How to use AVR template on Windows

Installation

1. Download and install Visual Studio Code source code editor.

2. Download and install Git. During installation choose the default editor used by Git as Use Visual Studio Code as Git's default editor.

3. Download and run MinGW Installation Manager. During installation keep installation directory as C:\MinGW.

   In MinGW Installation Manager, mark mingw32-base-bin package for installation and apply changes in menu Installation > Apply Changes.

   Add C:\MinGW\bin to your Path environment variable: This PC > Properties > Advanced system settings > Environment Variables...

4. Download the latest version of Avrdude, such as avrdude-6.3-mingw32.zip and extract avrdude.conf and avrdude.exe files to C:\Appz\Avr (Do NOT use any spaces in the file path). Copy libusb0.dll dynamic link library to C:\Appz\Avr. You can find the dll as part of Arduino IDE as well.

5. Download and install PuTTy client for serial communication between Arduino Uno board and your computer.

6. Download the latest toolchain AVR 8-bit Toolchain v3.62 - Windows from Microchip webpage, from this repository, or from Microchip's archive and extract all files to C:\Appz\Avr\avr8-gnu-toolchain-win32_x86.

7. Install the CH340 drivers and restart the computer.

Usage

1. Download and extract Examples folder from this repository to local computer.

2. Start Visual Studio Code source code editor, open template folder, in Examples/Makefile.in file enable and/or modify Windows parameters according to your local settings:

   ## Linux
   #PREFIX  = /opt/avr8-gnu-toolchain-linux_x86_64
   #AVRDUDE = avrdude
   #RM      = rm -f
   ## See "dmesg" command output
   #USBPORT = /dev/ttyUSB0
   
   ## Windows
   PREFIX  = C:\Appz\Avr\avr8-gnu-toolchain-win32_x86
   AVRDUDE = C:\Appz\Avr\avrdude.exe
   RM      = del
   # See USB-SERIAL CH340 port in Device Manager
   USBPORT = COM3

3. Open a new terminal in menu Terminal > New Terminal and change working directory to Examples/blink.

   cd Examples
   cd blink
   ls

   Instead of ls command you can try dir.

   All processes are done with help of Makefile script file. The following commands allow project compilation and programming:

   mingw32-make.exe all
   mingw32-make.exe flash
   mingw32-make.exe size
   mingw32-make.exe list
   mingw32-make.exe clean

4. To create a new project, make a new directory within Labs folder and copy three files main.c, Makefile, and README.md from Examples/blink project to Labs/new-project-folder.

   If your Arduino board (or clone) does not contain any bootloader, follow instructions at Instructables or Arduino webpages.

   For Windows 10, you can install Windows Subsystem for Linux and then follow the AVR installation notes for Linux.

Tested on operating systems

Version	Result (yyyy-mm-dd)	Note
Windows 10	OK (2021-10-21)	Office
Windows 10	OK (2020-09-03)	Lab SC 6.61
Windows 10	OK (2019-11-26)	Lab SC 6.66
Windows 7	OK (2019-05-17)	Lab SC 6.61