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• Starting in bootloader mode

  Michele Perla • 08/02/2016 at 07:55 • 0 comments

  Hi there,

  I was modifying the bootloader to implement a blinking light when in bootloader mode so to signal the user that he/she can upload code, and I noticed a strange behavior:

  the double tap on reset function does not yet work reliably, although I found out that trying to program a sketch using the virtual serial port of the HACK in sketch mode results in resetting the board, and unplugging and replugging it back shows that the board has fallen back to bootloader mode.

  So, although I cannot yet get the double-tap-on-reset function to work reliably, this method works and is repeatable with no fuss. Which is a win after all.

  Cheers,

  Mick

• Docs: How the variant system works on Arduino Zero boards

  Michele Perla • 07/07/2016 at 20:48 • 7 comments

  Hey there,

  long time no see.

  Albert from avdweb is working on a SAM D21 board, and he wrote me an email asking me for some help; he acknoweldged that the Arduino Zero has way less broken out pins on the three headers than the SAM D21 G actually has, but he does not know how to use them on his board that has all the pins broken out, and he also cannot find where those are defined in the variant files. He actually asked me what happened to pins:

  pin19 PB10

  pin20 PB11

  pin21 PA12

  pin22 PA13

  pin37 PB22

  pin38 PB23

  pin39 PA27

  pin41 PA28

  pin45 PA30

  pin46 PA31

  pin48 PB3

  This is my answer to him:

  you can find the base stuff inside variant.h, variant.cpp under your variant folder, and under WVariant.h in the core folder.

  The WVariant.h is the file that defines all the bits that you have to put in the control registers of the SAMD1 in order to configure all the functions described in Chapter 6 of the Datasheet; I suppose you already have a copy of the datasheet but here's the link anyway, just in case:

  http://www.atmel.com/images/atmel-42181-sam-d21_datasheet.pdf

  Values for the bigger SAMD21J (I'm sure they're working on some kind of Arduino Zero Mega) are already defined, and my version also contains the ones for the smaller D21 E.

  The variant.h and the variant.cpp use the values defined in WVariant.h; there's a description array called PinDescription g_APinDescription[] in variant.cpp that contains all the control values for all pins. These values are represented with a struct PinDescription, declared in WVariant.h, that is as follows:
  

  /* Types used for the table below */
  
  typedef struct _PinDescription
  
  {
  
    EPortType       ulPort ;
  
    uint32_t        ulPin ;
  
    EPioType        ulPinType ;
  
    uint32_t        ulPinAttribute ;
  
    EAnalogChannel  ulADCChannelNumber ; /* ADC Channel number in the SAM device */
  
    EPWMChannel     ulPWMChannel ;
  
    ETCChannel      ulTCChannel ;
  
    EExt_Interrupts ulExtInt ;
  
  } PinDescription ;
  
  /* Pins table to be instantiated into variant.cpp */
  
  extern const PinDescription g_APinDescription[] ;

  As you can see, the struct contains values that almost match the heading of Table 6.1 of the datasheet:

  EPortType ulPort corresponds to the first two letters of the value at column I/O PIN in table 6.1

  ulPin corresponds to the last two numbers of the value at column I/O PIN in table 6.1

  e.g.: PORTA, 21 corresponds to pin 30 of the SAM D21G.

  To understand the other values, just look at the declarations of the types and structs in WVariant.h.

  Position i of g_APinDescriptor[] corresponds to pin i of the Arduino Zero or of your board.

  Let's check Arduino Zero's first lines of this array and comment some pins:

  {
  
    // 0..13 - Digital pins
  
    // ----------------------
  
    // 0/1 - SERCOM/UART (Serial1)
  
    { PORTA, 11, PIO_SERCOM, (PIN_ATTR_DIGITAL), No_ADC_Channel, NOT_ON_PWM, NOT_ON_TIMER, EXTERNAL_INT_11 }, // RX: SERCOM0/PAD[3]
  
    { PORTA, 10, PIO_SERCOM, (PIN_ATTR_DIGITAL), No_ADC_Channel, NOT_ON_PWM, NOT_ON_TIMER, EXTERNAL_INT_10 }, // TX: SERCOM0/PAD[2]
  
    // 2..12
  
    // Digital Low
  
    { PORTA, 14, PIO_DIGITAL, (PIN_ATTR_DIGITAL), No_ADC_Channel, NOT_ON_PWM, NOT_ON_TIMER, EXTERNAL_INT_14 },
  
    { PORTA,  9, PIO_TIMER, (PIN_ATTR_DIGITAL|PIN_ATTR_PWM|PIN_ATTR_TIMER), No_ADC_Channel, PWM0_CH1, TCC0_CH1, EXTERNAL_INT_9 }, // TCC0/WO[1]
  
    { PORTA,  8, PIO_TIMER, (PIN_ATTR_DIGITAL|PIN_ATTR_PWM|PIN_ATTR_TIMER), No_ADC_Channel, PWM0_CH0, TCC0_CH0, EXTERNAL_INT_NMI },  // TCC0/WO[0]
  
    { PORTA, 15, PIO_TIMER, (PIN_ATTR_DIGITAL|PIN_ATTR_PWM|PIN_ATTR_TIMER), No_ADC_Channel, PWM3_CH1, TC3_CH1, EXTERNAL_INT_15 }, // TC3/WO[1]
  
    { PORTA, 20, PIO_TIMER_ALT, (PIN_ATTR_DIGITAL|PIN_ATTR_PWM|PIN_ATTR_TIMER_ALT), No_ADC_Channel, PWM0_CH6, TCC0_CH6, EXTERNAL_INT_4 }, // TCC0/WO[6]
  
    { PORTA, 21, PIO_DIGITAL, (PIN_ATTR_DIGITAL), No_ADC_Channel, NOT_ON_PWM, NOT_ON_TIMER, EXTERNAL_INT_5 },

  As you can see, the first two pins (corresponding to pin 16 and 15 of the D21G) have everything disabled but the SERCOM module, which can be used for SPI, I2C (not for all pins though), USART, etc.

  In this case, those are set for Serial...

  Read more »

• HACK downloadable via Arduino Boards Manager

  Michele Perla • 04/14/2016 at 21:33 • 0 comments

  Hi there,

  quick update to report that the HACK core is now available for the easiest of installs using the Arduino Boards Manager! You only need to add this link to the additional Boards Manager URLs:

  http://mickmad.github.io/hack/package_had-mickmad_samd_index.json

  More detailed instructions are available in the Details section of the main project page.

  Cheers,

  Mick

• HACK bootloader+core available

  Michele Perla • 04/14/2016 at 09:56 • 2 comments

  Hi there,

  last week I went to #Hackaday | Belgrade to meet @Mike Szczys in order to leave him the first HACK prototypes!

  Before giving him the protos, I had to "hack the HACK"; that means that since I messed up big time the LDO package (mirrored footprint) I had to manually solder a bigger SOT-23 LDO using jumper wires to three locations: GND pin, VLDO pin, and VDD; to get VDD, I actually had to remove L1 and solder a wire across its pads; I tried soldering the wire to the VDD pad of the ferrite bead but I always ended up either damaging the bead pin or lifting it off from the board (because I also messed up passives footprints: 0402 footprint but 0603 components soldered on board). Luckily, the protos are fine!

  Next step was modding the bootloader; I re-built the Zero bootloader to reference the ATSAMD21E18A instead of the bigger pin count G18A that the Zero uses, and I also had to change the UART port to a more convenient one and finally VID and PID codes for USB enumeration; I also made a little Windows driver for it, which references the same VID and PID codes, so that it will show as "HACK Bootloader" when in bootloader mode, and it will show "Hackaday / Michele Perla" as manufacturer, how cool is that!

  Finally, I also got a modded Arduino Zero core working on the HACK; most was done in the variant.cpp, variant.h, and in the WVariant.h files, in order to correctly set pin mapping and functions to reflect the available pins on the smaller E18A mcu. Some tweaks were also made in some other files, and more have to be done in the libraries (SPI for example). BUT, at least it blinks an LED correctly, and USB Serial works fine too!

  So, go get the latest version of the repository and give it a look!

  Cheers,

  Mick

• HACK is now PDIP-28 Wide compatible! Plus, some small additions

  Michele Perla • 01/26/2016 at 13:05 • 0 comments

  -Hi there,

  After the article published last week about HACK we decided to add in some features, some of which were suggested in the comments, like:

  1. another GND pin, so to have ground on both sides of the breakout
  2. correct controlled-ish impedance USB traces (Atmel suggests that since traces length in this applications is not significant, impedance for USB traces is not critical anyway)
  3. Cortex Debug connector on top side, to easily flash the bootloader (without having to fiddle with the Atmel ICE "squid" connector)

  Moreover, while talking with Anool we thought that we could try to shrink the layout at its limits, and voilà! You can now find HACK/small branch on Github, where you will find a PDIP-28 Wide (0.6 " spacing) version of HACK!

  Stay tuned for news.

  Cheers,

  Mick

• Layout 100% finished

  Michele Perla • 01/04/2016 at 17:11 • 1 comment

  Hey there,

  quick update: the HACK is ready. I'm just waiting for feedback from Seeedstudio to know whether they can do castellated pins so that if that's the case I can update the pin headers package and add both castellated pins (for surface mounting on the #The Hackaday Badge mainboard) and normal through-hole pins (to mount pin headers for breadboarding).

  Then it's a matter of BOM filling.

  Proto run is near.

  Cheers,

  Mick

  PLUS: I received my #JACK boards back today, so I can add a 32768 KHz crystal to them and test something out before the HACK protos are ready (since they are so similar). Nice!

• Layout 99,9% finished

  Michele Perla • 12/24/2015 at 17:16 • 0 comments

  Hey there,

  the final layout for HACK is 99,9% done; I only have to check if copper pours are connected to ground, and then I need to place fiducials markers around to ease the job of pick-n-place machines.

  So far the mods made from the original idea and from JACK are here synthesized:

  1. No more ATSAMR21, we're using the ATSAMD21E (32 pin)
  2. Smaller LDO accounts for more PCB real estate
  3. 2x13 pin headers, 1 additional pin connected to VDDANA (filtered analog power supply for sensitive analog applications)
  4. Jumper on backside to connect LDO input to VUSB or to external pin (jumper closed: board is powered by USB; jumper opened: board is powered by VLDO pin)

  Check out the github repo; more details about why no more SAMR21 will follow in the next days.

  Cheers, Mick

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