I've written a development environment for AVR microcontrollers that is geared towards AVRStudio and Arduino users. I have just posted the first alpha and I'm looking for the first batch of users to use it, test it out and give me feedback.
Here's some teaser screenshots so you'll actually go to my link and try it out
Scintilla editor, with configurable syntax highlighting and indentation preferences
Docking subwindows and tabs, with workspace preference saved upon exit and reloaded at startup
Backs up open files with modifications in configurable time intervals
Supports the building of C, C++, and Arduino projects using WinAVR
Quickly configure AVRDUDE and burn your project right from the editor
Customizable project templates, apply as much or as little settings as you want
Customize your help menu with bookmarks which you can edit through an XML file, even launch your own applications
Compatibility Features
Import and export .aps files used by AVRStudio
Generates makefiles, or run your own makefile
Build process automatically detects Arduino code and builds that code in a way identical to how Arduino actually builds its code
AVRStudio Related Improvements
Uses AVRDUDE so you can use non-official programmers from within the editor
Configuration manager is very familiar
Arduino Related Improvements
Serial port terminal that supports escape sequences and displays non-printable characters
More project configurability
Apply an Arduino template to quickly choose your Arduino flavor, the chip will be choosen, clock speed set accordingly, and AVRDUDE will be set to use the bootloader.
Looks very interesting but I get the following error dialogs:
"Error loading editor strings"
"Error loading Serial Port Prefs"
"Error while creating templates, could not find a part of the path ...."
The program terminates with a fatal exception
Perhaps you are not creating the directory needed for the templates.
If I create the directory the program starts but I get an exception when I create a new project with the wizard.
I am using Win XP SP3 and running the alpha2 download
it does work with existing distributions, in the configurator you can tell it where to look for the existing installation, i think including it and then defaulting to it is better than asking the user to look for it first, as i don't know how to look for existing arduino installations automatically without scanning an entire computer
I used the wizard to create a new Arduino project (arduino 168 template and pde file type)
I compile the code (with empty setup and loop functions) and get an unhandled exception re unable to find ...\temp\arduino_temp_main.cpp
If I create the temp diectory the code will compile.
Also, it would be helpful if the wizard remembered the previously selected template and file type
I do usually place all file IO in try-catch, but i missed this one
new download up
sorry for the embarrassing slipups, i've been working on this for weeks and finally felt it was ready for the public, damn was i wrong
*** alpha 4 introduced a crash when i added the "remember last wizard pref" feature, alpha 5 is up now with F7 and F8 hotkeys for build and compile as per request of a friend
alpha 6 is out, blah, this isn't healthy, it's 4:30 am here
I did a few things and then made an automated update mechanism in alpha18
Once you have alpha18, you will not need to visit the webpage to download the packages ever again unless the updater needs an update.
Note that update mechanism WILL run if the BuildID is missing from your settings.ini , so even if you have the latest update but haven't ran the updater, the updater will want to run, please let it run once so it adds the correct BuildID to the ini file so it can keep track of available updates in the future.
Fingers crossed that this works smoothly, I wanted to lessen the annoyance to people helping me test this thing, hopefully i'm not adding any annoyances
i'm not sure how the "arduino" configuration in avrdude works. have you tried the arduino mega template? the difference is that it specifies stk500 as the programmer, inserts the -F option for you, and uses 57600 baud, you still need to pick a port. If that doesn't work, go into command line and just type it all out and see if it's my editor's problem or something else.
Ok, back at the mega template i have had a little success - i was able to upload sketches but i think i may also have found a problem.. could it be that you dont send the auto reset signal? I was onlu able to upload when resetting myself..
Hm, i have the 'Autoreset Problem' on 2 Duemilanove, the Seeeduino Mega and Modified Pico, all show the same exact behavior. Using the original IDE there is no problem with the reset though.
The other thing is that it seems - here, that programs may be compiled and even uploaded but they dont 'show' up on the arduino... The Arduino keeps running the sketch that was uploaded before (or rather: With another IDE)..
Strange.. i wished this IDE did work the way it looks - that would be finally THE ide for me...
what the heck? that is a weird problem, you mean the hex code file is generated, and the programmer reports successful upload, but the chip still executes old code?
my build method should check for the hex file's existence when it finishes, if it reports succcessful, then the hex file does exist.
avrdude, when the burn button is pressed, is set to target that file regardless of whether that file exists or not, if it does not complain that the file is missing, then it is uploading the correct file.
it seems almost as if avrdude used another file on the system, it would be impossible for my program to know where that file is :-/
does avrdude actually say that it was successful?
does the arduino bootloader support verification? all the settings in boards.txt says they use stk500's protocol, am I wrong on this?
might take a day or two to fix these things, i'll also need to burn the bootloader on a chip and test myself, good thing i actually have a freeduino board...
which should translate into something similar to what i did
the -R options will remove those sections, but actual program data should be in .text .data and .bootloader, which are not removed by -R, this is weird