Using AVR-GCC toolchain on Mac OS X

Has anyone here taken the leap to a Mac based AVR development system?
I'm attempting to use AVRdude with an AVRISP mkII programmer and it's
showing signs of life, but it doesn't seem to be happy when the ISP
cable is not connected to a target system. Specifically, the red/green
status LED on the AVRISP doesn't light up at all, when I was expecting
it to at least indicate the connection is bad. The green USB activity
LED works and AVRdude recognizes the programmer's serial number, so
the USB link is working. The next step of course is to make a target
board, but I like to move in small steps.

Thanks,
Joe

On Apr 15, 6:27=A0pm, "J.A. Legris" <jaleg...@sympatico.ca> wrote:
> Has anyone here taken the leap to a Mac based AVR development system?

Yes, on PowerPC Macs a long time ago, and an Intel MacBook more
recently, and it worked just fine, but in both cases I abandoned it
after tinkering for a while. It is assuredly possible to get avrdude
working, but the annoyance of (for instance) not having a GUI to edit
fuse settings is an aggravation with which I see no reason to live.

I find it less stress to use VirtualBox or Boot Camp to run the native
Windows development systems. Working with avrdude reminds me of the
old saying about X ("Programming graphics in X is like trying to
compute sqrt(pi) in Roman numerals").

Plus of course AVR is not the only processor I use, and many other
parts are harder to get working with a Mac dev environment.

You could always go to Rowley's native MacOS IDE http://www.rowley.co.uk/av=
r/
:)

On 16/04/2010 00:27, J.A. Legris wrote:
> Has anyone here taken the leap to a Mac based AVR development system?
> I'm attempting to use AVRdude with an AVRISP mkII programmer and it's
> showing signs of life, but it doesn't seem to be happy when the ISP
> cable is not connected to a target system. Specifically, the red/green
> status LED on the AVRISP doesn't light up at all, when I was expecting
> it to at least indicate the connection is bad. The green USB activity
> LED works and AVRdude recognizes the programmer's serial number, so
> the USB link is working. The next step of course is to make a target
> board, but I like to move in small steps.
>
> Thanks,
> Joe

I don't know about the Mac, but some of the key avr-gcc toolchain 
developers use FreeBSD.  The similar underlying system may then be a help.

Ask on the avr-gcc mailing list for ideas.

mvh.,

David

On Apr 15, 11:53=A0pm, larwe <zwsdot...@gmail.com> wrote:
> On Apr 15, 6:27=A0pm, "J.A. Legris" <jaleg...@sympatico.ca> wrote:
>
> > Has anyone here taken the leap to a Mac based AVR development system?
>
> Yes, on PowerPC Macs a long time ago, and an Intel MacBook more
> recently, and it worked just fine, but in both cases I abandoned it
> after tinkering for a while. It is assuredly possible to get avrdude
> working, but the annoyance of (for instance) not having a GUI to edit
> fuse settings is an aggravation with which I see no reason to live.
>
> I find it less stress to use VirtualBox or Boot Camp to run the native
> Windows development systems. Working with avrdude reminds me of the
> old saying about X ("Programming graphics in X is like trying to
> compute sqrt(pi) in Roman numerals").
>
> Plus of course AVR is not the only processor I use, and many other
> parts are harder to get working with a Mac dev environment.
>
> You could always go to Rowley's native MacOS IDEhttp://www.rowley.co.uk/a=
vr/
> :)

Thanks for the reply. Have you tried Rowley's product? The price is
right.

By the way, regarding your other thread about career changes, why
aren't you "applying" to be the President of your own company? It
would appear to be a natural progression for someone of your talents.

--
Joe

On Apr 16, 4:36=A0am, David Brown <da...@westcontrol.removethisbit.com>
wrote:
> On 16/04/2010 00:27, J.A. Legris wrote:
>
> > Has anyone here taken the leap to a Mac based AVR development system?
> > I'm attempting to use AVRdude with an AVRISP mkII programmer and it's
> > showing signs of life, but it doesn't seem to be happy when the ISP
> > cable is not connected to a target system. Specifically, the red/green
> > status LED on the AVRISP doesn't light up at all, when I was expecting
> > it to at least indicate the connection is bad. The green USB activity
> > LED works and AVRdude recognizes the programmer's serial number, so
> > the USB link is working. The next step of course is to make a target
> > board, but I like to move in small steps.
>
> > Thanks,
> > Joe
>
> I don't know about the Mac, but some of the key avr-gcc toolchain
> developers use FreeBSD. =A0The similar underlying system may then be a he=
lp.
>
> Ask on the avr-gcc mailing list for ideas.
>
> mvh.,
>
> David

I'd like to see Atmel produce a Mac version of AVR Studio, then again
we may see it as an iPad app before long.

--
Joe

J.A. Legris wrote:
> On Apr 16, 4:36 am, David Brown <da...@westcontrol.removethisbit.com>
> wrote:
>> On 16/04/2010 00:27, J.A. Legris wrote:
>>
>>> Has anyone here taken the leap to a Mac based AVR development system?
>>> I'm attempting to use AVRdude with an AVRISP mkII programmer and it's
>>> showing signs of life, but it doesn't seem to be happy when the ISP
>>> cable is not connected to a target system. Specifically, the red/green
>>> status LED on the AVRISP doesn't light up at all, when I was expecting
>>> it to at least indicate the connection is bad. The green USB activity
>>> LED works and AVRdude recognizes the programmer's serial number, so
>>> the USB link is working. The next step of course is to make a target
>>> board, but I like to move in small steps.
>>> Thanks,
>>> Joe
>> I don't know about the Mac, but some of the key avr-gcc toolchain
>> developers use FreeBSD.  The similar underlying system may then be a help.
>>
>> Ask on the avr-gcc mailing list for ideas.
>>
>> mvh.,
>>
>> David
> 
> I'd like to see Atmel produce a Mac version of AVR Studio, then again
> we may see it as an iPad app before long.
> 

Don't hold your breath waiting for Mac versions of any sort of embedded 
development tool.  There just aren't enough users to make it worth 
considering for commercial tools.  You'll find occasional open source 
tools that work, because they are often made with cross-platform 
toolkits and that by making sure everything works on Windows and Linux, 
the Mac version is almost complete for free.

Suppliers like Atmel target Windows first, and Linux as a distant second 
(there is no AVR Studio for Linux, but there is for the AVR32).  Mac 
support is non-existent.

On Apr 16, 8:18=A0am, "J.A. Legris" <jaleg...@sympatico.ca> wrote:

> > You could always go to Rowley's native MacOS IDEhttp://www.rowley.co.uk=
/avr/
>
> Thanks for the reply. Have you tried Rowley's product? The price is

Yes; I use their MSP430 and ARM products at work. I have not used the
MacOS versions but I assume the underlying compiler is identical. Much
better optimizations than avrgcc, too.

> By the way, regarding your other thread about career changes, why
> aren't you "applying" to be the President of your own company? It

I definitely don't have the resources; I'm a paycheck to paycheck
kinda guy. I would not contemplate striking out on my own unless I had
(a) a business plan that I could confidently expect to be profitable
inside a specified time, and (b) sufficient resources to live without
income for at least twice that time.

On Apr 15, 3:27=A0pm, "J.A. Legris" <jaleg...@sympatico.ca> wrote:
> Has anyone here taken the leap to a Mac based AVR development system?
> I'm attempting to use AVRdude with an AVRISP mkII programmer and it's
> showing signs of life, but it doesn't seem to be happy when the ISP
> cable is not connected to a target system. Specifically, the red/green
> status LED on the AVRISP doesn't light up at all, when I was expecting
> it to at least indicate the connection is bad. The green USB activity
> LED works and AVRdude recognizes the programmer's serial number, so
> the USB link is working. The next step of course is to make a target
> board, but I like to move in small steps.
>
> Thanks,
> Joe

Joe,

Something to consider: AVRdude is not compatible with the 'latest and
greatest' MkII firmware.  At least is wasn't the last time I checked
(about 2 months ago).  I had everything "working" until I
(accidentally) connected my programmer to a 'doze system with the
latest AVR studio loaded.  AVR studio updated the programmer, and
AVRdude quit working.  :(

RK

On Apr 16, 1:03=A0pm, d_s_klein <d_s_kl...@yahoo.com> wrote:

> (accidentally) connected my programmer to a 'doze system with the
> latest AVR studio loaded. =A0AVR studio updated the programmer, and

Good call - I forgot about that. I have the same fun issue with MSP430
development. IAR wants to "update" the USB-FET every time I use it. So
does Rowley. Round and round and round it goes; where it stops, nobody
seems to care...

On Apr 15, 6:27=A0pm, "J.A. Legris" <jaleg...@sympatico.ca> wrote:
> Has anyone here taken the leap to a Mac based AVR development system?
> I'm attempting to use AVRdude with an AVRISP mkII programmer and it's
> showing signs of life, but it doesn't seem to be happy when the ISP
> cable is not connected to a target system. Specifically, the red/green
> status LED on the AVRISP doesn't light up at all, when I was expecting
> it to at least indicate the connection is bad. The green USB activity
> LED works and AVRdude recognizes the programmer's serial number, so
> the USB link is working. The next step of course is to make a target
> board, but I like to move in small steps.
>


I was unable to get the AVRISPmkII to work properly with AVRdude on my
Mac. It almost worked, recognizing the target board and reading/
programing the ATmega8, but there were consistent read errors and
annoyingly long time-outs.

I gave up and bought a new "box-opened" Toshiba laptop running Windows
7 at Best-Buy for $420. I told the salesman I'm a Mac guy and that I
need a PC just to run a single program. He was intrigued: Which
program? What are you using it for? I gave him a quick introduction to
embedded programming and he seemed to understand. Try that at Radio-
Shack!

So I downloaded AVR Studio and WinAVR. Everything works perfectly. :)

Thanks to everyone for the help.
--
Joe