AVR-Chat

I agree that JTAG capability is a must for anyone serious about 
programming AVRs. Used to be that Atmel JTAG was pretty costly but now 
that clones are available that's no longer true. The time saved using 
JTAG to debug is enormous. At least for mere mortals like myself who 
write code with the occasional bug. Availability of reliable debugging 
is a must for me, no matter what language and platform I code in. At 
work we use ruby for test automation and I've been frustrated by the 
general unreliability of free (Eclipse, Netbeans) and commercial 
(Arachno, Komodo, Ruby in Steel) debuggers. When I was told I needed to 
use Python debugging was again an issue.

In any case, my point is that I fully agree with David. The other day I 
decided not to use a Mega8 I had laying around for a project I'm working 
on for exactly this reason (lack of JTAG). Now when I go to AVRFreaks to 
pick a device I make sure JTAG is available. Once I have a Dragon I can 
add debugwire to the mix. AVRs are crazy cheap and there's at most a few 
$ difference between devices. For development pick a heavy weight 
device. If you're developing a commercial application and pennies count 
you can develop on a larger device, keeping restrictions of the target 
in mind and then down porting it when done.

    Sander

David Kelly wrote:
>
> On Wed, Mar 19, 2008 at 12:47:38PM -0000, ei5gtb wrote:
> > Hello, i recently purchased a "my avr" board from 
> http://www.myavr.de/ <http://www.myavr.de/>
> > But much to my disappointment the programming application was in
> > german. I am just a beginner, and was hoping to use this board to
> > educate myself. Could anyone advise if this board can be used with
> > other programming software? and if so, which is the best recommended
> > one.
>
> http://babelfish.altavista.com/ <http://babelfish.altavista.com/> 
> translation of http://www.myavr.de/ <http://www.myavr.de/>
> says the myAVR 1 board has an "integrated SP12 compatible programmer."
>
> The downloadable PDF documentation is German on the left column, English
> on the right.
>
> IMO the ATmega8 CPU on this board is not ideal for learning because it
> doesn't support JTAG ICE or DebugWire. Similar or more capable AVRs with
> JTAG or DW cost the same or less. With JTAG ICE Cube at $40 and AVR
> Dragon at $52, and your time is worth $1/hour, these tools are well
> worth the expense.
>
> Study the pinouts, my guess is an ATmega88 or something is available
> with DebugWire that fits on that board. DebugWire only needs power,
> ground, and Reset to program and source code debug on your chip.
>
> More wires are needed to set the fuses on the chip to put it in DW mode,
> but once its there you can leave it alone.
>