Not long after writing about how ATtinys have no bootloader support, I came across Adafruit's Trinket, an obviously-bootloaded ATtiny85! However as this board's USB bootloader consumes over 2.5kB of flash, it could not coexist with wireless networking in the form of the RF24 library I'm interested in (which leaves only 2.5kB free after inclusion).
Nevertheless, googling "attiny bootloader" turns up several interesting links, notably TinySafeBoot. This is both tiny (550 bytes) and safe (providing password support). Its size means there's still almost 2kB left free in my desired configuration which I expect should be enough for some interesting wireless sensing applications --- stay tuned for more on that.
TSB, which is GPL-licensed, comes with a generic AVR bootloader blob which it tunes for your target hardware, rather than requiring messing with makefiles and building-from-source. In the case of our ATtiny development board, the desired target is an ATtiny84 with pins PB1 and PB0 connected to software-serial Rx/Tx:
The obvious next step is to integrate TSB into the Arduino IDE, building on the Jeelabs' work to obtain an environment indistinguishable from a normal ATmega-based Arduino; it would simply replace that part of platform.txt, specifying tsb, with appropriate flags, as the uploader.
Unfortunately, I think due to the way tsb handles its input stream, it doesn't take kindly to being called from a script; it's written in freebasic, maybe it's a feature of that platform. So, with the help of strace, I wrote a one-shot firmware uploader in C (gist here) callable from the Arduino IDE.
Now I can upload sketches from the Arduino IDE to my ATtiny development board without any additional hardware! The 'burn bootloader' functionality also works (with the aid of an external programmer) to burn fuses and install the custom firmware file generated above. My fork of Jeelabs' repository is available here, just clone it into your sketchbook/hardware folder.
The only hardware modification I made to my development board was the addition of a series 100nF ceramic capacitor between reset and DTR, to reset the ATtiny when the IDE wants to upload a sketch via FTDI.
Nevertheless, googling "attiny bootloader" turns up several interesting links, notably TinySafeBoot. This is both tiny (550 bytes) and safe (providing password support). Its size means there's still almost 2kB left free in my desired configuration which I expect should be enough for some interesting wireless sensing applications --- stay tuned for more on that.
TSB, which is GPL-licensed, comes with a generic AVR bootloader blob which it tunes for your target hardware, rather than requiring messing with makefiles and building-from-source. In the case of our ATtiny development board, the desired target is an ATtiny84 with pins PB1 and PB0 connected to software-serial Rx/Tx:
% ./tsb tn84 b1b0 # generates tsb_tn84_b1b0_20131023.hexThe resulting bootloader can now be uploaded to the development board using an external programmer. Thereafter TSB talks to the bootloader to upload programs:
% ./tsb /dev/ttyUSB0 FW Blink.cpp.hex(The bootloader auto-detects the bit-rate which the uploader is using; here I'm just taking the default of 9600B.)
The obvious next step is to integrate TSB into the Arduino IDE, building on the Jeelabs' work to obtain an environment indistinguishable from a normal ATmega-based Arduino; it would simply replace that part of platform.txt, specifying tsb, with appropriate flags, as the uploader.
Unfortunately, I think due to the way tsb handles its input stream, it doesn't take kindly to being called from a script; it's written in freebasic, maybe it's a feature of that platform. So, with the help of strace, I wrote a one-shot firmware uploader in C (gist here) callable from the Arduino IDE.
Now I can upload sketches from the Arduino IDE to my ATtiny development board without any additional hardware! The 'burn bootloader' functionality also works (with the aid of an external programmer) to burn fuses and install the custom firmware file generated above. My fork of Jeelabs' repository is available here, just clone it into your sketchbook/hardware folder.
The only hardware modification I made to my development board was the addition of a series 100nF ceramic capacitor between reset and DTR, to reset the ATtiny when the IDE wants to upload a sketch via FTDI.
Update
A diagram showing the pin names of the ATtiny84 in the Arduino IDE:
Here's a circuit diagram:
The schottky diode acts as a block to allow the board to be powered from an external battery. In this mode, the LED is disabled and no reverse current flows through the regulator. A schottky diode was used because of its low forward voltage drop (0.4v); an ordinary diode would drop the 3.3v supply to 2.6v. (Maybe that's why 3.6v regulators exist!)
Thank you for all your work... I am looking to build a sensor net, all reporting back to the Raspberry Pi (RPi). I like the Adafruit Trinket, due to both the price point and the size, while still a capable device. I'm starting to look at wireless communication back to the RPi. You mention in your posts that the Trinket doesn't have enough room for your preferred RF library.
ReplyDeleteHas anyone gotten the Adafruit Trinket working with the NRF24L01+?
The problem with the ATtiny85 on the Trinket is that it only has 5 I/O pins. The nrf24l01+ takes 5 (at least for me) which is why I picked the ATtiny84: it has some I/Os left over for actual sensors!
ReplyDeleteIf you're decided on a Trinket, you might have more luck with a wireless serial module of some sort, maybe an XBee or Bluetooth? There's a bit of discussion here: http://forum.arduino.cc/index.php?topic=2133.0