Objective Development Forums

Currently I use AVRGCC which uses AVRDUDE to flash the chip (I use the AVR-ISP MKII). Christian pointed me at the BootloadHID possibility to flash the chip without any programmer and on Windows without any driver (since HID Device). I was wondering whether someone already has managed to use AVRDUDE with this bootloader. This would make it possible to do the complete development with a single usb connection once the bootloader is flashed to the chip. Would be rather cool since no programmer and no driver yould be necessary (Windows).

If you use avrdude, you should have drivers for USBasp installed. In this case I'd recommend USBaspLoader.

The idea was to prepare a chip with the HIDbootloader and then do further development only with vusb. Since I use HID and want to implement al flashing feature in my host application based on hidboot, it would be great to use avrdude also through this way. But you are right, for development I can flash aspusb anl late rthe hid variant.

Thanks!

It might be possible to use the main firmware for flashing firmware updates or it might be possible to re-use at least the AVR-USB part of the code in the boot loader and the main firmware. But it's much easier to sped 2k for a boot loader. These 2k are really worth the reduced complexity.

Sorry, I didnt clearly express my idea: Of course I want to use the 2K bootloader but I would like to use THE SAME USB Configuration in my firmware and the bootloader: HID, since it doesnt need any drivers on Windows. If Avrdude was adapted to that, it would be possible to:

1. Flash the firmware through Winavr and Avrdude while developing via bootloader
2. Communicate with the device firmware as designed for testing (and later using)
3. Use the Host-Applications update feature to flash a new version of the firmware

all with one and the same configuration. In prototyped projects often there is no sharp line between developing and using - that will be exacly the case here. As soon as I have the core funtions ready, I will start using it in my HTPC and the iteration process to what I really desired starts. With the above configuration I could do developing either on the HTPC or on an other machine and just flash the new firmware. However, If nobody has done that so far, I will try to setup a configuration to compile AVRDUDE, I am sure, it can easily be extended to communicate with the hid bootloader once the whole compiler/linker and source is setup and builds it.

I doubt that it's an advantage to have the same configuration in the boot loader and the main application. You want to know whether you are talking to the boot loader or the main app, after all. It may be an advantage to use HID, though, since you need no separate drivers.