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Programming The Atmega2560 with Arduino

technocat

Hi everyone,

 

I joined element14 because I recently started building a PCB on Eagle for an independent study for school, and I need some help.

 

I want to use the Atmega2560 board due to its large analog input, digital I/O capacity, and Arduino uses it in the Mega so the pinouts are simple. My only issue is that I can't find a way to program the board!

 

It seems that the Atmega2560 doesn't come with the Arduino bootloader installed (not surprising) and I can't find a pre-bootloaded board on the internet either, like some other Atmel boards.

 

My question really is:

 

How can I upload an Arduino sketch a stock Atmel ATMega2560 IC?

 

Thanks A LOT to anyone with information!

  • 0

    The usual IDE for Atmel chips is Atmel Studio (currently version 7).  There are physical connections that have to be made with some type of link between a computer and the chip. 

     

    One of the least expensive options for a breadboarded chip is Freetronics USB adapter and the Arduino IDE.  You can break out the pins to serve as a programmer.  Up in price from there would be Atmel's programmers (AVR Dragon, for example), or a Segger (if you want the Cadillac programmer).

     

    Here's a link to the Atmel page on the AVR ATmega2560.  There are links to documentation and hardware that can be used with the chip:

    ATmega2560

     

    If you wanted to go with a low cost programmer here's a YouTube video that someone did on just that: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qT-d0di_Hq0

    You can also use AVRDude.  Another good site to pose your question is AVR Freaks ( www.avrfreaks.net ).

  • 0

    Thanks! It seems I can either put a USB to serial apparatus directly onto the PCB, or I could flash the ATMega2560 for bootloader than use an external programmer board for my arduino code.

     

    Thanks again!

  • 0

    Interested to see what project you have in mind or this. Ty.

    Clem

  • 0 in reply to clem57

    Hi Clem,

     

    I'm building a 10.5 foot drone that can take off vertically and fly horizontally. Its like the Osprey V-22.

     

    The hardware necessary to make that happen doesn't really exist beyond the commercial/military realm, so like most things I'm doing it myself.

     

    image

     

    With 3 motors, 4 vector related servos... I need at least 15 I/O pins to have full functionality, but I'm really for the upwards of around 25 I/O for servos because of cooling fans, opening/closing air vents, etc. Then there are lights, camera switchers... etc. Lots of I/O.

     

    The "motherboard" of the flight deck *I'm hoping* will be the ATMega2560 because of its large I/O capability, analog input count, and it seems the community is large enough with the chip. I'm designing it in Eagle CAD and will have it manufactured... somewhere. (Any recommendations...?)

     

    The difficult part will be the stabilization script while hovering, but right now it's based on PID control. I'm building the airframe concurrently with the circuitry, and hot damn it is fun!