AVR-based event recorder with USB support

Event recorder device based on AVR processor, with the USB support enabled via V-USB library.

• Project code name: Fisherman's Friend
• Homepage: https://github.com/vladast/avr-based-event-recorder-with-usb-support

Hardware

Key components of the hardware implementation are:

• Atmel's Atmega8 processor: a heart of the device, within which all logic lies.
• ST's 24c64 EEPROM: a persistent memory of the device.

Schematic diagram and PCB outline are created with Eagle v6 and can be found within hw directory.

Software

Software part of the project consist of two parts:

• Firmware: a program being uploaded to device.
• Test application: a program running on host machine.

Programming languages used: C & C++.

Source code is located within sw directory.

Configuration

There are couple of properties that have to be updated within Makefile before build can be started - following values should be set correctly:

• PROGRAMMER: By default, it states rs232 which is the programmer used on test circuit. It should be set to the programmer's name from avrdude's configuration.
• USB_CFG_VENDOR_ID: USB VID 16bit value (see Makefile comments for more info, or refer to V-USB's site)
• USB_CFG_DEVICE_ID: USB PID 16bit value (see Makefile comments for more info, or refer to V-USB's site)
• USB_CFG_VENDOR_NAME: Name of the vendor. By default, for testing purposes, it's set to "TEST"
• USB_CFG_VENDOR_NAME_LEN: Number of chars within your vendor's name. For "TEST" string, that number is 4.
• USB_CFG_DEVICE_NAME: Name of your product. By default, for testing purposes, it's set to "TEST"
• USB_CFG_DEVICE_NAME_LEN: Number of chars within your vendor's name. For "TEST" string, that number is 4.

Build procedure

At this moment, Makefile has only been intended for usage on Linux-based build machines with gcc and avr-gcc compilers installed. In general, with some modifications, it can be used on other platforms.

To build both firmware and test application run:

make build

To build only device's firmware (HEX file):

make build_hex

And to build only test application for host machine:

make build_test

To list all options from Makefile, run:

make

Uploading firmware onto device

Used Makefile is configured for usage of avrdude programmer. To upload firmware to AVR located on device run:

make burn_firmware

Note: To use external crystal oscillator, for AVR chip used (which is Atmega8 at this moment), fuses has to be set first. To do so, run:

make burn_fuses

Of course, both of those commands should be issued as is from sw directory.

3rd party libraries

Following libraries are used:

• V-USB: A firmware-only USB driver for Atmel AVR Microcontrollers, enabling USB communication with host device. Library itself and documentation can be found on www.obdev.at/vusb/. V-USB is licensed under GPL version 2.
• 24C EEPROM SPI: Enables easy SPI communication with external EEPROM. It's usage is well described on http://extremeelectronics.co.in/avr-tutorials/easy-24c-i2c-serial-eeprom-interfacing-with-avr-microcontrollers/

Author and Licence

avr-based-event-recorder-with-usb-support repository is maintained by Vladimir Stankovic (@vladast).

This project is licensed under GPL Version 2. Please, refer to LICENSE file for the full text of the license.