This is the current "pro" upload/debug jtag/isp/pdi/etc programmer from Atmel (well, Microchip, now)
Works with both AVRs and the SAM ARM chips.
I'm really tempted. I wish the discount applied to the PCB-only version, I'd grab that in a second.
It seems like I could easily make the cables so with the sale the kit comes out to be a little more than I would spend for the PCB at normal price.
I've been thinking of buying one of the $5 JTAGICE clones on eBay just to see if this is something that will end up being useful to me but I won't have any real use for it because it doesn't support any of the parts I use so in the end it's $5 that could have gone towards the real debugger. If I did buy one it's uncertain whether it would arrive from China before the Atmel ICE sale ends on the 28th, especially with Chinese New Years.
I'm a hobbyist with some years of experience with Arduino but no formal training or plans for a career in electronics or programming. I use only AVR and have no immediate plans to work with SAM. I use the Arduino IDE. I don't mind using an external tool with the debugger but I don't want to switch to a different IDE (because I want to continue to act as a beta tester for the Arduino IDE). I definitely don't want to use or even install Atmel Studio. How useful do you think an Atmel ICE would actually be to me? I'm really struggling to justify spending $77 on my hobby for a single tool.
I realized I left out some relevant details in my last reply:
Due to limited budget and being able to get by without, I don't own an oscilloscope, logic analyzer, or even good quality soldering tools. So that $77 could definitely be spent elsewhere. There's also the time spent setting up debugging tools and learning how to use them.
My projects tend to be poll some slow inputs, switch some relays. The most complex part is network communication via W5500 as the user interface or sending commands/data between devices, without any need for high speed. So most of the code is not timing-critical. I don't use interrupts very much in my own code. I have rarely encountered "heisenbugs" where the delay of a serial print either prevents or causes a bug.
I'm mostly working with ATmega1284P so I don't often run into the problem of the memory being insufficient to support the overhead of debug output over serial.
I'm working very high level, with only the most basic understanding of the low level stuff (assembly, registers, memory structure). I'm capable of learning this stuff but don't have a burning desire to do so just for the sake of knowledge. I'm more interested in getting a working project than understanding every tiny detail under the hood. I have used source-interleaved avr-objdump disassembly output a little but only to identify the program line where a watchdog interrupt occurred.
I'm grateful for any advice anyone with debugger experience can offer me on this decision.
How useful do you think an Atmel ICE would actually be to me?
If you were wanting to "step up to a more professional IDE than Arduino", the Atmel ICE would give you seamless integration and debugging with Atmel Studio - "effortless" upload, fuse-programming, debugging, and etc...
I'll have to admit that I rarely use mine (nor the Xplained-mini 328p boards that have built-in debugging) when writing arduino code; most of the stuff where you need that level of debugging is already written and is "proven" code. And of course the Arduino IDE itself does not support debugging (though it does support the ICE as a "Programmer"), so you would have to start using Atmel Studio (or some even-more unfriendly environment) to get much use out of it.
Still, people have asked about "more powerful" IDEs, so I thought the sale was worth mentioning.
Thanks for the input! As I said, I'm reluctant to move to a different IDE because I have been able to make significant contributions to the Arduino project by always using the hourly or beta build and reporting bugs before they get released. I spent a week using Atmel (or was it Visual?) Studio with the Visual Micro plugin a couple years back and really didn't miss anything that an external editor can't cure when I switched back to the Arduino IDE. Maybe I didn't get the full AS experience because I was using the plugin.
I fully understand that integration with an IDE would be desirable but I was thinking when I need to debug I could use GDB with some other simple interface program and just point it to the .elf file produced by the Arduino IDE. I definitely would want something that would show which line of the actual code the program is at.
What made me feel like I might need a debugger was someone saying "I'm too lazy to program without a debugger". A tool that will save me many hours of debugging over the years is definitely worth $77.
I went ahead and bought a cheap JTAGICE clone to get an idea of what I'm missing out on. Maybe I'll win the China shipping lottery and get it before the 28th.
I'm sure others are very happy to know about the sale. Saving $65 is a good tip! This seems like a tool that would be useful for many years to come because you can still use it even if you move on to SAM chips.
Thank you both for your posts.
The moment I saw the OP, I instinctively added the ICE in my basket!
After reading the posts that followed however, I found myself at more or less the same position as pert. I wouldn't move away from the arduino IDE and since the ICE is not supported for debugging, I ended up deciding against the purchase.