Which USB serial port adapters work well? Parallel?

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Which USB serial port adapters work well? Parallel?

Postby hamjudo » Tue Jan 18, 2005 11:30 pm

I'd like to work with the AVRcam from my laptop which has USB, but no serial or parallel ports.

My desktop has a serial port, but no parallel port.

I've got an STK300 cable, one end fits into the AVRcam, but I don't have a place to plug in the other end, yet. So I haven't tried to download version 1.4 to my camera yet.

The desktop only runs Linux, the laptop can dualboot WIndows XP or Linux. I prefer Linux.

Does it all "just work" with whatever USB serial and parallel port adapters happen to be cheapest, or do I need to get the right make and model?

Note, I did try to compile and link version 1.4 on Debian Unstable version, 1:3.4.3-1 of gcc-avr, which is based on avr-gcc 3.4.3 and avr-libc version 1:1.0.5-1. The file /usr/avr/include/avr/sleep.h from avr-libc is missing a couple semicolons in the definition of the set_sleep_mode() macro. Fixing that problem lets me compile avrcam-1.4.

I can't link it quite yet. binutils-avr version 2.15-1 doesn't seem to include the right version of avr-objcopy. Or at least it can't parse the command line correctly. What version of avr-objcopy do you use on WIndows? I suspect I'll be fine if I just build the right version of avr-objcopy.
hamjudo
 
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parallel - usb adapters

Postby techcare » Wed Jan 19, 2005 12:46 pm

It is unlikely that a USB to parallel adapter would work at all. The STK200 style programmer interface requires that the program has direct access to the parallel port hardware registers at 378h, which would not be possible with a USB adapter.

Your only solution may be to get a serial style programmer and use a USB to serial port adapter for your laptop.

Good Luck.
techcare
 

AVR programming and linux notebooks

Postby rburns » Thu Jan 20, 2005 11:51 pm

Hi there,

I develop avr code on my notebook all the time. I used to run debian, but I got a Powerbook now. What I did/still do is install a bootloader 1 time that emulates the stk500. I did this in windows :( with a homemade parallel cable. Once I had the bootloader on, all I had to do was jumper a pin on the board and reset it to go into the bootloader.
With the bootloader I use uisp to program the avr through my usb->serial adapter. The adapter I got was an iogear-232A, but basically it just uses the PL-2303 chipset which is supported in both 2.4 and 2.6 kernels. So any PL-2303 will work, plus there are several others, check the usb linux compatability page.

to use uisp with the stk500 protocol, use this option:
uisp -dserial=/dev/$(SERIAL_INTERFACE) -dspeed=$(BAUDRATE) --upload if=$(TRG).hex -dprog=stk500 -v=3 --hash=32 -dpart=$(MCU)

right now the stk500 bootloader I wrote only runs on the atmega32, although the modifications for it to run on the mega8 are minimal. I have an AVRCam on order, so once I get it I'll add support to the mega8.
If your intrested in my bootloader, let me know, but you can probably find one that does stk500 on avrfreaks or something.

Hope this helps. BTW, Debian rocks, I still use it on my desktop.
Ryan
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