___ Building your own micro-controller development board will not only improve your workshop skills, but the completed product will serve well as a hardware platform for learning embedded programming skills. The "AVR-BED" is based on Atmel’s ATmega88PA microcontroller. An ATmega328P (as in Arduino Uno and Nano boards) may be substituted if more memory is needed. The board incorporates a 2-line x 16-character LCD module, 9 LEDs, four push-buttons and a potentiometer providing a 0..5V analogue signal source. In addition, the AVR-BED incorporates a USB-serial adapter (FTDI FT232RL breakout board) interfaced to the ATmega88 on-chip UART, allowing serial data communication with a host PC. The USB connector (mini-B) provides 5V DC power to the board.
To make construction even simpler, an alternative design is based on the Arduino “Nano” board (rev 3). Compatible clones are available for less than $3.00 (AUD). The Nano board replaces many components on the AVR-BED, including the MCU chip (ATmega328P), USB-serial bridge, ISP programming port and Reset button. This design greatly reduces the number of hook-up wires needed to be soldered on the underside of the board. (See badly Photoshopped pic, above right.) The MCU pin allocations and peripheral interconnection scheme are designed so that all of the on-board resources can operate “concurrently”, assuming appropriate driver software. A peripheral function library is provided to support operation of on-board resources, plus an optional external 4x4 keypad. Pin-headers on the board allow connection of add-on devices and I/O expansion. All of the parts needed to build an AVR-BED are available at ridiculously low prices from online suppliers. The download pack contains detailed design and construction notes, a peripheral function library, plus a "test and demo" program. Sample code was developed with AVR GCC under Atmel Studio 7 IDE. Download AVR-BED Distribution Pack (zip) Embedded C Programming Tutorial for novices Here
is a self-study tutorial intended as a first course in embedded
microcontroller programming using a sub-set of the C language called
“C-less” (C language essentials). C-less was conceived to provide
enough of C to develop “real-world” applications, while avoiding
unnecessary complex constructs which novices might find overwhelming. The Tutorial is a "work in progress" (i.e. not finished yet), but the first few chapters are available for previewing or downloading here, along with its companion "C-less Reference Manual"... View/Download AVR Embedded C Tutorial View/Download C-less Reference Manual Download Tutorial Example Programs ___ Four-wire Keypad Interface to Micro-controller This article describes a technique to connect a 16-button (4 x 4) keypad or larger size keyboard to a micro-controller using only four wires. more... Graphics Function Library for Monochrome LCD Module This software package is designed for monochrome (1 bit-per-pixel) graphics LCD modules with a display format of 128 x 64 pixels. The package includes device drivers for GLCD modules based on the KS0108 controller chipset or ST7920 chip. Suitable LCD modules are sold by Adafruit and Sparkfun. Compatible LCD modules may be available at lower cost via eBay, AliExpress, etc. The package is not a hack of the Arduino "GLDC" library! My software was developed from scratch to be simpler, easier to read, more efficient and to optimise write speeds for text and bitmap image rendering. The drivers are designed for Microchip PIC devices, but hardware dependencies are confined to the low-level driver header files, to make the code easily portable to other MCU device types, e.g. ATmega. Functions provided in the LCD Graphics library:
The application includes support for Microchip's "Graphics Resource Converter" (GRC) utility. Bitmap image definitions generated by GRC can be transformed into a bitmap format suitable for display using the function LCD_PutImage(). The download package includes all project files required for development using Microchip MPLAB'X IDE. Current firmware release: v1.3.00 (June 2016) -- adds 8pt proportional-spaced font. Download LCD Graphics Package (zip) ___ Generalised User Interface for Embedded Applications ... using a graphics LCD module and keypad (or touch-panel) This
article is concerned with firmware design and implementation for
microcontroller-based devices incorporating a "local" user interface
(front panel) comprising an LCD screen and keypad (or a number of
push-buttons). The technique can be extended to build a graphical user
interface (GUI) comprising an LCD screen with touch-panel. Typical
applications will have many "screens" to be presented and, for each
screen, a selection of user options for various actions, most of which will
result in a switch to a different screen or a change in displayed information
on the current screen. For all but the most trivial of applications, navigation
from one screen to the next presents a challenge to the developer and can
easily become a convoluted mess if not handled methodically... Digital Audio (PCM) Sound Effects Software Appealing sound effects are generally too complex to be generated in real time by the target micro-controller of an embedded system. Therefore, sound effects may be synthesized by a purpose-built application and stored as a sequence of PCM samples in a data file. Saved sound effects can be loaded into flash memory in the target embedded system for fast access by an audio player function. The storage medium is typically a "serial data flash" (SDF) memory device interfaced to the MCU via SPI. However, the micro-controller’s internal flash program memory can also hold sound FX data. PCM sound effects data files can also be produced from standard audio file formats such as WAV, MP3, etc, using "Audacity" -- a free open-source audio editor application. There is a plethora of sound effects available for download on the internet. Audacity can also be used to record sounds using a microphone, CD player, sound synthesizer or musical instrument, etc. Once loaded into Audacity, audio data can be re-sampled at the required sample rate and then exported in “RAW” data format (stripped of header information) compatible with the target embedded player. The software described in this article comprises a simple sound FX synthesizer application, an audio player function and various utilities to transfer sound FX data files between the SDF memory device and a removable mass-storage device, e.g. a USB flash drive. The software was originally developed for Microchip’s PIC32MX (32-bit) micro-controller family, but could be easily customized to suit others... more... The Digital Audio software is included in the PIC32MX "Application Framework" package (below). The "PIC32MX Application Framework" is a suite of example applications comprising a command-line user interface (CLI), USB mass storage (Flash Drive) support, FAT32 file system with file management commands, real-time kernel with task scheduler, hardware RTCC support, digital audio (PCM sound effects), serial data flash memory support (SST25VF016), I2C EEPROM (24LCxx) and more. The package includes device drivers for on-chip peripherals, e.g. UARTs (interrupt or polled Rx data, queued Tx data), I2C, SPI, timers, OCx (PWM), etc, plus drivers for external devices, e.g. I2C EEPROM (24LCxx), serial data flash (SST25VF016), LCD modules (ST7920, KS0108), wireless comm's module (MRF24J40MA), etc. The example applications provide a reliable framework upon which to develop different applications. Include the code modules you need in your project; remove those not required. It is highly recommended to use the project directory structure noted in the download package, although project folders may be re-named without upsetting MPLAB'X. The hardware platform I chose for development is a low-cost "PIC32-MX460" development board from Olimex (www.olimex.com). The MCU is a PIC32MX460F512L clocked at 80MHz. The board has a prototyping area which I used to fit connectors for I/O expansion, a numeric keypad and graphics LCD module, as shown in the picture below. I shortened the board so it would fit in my chosen enclosure. I added an ICSP header (6-pin SIL, right-angle, 0.1" pitch) accessible through a cut-out in the enclosure, for more convenient connection of a programming/debugging tool (PICkit-3, etc). The tiny (useless) LCD screen was removed and a battery-backed I2C real-time clock module (MCP79410, Microchip part # AC164140) fitted in the space left vacant. The space provided for an optional RF comm's module was used instead for adding a 2MB SPI flash memory chip (SST25VF016), which I used to store PCM audio sound clips. The download package includes all project files required for development using Microchip MPLAB'X IDE. Download PIC32MX Projects (zip) All dependencies on Microchip's legacy peripheral library (PLIB) have been removed from the framework code, except for modules extracted from Microchip's Library of Applications (MLA), i.e. the USB host mass-storage stack and the MDD File System. Apart from those modules, MPLAB XC32 compiler version 1.34 and later may be used without problem. If your project needs a Microchip MLA module, you can use XC32 v1.33, or you can try to remove the PLIB dependencies by importing code from the relevant PLIB source file(s). Good luck! USBTMC/USB488 Device Firmware Stack and Reference Design Design your Test & Measurement instrument
with a VISA-compliant USB-TMC/488 interface using the IEEE488.2 command/response message
syntax, to get the following benefits:
Initial target platform is Atmel AT91SAM7-xxx (ARM7) with on-chip USB peripheral. The example "application layer" and USBTMC "class layers" (source modules) have been designed to be independent of hardware platform, so the code can be more easily ported to other platforms. The source code and supporting annotation is of professional quality. More info on the USBTMC Reference Design A licence must be purchased to use this USBTMC firmware stack in a commercial product. For licensing details, send email to the address at the top of this page. Please include your country, city, company name, web address, job title, and the hardware platform you plan to use. A "Simplified/Student Edition" (SE) intended for
non-commercial, private and educational purposes may be downloaded
freely. Download USB-TMC 'SE' Package (zip) Disclaimer: Source code and other "intellectual property" offered as free downloads on this website are original works of M. J. Bauer, except where acknowledged to the contrary. Otherwise, any resemblance to prior art originated or developed by others is purely coincidental, or due to derivation from similar works or well-established art in the public domain. The author does not accept liability for any adverse consequence of the use of "intellectual property" obtained from this site. |
Last updated: July 2020