How to simulate serial port on debugger simulator?

1

I’m debugging Arduino AT2560 without JTAG, but with default Platformio simulator.
I don’t know how to emulate a serial port to read serial output or write some serial input.

Any hint?

thanks

2

The underlying simulator is simavr and externally developed. Check out its manual.

Also checkout related topics Atmel AVR dev/platform v2.1.0: new boards, AVR simulator, updated Arduino cores - #8 by Sambo007 and especially AVR simulator as aid tool for debugging code - #35 by msquirogac.

Note that you can also start simavr manually the firmware and any switches you like.

E.g., a firmware like

#include <Arduino.h>

void setup() {
  Serial.begin(115200);
}

uint16_t count = 0;

void loop() {
  Serial.println("The count is: " + String(count++));
  delay(200);
}

with a platformio.ini

[env:uno]
platform = atmelavr
board = uno
framework = arduino
debug_tool = simavr

after doing a pio debug to build the binary, we can start simavr in a new Powershell session

PS C:\Users\Maxi\.platformio\packages\tool-simavr\bin> .\simavr.exe -m atmega328p -f 16000000  "C:\Users\Maxi\Documents\PlatformIO\Projects\arduino-simavr-test\.pio\build\uno\firmware.elf"   | Out-Host

to get

grafik
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1 Like
3

Hi
@maxgerhardt

I am using Windows 7 32 bit, with VSCode 1.57 and PlatformIO 2.3.2.
I tried your above example but I get this error in Powershell.

Program ‘simavr.exe’ failed to execute: This version of %1 is not compatible with the version of Windows you’re running …

I think simavr.exe file is for 64 bit version.

How can I get simavr package for 32 bit version. If it is available or not?
If not, how can I simulate?

Thanks

4

You are still on a 32-bit operating system? o_O

Well anyways, report this as a bug to Issues · platformio/platform-atmelavr · GitHub, the package information for tool-simavr should have said x64 Windows only and should have prevented you from getting the program in the first place.

You can try and build from source. The repo GitHub - buserror/simavr: simavr is a lean, mean and hackable AVR simulator for linux & OSX has instructions for MinGW (you should ofc choose MinGW32 version)

5

With some modifications I managed to compile the latest simavr with MinGW for Windows (64-bit). See instructions at GitHub - maxgerhardt/simavr: simavr is a lean, mean and hackable AVR simulator for linux & OSX, you should be able to do it for 32-bit too.

6

Hi
@maxgerhardt
Yes, I am using 32 bit windows and I am comfortable with it.
Question is, when PaltformIO is available on 32 bit why simavr installed by PlatformIO is for 64 bit. Rather I should say copied(simavr).

I think, when PlatformIO is installed, it should be considered.

I am a programmer and using High Level Languages with RDBMS. But I am very much new to Microcontrollers, so I would need ready made solutions. I have little knowledge in C/C++ and it is very much difficult for me to get the source code and compile.

Anyways, thanks for your reply and help.

7

As said above, the package metainfo (https://api.registry.platformio.org/v3/packages/platformio/tool/tool-simavr) is wrongly marked as

"system":["windows_amd64","windows_x86","windows"]

when the compiled binary actually isn’t.

Alright then, if you can’t compile it, I’ll try for you with the instructions I’ve linked above.

9

Thanks for your quick reply sir.
If possible, please provide me compiled 32 bit simavr

10

After running into some issues ([avr-gcc] mingw-w64-i686-avr-toolchain fails to install: Maximum file size exceeded · Issue #2585 · msys2/MSYS2-packages · GitHub) and solving them, I was able to compile simavr in 32-bit mode.

See https://drive.google.com/file/d/1vCoSAP9eQygr-IpVIaGYS-1yaE0eJW2h/view?usp=sharing for a download. You should grab the simavr.exe from it and put it in C:\Users\<user>\.platformio\packages\tool-simavr\bin\, replacing the old one. The zip also contains a firmware.hex test firmware.

>simavr --mcu atmega328p --freq 16000000 -v firmware.hex
Loaded 1 section of ihex
Load HEX flash 00000000, 1636
Hello, world!..
Hello, world!..
Hello, world!..

(Ctrl+C to abort)

11

Issue is open in tool-simavr does not run on 32-bit Windows although advertised · Issue #258 · platformio/platform-atmelavr · GitHub btw.

12

Thanks very very much. It is running perfect. Appreciate your sense and tenancy to help every one.

13

@maxgerhardt
I have implemented some codes in Arduino and these are working as expected.

I want to implement the same outputs (like Serial.println) in C code for Atmega328p microcontroller to see how my code is working.

I have gone through the HardwareSerial.cpp for Arduino Code. As per my knowledge, the code is implementing UART.

How it will be possible for Atmega328p with C Code.

14

There are dozens of tutorials for this that just use the compiler’s built in avr/io.h header for this.

To start a project without the Arduino framework compiled in, you need to remove the framework = .. line in the platformio.ini to make it a baremetal project. See e.g. native-blink.