How to Program using Atmel-Ice

[dattasaurabh82]

Why?

I want to learn using AVR-GDB and debug at a hardware level (Step through code in runtime in ATTINY).
Long way to go but the first step is to able to connect properly to the target and being able to program it ...

Scenario:

• My System: Mac OS
• Target: ATTINY1607
• Programmer & Debugger: Atmel-Ice (On the way to me ... Christmas gift 😅)
• Hardware connection: I used the Pinout information of ATTINY1607 from here and I used the Atmel-Ice's wiring information from here.

ATTINY1607	ATMEL-ICE (Using AVR Squid Cable with numbered jumpers)
Hardware Pin 23 (GPIO pin 21) (UPDI)	Squid Cable with jumper labelled 3 (TDO pin)
ATTINY1607's Hardware Pin 3 (GND)	Squid Cable with jumper labelled 2 (GND pin)
ATTINY1607's Hardware Pin 4 (VCC)	Squid Cable with jumper labelled 4 (VREF/VTG)

🤔 Question 1:
If we need to power the target (ATTINY1607) separately? And then do we need the reference voltage pin form Atmel-Ice linked to the VCC pin of the target? As if I remember, out of the box, the Ice can't provide power and the target needs to be powered separately. In such a case, which pins do we connect the Ice's Ref voltage pin to (and of course the GND rails will then be tied together. )?

Intended programming Flow:

1. Write the code in Arduino IDE: Straight forward.
2. Compile the program using arduico-cli: I compile using arduino-cli with some build flags to enable debugging mode in the compiled binary and also set some fuses with this command:

arduino-cli compile -b megaTinyCore:megaavr:atxy7:chip=1607,clock=5internal,millis=enabled,startuptime=0,bodvoltage=1v8,bodmode=disabled,eesave=enable,resetpin=UPDI,printf=minimal,wiremode=mors,WDTtimeout=disabled,WDTwindow=disabled,PWMmux=A_default,attach=allenabled --build-property "compiler.c.extra_flags=-g" --build-property "compiler.cpp.extra_flags=-g" --build-property "compiler.lto.flags=-g" --build-path $(pwd)/build

Follow here for more to understand what they mean.
🤔 Question 2: I recently learnt those extra build flags to enable debugging in compiled binaries but not sure if those will allow runtime hardware debugging later through GDB or to begin with, if that's the correct way of setting them?

3. Uploading ...: I maybe wrong but I think that arduino-cli can't upload program using Atmel-Ice.

If so we got pymcuprog or AVRDUDE. In both the cases, I believe but I'm not sure how, that the fuses info need to be in the options for the command, to set them properly to the target.
Let's I want to use AVRDUDE to upload using Atmel-Ice.

avrdude -q -c atmelice_updi -p t1607 -B 115200 -U fuse2:w:0x02:m -U fuse6:w:0x00:m -U fuse7:w:0x00:m -U fuse8:w:0x00:m -U flash:w:GDB_hello_world.hex:i -F

• -c atmelice_updi specifies the Atmel-ICE as the programmer.
• -p t1617 specifies the ATtiny1617 as the target microcontroller.
• -U is used for memory operation. It sets the fuses and uploads the hex file.

🤔 Question3: Not sure if the fuses settings and the general upload command is correct, as is intended from the above compile code ?