Readme.txt

   1 This is the README file for USBaspLoader.
   2
   3 USBaspLoader is a USB boot loader for AVR microcontrollers. It can be used on
   4 all AVRs with at least 2 kB of boot loader section, e.g. the popular ATMega8.
   5 The firmware is flashed into the upper 2 kB of the flash memory and takes
   6 control immediately after reset. If a certain hardware condition is met
   7 (this condition can be configured, e.g. a jumper), the boot loader waits for
   8 data on the USB interface and loads it into the remaining part of the flash
   9 memory. If the condition is not met, control is passed to the loaded firmware.
  10
  11 This boot loader is similar to Thomas Fischl's avrusbboot and our own
  12 bootloadHID, but it requires no separate command line tool to upload the data.
  13 USBaspLoader emulates Thomas Fischl's USBasp programmer instead. You can thus
  14 use AVRDUDE to upload flash memory data (and if the option is enabled) EEPROM
  15 data.
  16
  17 Since USBaspLoader cooperates with AVRDUDE, it can be used in conjunction with
  18 the Arduino software to upload flash memory data.
  19
  20
  21 FILES IN THE DISTRIBUTION
  22 =========================
  23 Readme.txt ........ The file you are currently reading.
  24 firmware .......... Source code of the controller firmware.
  25 firmware/usbdrv ... USB driver -- See Readme.txt in that directory for info
  26 License.txt ....... Public license (GPL2) for all contents of this project.
  27 Changelog.txt ..... Logfile documenting changes in soft-, firm- and hardware.
  28
  29
  30 BUILDING AND INSTALLING
  31 =======================
  32 This project can be built on Unix (Linux, FreeBSD or Mac OS X) or Windows.
  33
  34 For all platforms, you must first describe your hardware in the file
  35 "firmware/bootloaderconfig.h". See the documentation in the example provided
  36 with this distribution for details. Then edit "firmware/Makefile" to reflect
  37 the target device, the device's boot loader address and fuse bit values.
  38
  39 Building on Windows:
  40 You need WinAVR for the firmware, see http://winavr.sourceforge.net/.
  41 To build the firmware with WinAVR, change into the "firmware" directory,
  42 check whether you need to edit the "Makefile" (e.g. change device settings,
  43 programmer hardware, clock rate etc.) or bootloaderconfig.h and type "make"
  44 to compile the source code. Before you upload the code to the device with
  45 "make flash", you should set the fuses with "make fuse". To protect the boot
  46 loader from overwriting itself, set the lock bits with "make lock" after
  47 uploading the firmware.
  48
  49 Building on Unix (Linux, FreeBSD and Mac):
  50 You need the GNU toolchain and avr-libc for the firmware. See
  51     http://www.nongnu.org/avr-libc/user-manual/install_tools.html
  52 for a good description on how to install the GNU compiler toolchain and
  53 avr-libc on Unix. For Mac OS X, we provide a read-made package, see
  54     http://www.obdev.at/avrmacpack/
  55
  56 To build the firmware, change to the "firmware" directory, edit "Makefile"
  57 and bootloaderconfig.h as described in the Windows paragraph above and type
  58 "make" to compile the source code. Before you upload the code to the device
  59 with "make flash", you should set the fuses with "make fuse". Then protect the
  60 boot loader firmware with "make lock".
  61
  62
  63 WORKING WITH THE BOOT LOADER
  64 ============================
  65 The boot loader is quite easy to use. Set the jumper (or whatever condition
  66 you have configured) for boot loading on the target hardware, connect it to
  67 the host computer and (if not bus powered) issue a Reset on the AVR.
  68
  69 You can now flash the device with AVRDUDE through a "virtual" USBasp
  70 programmer.
  71
  72
  73 USING THE USB DRIVER FOR YOUR OWN PROJECTS
  74 ==========================================
  75 This project is not intended as a reference implementation. If you want to
  76 use AVR-USB in your own projects, please see
  77    * PowerSwitch for the most basic example,
  78    * Automator for an HID example or
  79    * AVR-Doper for a very complex example on how to simulate a serial
  80      interface (virtual COM port).
  81 All these projects can be downloaded from http://www.obdev.at/avrusb/
  82
  83
  84 ABOUT THE LICENSE
  85 =================
  86 It is our intention to make our USB driver and this demo application
  87 available to everyone. Moreover, we want to make a broad range of USB
  88 projects and ideas for USB devices available to the general public. We
  89 therefore want that all projects built with our USB driver are published
  90 under an Open Source license. Our license for the USB driver and demo code is
  91 the GNU General Public License Version 2 (GPL2). See the file "License.txt"
  92 for details.
  93
  94 If you don't want to publish your source code under the GPL2, you can simply
  95 pay money for AVR-USB. As an additional benefit you get USB PIDs for free,
  96 licensed exclusively to you. See the file "CommercialLicense.txt" in the usbdrv
  97 directory for details.
  98
  99
 100 MORE INFORMATION
 101 ================
 102 For more information about Objective Development's firmware-only USB driver
 103 for Atmel's AVR microcontrollers please visit the URL
 104
 105     http://www.obdev.at/products/avrusb/
 106
 107 A technical documentation of the driver's interface can be found in the
 108 file "firmware/usbdrv/usbdrv.h".
 109
 110
 111 --
 112 (c) 2008 by OBJECTIVE DEVELOPMENT Software GmbH.
 113 http://www.obdev.at/