Arduino Protoshield

Development Boards MicroMod
1

I bought the Arduino Protoshield and have built it up- the reset button doesn’t appear to work, and I am assuming then that none of the LED’s or buttons are already connected up for anything? In this case? how do you feed the connectors for the Buttons and LEDS to the Ardiuno board? It would be useful to have an instruction sheet with the kit and some examples of it’s use and applications

2

i, too, would really love a how-to.

i am a brand new solder-er, and am afraid to proceed without a little advice.

thanks SF!

3

I bought an arduino ProtoShield, too. As someone relatively new to electronics, the lack of instructions with the kit makes it practically useless. The fact that Spark Fun hasn’t bothered to respond to the two previous posts on this subject in over a month is ominous.

4

garthpaine:
I bought the Arduino Protoshield and have built it up- the reset button doesn’t appear to work, and I am assuming then that none of the LED’s or buttons are already connected up for anything? In this case? how do you feed the connectors for the Buttons and LEDS to the Ardiuno board? It would be useful to have an instruction sheet with the kit and some examples of it’s use and applications

You’re correct, the only connections between the protoshield and the Arduino are the i/o ports located along each edge of the board. The leds and switches, as originally constructed, are for use only on the protoshield. In order to use S4 for reset, you need to connect it to pin 5 of the ICSP on the Arduino. Just install a header in the open holes on the protoshield to connect with the ICSP.

Good Luck,

5

Can anyone explain how the BlueSmirf header is supposed to be used? It doesnt appear to be hooked up to the RX/TX uart pins…

6

perroduke:
In order to use S4 for reset, you need to connect it to pin 5 of the ICSP on the Arduino. Just install a header in the open holes on the protoshield to connect with the ICSP.

I also am curious about the pins on the ICSP. I noticed in the close up photo SF provides of the proto shield, that something is soldered from below the board through pins 1-3 of the ICSP. Pins/holes 4-6 are open.

It would appear that there is an “extra” SIP 4 pin socket in the kit. I’m thinking that should have one pin cut off, and then be soldered from the bottom of the board to ICSP pins 1-3.

7

I’m new to Arduino and the ProtoShield too, but before I put my ProtoShield together I was doing some research and noticed this thread. So, as I was assembling mine, I made a tutorial showing how I did it. I just posted it on www.atomicsalad.com in case anyone’s interested.

8

I made a tutorial showing how I did it. I just posted it on http://www.atomicsalad.com in case anyone’s interested.

That’s an incredible writeup, Robert!

I’d love to see you write more!

Eric

9

Thx Eric!

I plan to begin working on a BlueSMiRF+ProtoShield tutorial next week (of course, I have to figure it out for myself first :slight_smile: And, I have some other Arduino ideas in mind.

Are there any other topics you think might be useful?

Bob

10

I want to learn about the Maxstream ZigBee Pro boards.

I also want to select a new robotics platform for a robot that is strong enough to travel in the grass outside. I’m not sure if I want a 4x4 truck type, or a tank tread type. The ZigBee boards would be used as the RF link to control these because I’m not too happy with the range of BlueTooth. ZigBee also has mesh networking that is a smart way to extend the range, and the Maxstream Pro boards have a great range all by themselves.

On the software side, I’m looking at migrating NanoVM to work with the Arduino boards to support Java programs. Then I’ll migrate it to other chip families.

http://www.EricEngler.com/NanoVM.aspx

I’m mostly into software, so I am very happy to see detailed step-by-step hardware articles. I need to learn that side of things.

Eric

11

More ideas for a tutorial: how about some step-by-step walkthoughs on how to program a device using a Dragon?

Or maybe one on how to set up debugging/breakpoints using WinAVR/AVR Studio and a Dragon?

I’ve found a lot of info on the STK500 but the Dragon is still kind-of new and it’s hard to find info on it. The only info I found is from the help file in AVR Studio.

Eric

12

Hi englere,

I have a Dragon, and have had success with it using AVR Studio and ISP programming, both for Arduino and Olimex boards.

I may be able to help, but tell me a bit about what you are doing, specifically:

  1. What AVR processor?

  2. Is it on a target board, or on board the Dragon?

  3. What are you trying to program to flash? Bootloader or standalone? Is it baud-rate dependent?

Most problems people have tend to be related to fuse settings, it’s worth reading the datasheet and understanding what you want to do.

Good information can be found at http://www.avrfreaks.net/ and on the www.Arduino.net tutorials.

Be very gentle with your Dragon, they are easy to fry. Make sure your cables are correct - especially if you are programming a target board with different power source. Make sure you ground yourself and and put the Dragon down on a non-conductive surface (not the black foam from the box) before you plug in the USB.

Documentation is in AVR Studio, you may have to download the latest doc and driver before you can program anything.

The Dragon is a great product, and a bargain in my opinion. Just be careful!

Dennis

13

Hi Dennis,

I have a lot of MCU experience with other families but I am new with AVRs. I have an ATMega168 that I want to program for use in an Asuro robot to replace the ATMega8 that came with the robot.

I also have an Arduino and a Dragon, but I was guessing the Dragon would be the best tool of choice to program a freash 168. But maybe the Arduino can also do it using ISP.

I am surprised by the lack of step-by-step tutorials using the Dragon, but there are so many different AVR devices and the Dragon is still kind of new. I’m going to make step-by-step tutorials as I go along to help others. Here’s some info I already posted:

http://www.EricEngler.com/NanoVM.aspx

http://www.ericengler.com/downloads/Asu … 20tips.txt

For now I need to know how to wire up a 168 with the Dragon using both the ISP and debugWIRE modes. The debugWIRE mode will let me step through my code to help me debug it. I understand that I need to use the ISP mode first to set the DWEN bit to enable debugWIRE.

Eric

14

Do you want to program the 168 on it’s own board? That’s easy if you have the ISP cable and the target board has the 6 pin header.

You just:

  1. power up your target board, with ISP cable attached to Dragon.

  2. Plug the Dragon USB cable in, and start AVR Studio.

  3. Click Tools->Program AVR->Connect. A dialog will appear where you can select the Dragon, and the ISP.

  4. It should connect to your target AVR, and you will now have several tabs: Program, Fuses, Lock, etc.

  5. You may need to unlock everything first, unless the chip is virgin.

  6. Now you can go set the DWEN bit in the Fuses tab.

  7. Or you can set the fuse bits, program it, and relock, all with ISP.

  8. If any of this fails, try lowering the ISP frequency in the Target tab.

Hopefully that will get you started. What I found confusing is there is no Dragon-specific documentation for how to use AVR Studio - it’s the same for all ISP, or JTAG, or DW.

A step-by-step tutorial would be great, and I’d be glad to help with it if I can.

Dennis