I’ve always been interesting in getting in to Atmega development. Does anyone have a good link for where I should go to get started?

Posted at 7:59 pm on Dec 28th, 2006 by ex-parrot

avrfreaks ( http://www.avrfreaks.net/ ) is the site everybody recommends, but I’ve never really gotten into that site. Get datasheets and stuff from atmel’s own website. GCC+GAS compiles fine as an avr cross-compiler and cross-assembler/linker (if you’re under windows it’s probably easier to find a precompiled binary somewhere though). Avrdude, uavrisp and ponyprog are common loader programs, and you can get programmers and prototyping boards from places like sparkfun and olimex, or just wire some up yourself if you feel like it. At least one guy from Atmel hangs out on comp.arch.embedded and will sometimes answer your more abstruse questions.

Posted at 10:51 pm on Dec 28th, 2006 by Wim L

hmm, it seems(?) that this isn’t compatible with most lcd programs available on the net, but it looks really cool.

just a suggestion, might it be easier to use a pic with onboard usb (like http://www.sparkfun.com/commerce/product_info.php?products_id=231 ) to reduce the components list, or use a normal pic or avr and a FTDI chip (like the design you also linked to) to do the uart to usb conversion, which i believe now has most of the components except for a couple of capacitors built-in to it.
i guess I know how to do it hardware-wise, but software-wise is beyond me (not to mention that i really hate c and assembler)

Posted at 11:45 pm on Dec 28th, 2006 by tyler

salam

Posted at 4:38 am on Dec 29th, 2006 by saman

pretty cool, maby i can finaly use one off my 15 lcd screens i have lying around

Posted at 6:17 am on Dec 29th, 2006 by D1337

Pretty neat – I haven’t seen USB done in software only. Still, I’d agree with tyler – PICs have a nice USB framework, including demo software that acts like a serial port. It’s easy to hack up.

Posted at 11:53 am on Dec 29th, 2006 by morcheeba

ex-parrot:
I’ve always found that WinAvr (http://winavr.sourceforge.net/) combined with the Procyon Libraries (http://hubbard.engr.scu.edu/embedded/avr/avrlib/) are the best for rapid development.

Posted at 12:47 pm on Dec 29th, 2006 by monopole

oh come on. what more beautiful hack could you imagine than software usb? why pay for a hardware usb module in a pic or separate chip when you can do it in software AND comply with the specification? tyler, what do you program microcontrollers in? basic?

Posted at 9:38 pm on Dec 29th, 2006 by ret

Ret:
the link in #2 has compilers for ASM, BASIC, C and PASCAL. So the technical answer would be, Yes. Although C would most likely have the greatest flexibility, likely having the most available libraries already available.

Posted at 10:03 pm on Dec 29th, 2006 by Corwin Harris

I built a couple of these and they work great! I can recomend I built a couple of these and they work great! I can recommend this project for anyone who wants a really cheap USB-LCD connection. You can find the mega8 controller VERY cheap on Ebay if you look around for a while and buy like 20 of them. I got them for 1 euro each in that quantity a while back. The whole interface will cost you less than 3 euro :)

Posted at 1:23 am on Jan 4th, 2007 by gp

This is an even simpler way to connect a LCD via USB, although not as much of a hack (since it’s so simple :))
http://lars.englund.googlepages.com/simpleusbhd44780lcdusingftdift245

Posted at 2:35 am on Feb 4th, 2007 by lodestar