Microcontroller programming tools for Mac?

[John E.]

Windows OS can be run on Macs, but I'd like to know if there are any native
(OS X) development tools for programming microcontrollers on Macintosh.

If so, what flavor of controller? Web references?

Thanks,

 

[John Devereux]

Windows OS can be run on Macs, but I'd like to know if there are any native
(OS X) development tools for programming microcontrollers on Macintosh.

If so, what flavor of controller? Web references?

I am not a Mac user, but OSX is a unix-like OS as I understand
it. Hence it is extremely likely that you can build gcc and the
associated toolchain. For example newlib, ld, gdb, maybe insight
too. This should work for any supported target, e.g. AVR, HC12, ARM,
coldfire, or pretty much any 32 bit chip. If you buy a networked JTAG
server (e.g. Abatron) you can easily do hardware debugging too.

This is without looking for any Mac-specific stuff, which you should
certainly do first!

 

[jjs]

I am not a Mac user, but OSX is a unix-like OS as I understand
it.

Heck it IS U*x! Under the GUI, that is.

 

[Heath Raftery]

Windows OS can be run on Macs, but I'd like to know if there are any native
(OS X) development tools for programming microcontrollers on Macintosh.

If so, what flavor of controller? Web references?

I posed a similar question to the Apple Sci-Tech mailing list in August 2006.
At that stage the best solution I had come across (without actually trying
any) was an Atmel microcontroller, the AVaRICE (avrgcc and avrgdb)
development package, a 3rd party JTAG device and a Keyspan serial device.

The AVaRICE package is very UNIX-y, so there's nothing particularly OS X
native about this solution.

The alternate solutions suggested were basically:

* HiTek compiler for PIC. http://www.htsoft.com
* PICkit 1 Flash Starter Kit.
http://ww1.microchip.com/downloads/en/DeviceDoc/pickit.tgz

Not a great deal of options I'm afraid. As another responder suggested,
using the gcc toolchain from the command line is probably your best bet. By
the way, the gcc tools are ready to use when you install Apple's Developer
Tools.

 

[Heath Raftery]

I posed a similar question to the Apple Sci-Tech mailing list in August 2006.
At that stage the best solution I had come across (without actually trying
any) was an Atmel microcontroller, the AVaRICE (avrgcc and avrgdb)
development package, a 3rd party JTAG device and a Keyspan serial device.

The AVaRICE package is very UNIX-y, so there's nothing particularly OS X
native about this solution.

Turns out there has been a bit of work in this area since I last looked.
There's now a package specifically for OS X, which while certainly not
including native GUI apps, nicely packages the various tools in a format
ready to roll on Intel and PPC Macs. Search for "avr mac" for all the
juicy goss.

 

[[email protected]]

Windows OS can be run on Macs, but I'd like to know if there are any native
(OS X) development tools for programming microcontrollers on Macintosh.

The difficulty is not the development tools (compiler, linker, editor)
but the debug/flash step of the equation.

If you have an Ethernet-hosted JTAG device, such as a Raven,
supporting remote gdb sessions, then this will work with MacOS.

The only direct-connect solution I KNOW to work is to build gcc (etc)
for AVR, and use avrdude as the tool to program the micro. This works
over a serial ISP (through a USB to serial converter), and I think
also through the JTAG-ICE mk.I. I'm not aware of any completed effort
to get the AVRISP mkII or AVRISP working.

The Olimex USB ISP tool uses (IIRC) a standard FTDI serial to USB
converter, and should work with MacOS.