Micah Carrick

This tutorial is intended for those people interested in getting started developing Gnome applications using GTK+. Specifically, it uses the Glade Interface Designer to build a the user interface and C/GTK+ to write the code for a Gnome application. The application will simply be a window with a typical toolbar and status bar. This application will be used in later tutorials to demonstrate various other aspects of Gnome programming. The complete project can be downloaded here: gnome3-0.1.tar.gz

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I purchased a Powertip PC-1202A 12x2 LCD with backlight from Wright Hobbies a while back since it was only $7.95. I will be using it often for various projects with robotics and microcontrollers. The problem was, I didn't want to take up all my IO pins on my processor just with the LCD interfacing. I found some circuits for 3-wire and 2-wire interfaces. I went with the 3-wire interface (4 if you want the AVR to control the backlight) and wrote my own little set of routines for controlling the LCD.

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I just purchased my AvrUsb500 from tuxgraphics.org. The AvrUsb500 is an open-source (hardware and software) USB programmer for the Atmel AVR microcontrollers. This is just a quick run-down on how to get setup using the AvrUsb500 on a Linux system. In this case, I'm using Fedora Core 4. It is assumed that you have setup your Linux distribution with the GNU tools for AVRs (avr-gcc). If you haven't, you should first read Installing the GNU tools for AVRs.

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This is just a quick, simple little program for an ATMega8 (can easily be adapted to any AVR) that I've setup to test the installation of avr-gcc and the GNU toolchain, avrdude, and my AvrUsb500 USB programmer from tuxgraphics.org.

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I have been using PIC Microcontrollers for my robotics tinkering for a few years. I have also been primarily a Linux user for the last year or two, and have been able to rely on Linux for my work (Web Developer), my school (Computer Science), and all my personal work (robotics, programming, and other nerdy stuff of that nature). I resisted the Atmel AVR Microcontrollers for some time, despite their growing popularity within the hobby robotics community, due to the countless hours I had invested in PICs. However, after learning that the AVRs were designed with C and the GNU tools in mind--a toolset that I use regularly for schoolwork and personal programming projects--I had to give it a further look.

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The first thing you'll need to do, is download the CORRECT Windows driver for your card from linksys.com. There are various versions for the card which will be displayed on the back of the card. If you aren't sure, then you'll want to use the drivers from the CD-ROM that came with the card. In my case, the card I am using is v3 and the driver I downloaded was v3.100.64.0a. The file was: WPC54G_driver_utility_v3%5B1%5D.1.zip. If you have downloaded the drivers, you'll need to extract the files to some temporary directory (I just did it from my desktop). If you're using the CD-ROM, you can just do it straight from the CD.

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Below is a list of programmers known to work with Linux along with the software that is said to work with the particular programmer. You will need to check the websites of the particular programmer and/or software to ensure it will work for your needs. I have not verified all this information, I merely collected it. Enjoy!

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Well, well, well, here we are again. I will be continuing with my new found appreciation of Small Device C Compiler (SDCC) and showing you how to handle interrupts using C-- specifically, the TMR0 interrupt. I will also show you how to simulate this using gpsim, thus learning how to set breakpoints in your code and use the stopwatch feature in gpsim. What's really great, is if you are new to PIC programming and are having a difficulty understanding the concept of the Timer module, interrupts, and prescaler values and what they mean, using GPSIM gives you a realistic visual understanding without having to build a circuit. Pretty handy dandy.
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In my last article, Programming PIC Microcontrollers in Linux, I talked about using using gputils and gpsim to assemble and simulate a basic PIC program. After writing this article, I recieved an email from Martyn Welch regarding the article he recently wrote: Installing and using SDCC on Linux. SDCCs a free C compiler for several small devices, including the PIC microcontroller.
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