In the 32-bit microcontroller market, ARM has a trend of rivers and lakes. However, in the face of various applications in the real world, 8-bit machines still have a lot of martial arts. At the same time, all the Grand Plains are launching the ARM kernel microcontrollers, which is constantly enriched to optimize their own domestic product lines to meet the complex demand of the market. AVR, PIC, STM8, etc. These classic 8-bit machine kernels are also informuring various product lines. In particular, open source hardware Arduino is more glow for youth of the AVR microcontroller. Everyone realizes that these classic microcontrollers can not only use simple and functional weakness, but also fully meet many specific applications. Recently received an 8-bit microcontroller evaluation board --ATmega168 xplained mini, this is a mini evaluation board of XPlained platform, and you will introduce you to everyone.
Packing is still very delicate, Atmel consistent style, just MINI's box is also small.
Open the box, it is a mini version, very simple design, a glimpse. Even the USB connector is saved, and the USB plug shape is done directly on the printing board, which can be directly inserted into the computer USB port, so the USB cable does not need.
Atmel's consistent blue PCB board, the original evaluation board is really good, even if the thickness of the two layers has reached 2mm.
Atmega168 XPlained Mini can actually see the minimum system board of the Atmega168 microcontroller, the most complex part of the board is the EDBG onboard debugger circuit of the ATMEL. The evaluation board fully complies with the spirit of DIY, not only reserved the Arduino R3 version and the expansion interface, but also reserved a large prototype area (can be used as a cave board), and the user can freely expand DIY.
The unique installed extension interface of the board is a 10-pin JTAG debug interface (distance 1.27mm), which is used for microcontroller programming for onboard debugger circuitry. Although the circuit is very simple, we will first take a look at the resources on the evaluation board.
EDBG Debugger: Microcontroller ATMEGA32U4
JTAG interface: 2x5 pin, spacing 1.27mm
Microcontroller ATMEGA168PA: Maximum operating frequency 20MHz, onboard 16kb flash, maximum I / O number of 23, 32PIN TQFP package
Reset button
2 LEDs
SPI interface
Arduino R3 interface
USB interface
Prototype: Reserved welding point (cave board)
It can be seen that the main part on the evaluation board is the EDBG USB debugger circuit, which can be used as a standard circuit reference. However, because the USB interface is done directly on the PCB board, there is no USB voltage protection circuit, this still has some hidden dangers.
The power supply of the ATMEG168PA microcontroller is controlled by Atmega32U4, so if the Atmega32U4 program is not working, Atmega168Pa is no power. Look at the back of the assessment board, you will find a small flying line, which is relatively few in the product. After reading the schematic, this flying line is a connection clock, because the ATMEGA168PA clock can be connected to the external clock, from the upper level atmega32u4 16MHz clock signal, of course, if the atmega168pa can also use the internal clock. You can choose a clock to provide some flexibility, no matter how this flying line is relatively rare, you can only say that the week is not considered when the wiring is.
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Do not cover up, we still come to understand the main controller atmega168pa on the evaluation board. Although only 8 bits of RISC architecture microcontrollers, the on-chip resources are also very rich. Its biggest feature is that 5 Power Save schema power consumption can be used in system programming and on-chip debug. Most of the Atmega168Pa only requires a single cycle operation, and on the on-chip Flash resource reaches 16KB, you can meet some big code applications.
Maximum operating frequency 20MHz
16KB Flash, 512B EEPROM, 1KB SRAM
Maximum 23 users available I / O, 32 PIN TQFP package
Integrated USART, SPI, TWI, counter, watchdog, etc.
Support 8-channel 10-bit ADC
Integrated internal crystal oscillator, temperature sensing
Wide operating voltage 1.8V-5.5V
Let's take a look at the work of the evaluation board. First, it is recommended to use Atmel's development tool atmel studio, although other AVR development tools can be used, Atmel Studio is still best. Atmel Studio is the officially launched free development tool that currently supports AVR and Atmel ARM kernel microcontroller development. The biggest advantage of Atmel Stduio is that there is almost all of the resources that need to be used, including evaluation board hardware documents, drivers, various software documents, routines all you need to find almost. Users don't need to find driver files or data sheets, explain files, and more. The latest version has arrived at ATMEL Studio6.2, the most surprisingly, now which also integrates support for Arduino IDE.
After power-on, if you install Atmel Stduio, you don't have to worry about the USB driver problem, you will automatically identify the EDBG interface. EDBG is an ATMEL unique onboard debugger, which not only eliminates external debugging tools, but also generates virtual serial ports can be used to communicate with hosts. The EDBG debugger greatly facilitates the debugging of the evaluation board. If you have used Arduino, there must be a worry that cannot debug the procedure, that is, an external debug tool is also required using the ISP interface.
DEMO program
The evaluation board presets Demo program, this program is very interesting, not a simple lighting LED function. Instead of a Morse codec, you can interact through the serial program window. Simply put is that the evaluation board can decode the characters entered by the serial port to drive the LED bright and destroy, the same, the button action we press the evaluation board can also decode as characters in the serial program display. The Morse code of the ATMEL five characters will be sent when the program is initialized.
In the serial port sending characters can decode through the LED reality, the same, the same, the key operation can be decoded in the serial port display.
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Program debugging
The DEMO program can be downloaded on the official website. Atmega168 XPlained Mini Evaluation Board The biggest improvement is to debug the AVR controller via the onboard EDBG. The previous AVR controller debugging requires external debugging tools such as AVR Dragon, JTagice, and more. Let's take a look at how to debug the download program with an EdBG.
Use a simple button to flip the LED program, first try Debug after compiling. Select Project->properties in the menu. Pop-up setting window. Select MEDBG and DEBUGWIRE under Tool tabs.
After the setting is complete, select Menu Debug-Start Debugging and Break, enter the debug interface, you can start program debugging, single-step running or set breakpoints, and more.
The evaluation board can also download the burning program directly through the ISP interface of the EDBG connection microcontroller. Select menu Tools->Device programming, pop up the set window. Then Tool selects Medbg, select Atmega168Pa, and ISP under Interface. Apply after the Memory tag starts programming directly.
Atmega168 XPlained mini evaluation board is simple, but the degree of freedom is very large. We can also debug the download program through the ISP interface on the board, programming the Atmega32U4 controller through JTAG, especially the Arduino compatible interface makes the evaluation board can also change the ARDUINO controller of a mini version, how to apply everyone to discover .
summary
Introduced Atmel's latest Atmega168 XPlained mini evaluation board. You can support the onboard EDBG debugger, you can directly debug the 8-bit AVR microcontroller atmega168pa, which is more convenient to use without additional debugging tools. The evaluation board is compatible with the Arduino R3 extension interface, the application range is wider, and the prototype reserved on the board makes the evaluation board more flexible, which is very suitable for a variety of DIY.
Author: zxq6
Reference
Atmega168 XPlained Mini Evaluation Board
Atmel Chinese Forum
Atmel atmega168pa microcontroller
Atmel IDE Development Tool Atmel Studio6.2
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Original declaration: This article is originally created by the panel network, declined!
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