one of them); non-Microchip programmers
AVR chips or development boards: Microchip official boards will usually have the programmer built-in. Arduino boards will usually have the bootloaders.
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