Using AVR-GCC toolchain on Mac OS X

Yes, on PowerPC Macs a long time ago, and an Intel MacBook more recently, and it worked just fine, but in both cases I abandoned it after tinkering for a while. It is assuredly possible to get avrdude working, but the annoyance of (for instance) not having a GUI to edit fuse settings is an aggravation with which I see no reason to live.

I find it less stress to use VirtualBox or Boot Camp to run the native Windows development systems. Working with avrdude reminds me of the old saying about X ("Programming graphics in X is like trying to compute sqrt(pi) in Roman numerals").

Plus of course AVR is not the only processor I use, and many other parts are harder to get working with a Mac dev environment.

You could always go to Rowley's native MacOS IDE

r/ :)

I don't know about the Mac, but some of the key avr-gcc toolchain developers use FreeBSD. The similar underlying system may then be a help.

Ask on the avr-gcc mailing list for ideas.

mvh.,

David

vr/

Thanks for the reply. Have you tried Rowley's product? The price is right.

By the way, regarding your other thread about career changes, why aren't you "applying" to be the President of your own company? It would appear to be a natural progression for someone of your talents.

-- Joe

lp.

I'd like to see Atmel produce a Mac version of AVR Studio, then again we may see it as an iPad app before long.

-- Joe

Don't hold your breath waiting for Mac versions of any sort of embedded development tool. There just aren't enough users to make it worth considering for commercial tools. You'll find occasional open source tools that work, because they are often made with cross-platform toolkits and that by making sure everything works on Windows and Linux, the Mac version is almost complete for free.

Suppliers like Atmel target Windows first, and Linux as a distant second (there is no AVR Studio for Linux, but there is for the AVR32). Mac support is non-existent.

/avr/

Yes; I use their MSP430 and ARM products at work. I have not used the MacOS versions but I assume the underlying compiler is identical. Much better optimizations than avrgcc, too.

I definitely don't have the resources; I'm a paycheck to paycheck kinda guy. I would not contemplate striking out on my own unless I had (a) a business plan that I could confidently expect to be profitable inside a specified time, and (b) sufficient resources to live without income for at least twice that time.

Joe,

Something to consider: AVRdude is not compatible with the 'latest and greatest' MkII firmware. At least is wasn't the last time I checked (about 2 months ago). I had everything "working" until I (accidentally) connected my programmer to a 'doze system with the latest AVR studio loaded. AVR studio updated the programmer, and AVRdude quit working. :(

RK

Good call - I forgot about that. I have the same fun issue with MSP430 development. IAR wants to "update" the USB-FET every time I use it. So does Rowley. Round and round and round it goes; where it stops, nobody seems to care...

I was unable to get the AVRISPmkII to work properly with AVRdude on my Mac. It almost worked, recognizing the target board and reading/ programing the ATmega8, but there were consistent read errors and annoyingly long time-outs.

I gave up and bought a new "box-opened" Toshiba laptop running Windows

7 at Best-Buy for $420. I told the salesman I'm a Mac guy and that I need a PC just to run a single program. He was intrigued: Which program? What are you using it for? I gave him a quick introduction to embedded programming and he seemed to understand. Try that at Radio- Shack!

So I downloaded AVR Studio and WinAVR. Everything works perfectly. :)

Thanks to everyone for the help.

-- Joe

Have you tried ? Works perfectly with both AVRISPmkI and mkII.

n g

Thanks, but it's too late. For now I'm a satifisfied Windows user, at least for this one application. A successful simultaneous installation of both new hardware and new software (on a PC, no less!) is a rare and beautiful thing.

-- Joe

This is because of TI FET driver dll, not IAR or Rowley..... There are some fixes from TI for this.