AVR ATtiny10 runs LED blinker for 6 months

Check out our new AVR site. In celebration, I want to tell you about a neat project. My buddy Wayne Yamaguchi had a whole bunch of tiny coin cells left over from a project. So he whipped up a little AVR blinker using an AVR ATtiny10. The one he gave me flashes every two seconds and is quite bright. Wayne’s design intent was to put this inside a phosphor-coated globe and have a UV LED charge up the phosphors every few seconds. For this round he is just using a white LED, but you can see “UV” on the silkscreen. Wayne has done some quick calculations and it looks like if you slow it down to one 3mA flash every 8 seconds it should last for 6 months. Wayne’s trick it to take the AVR out of active mode and put it to sleep, and use the Watch Dog Timer to wake it up, flash the LED and then go back to sleep. Wayne describes the ATtiny10 project here.

This flasher works 6 months off a CR1220 lithium cell. Using the ATtiny watchdog timer is the secret to such miniscule power consumption.

It’s interesting to note that Wayne started out with a MCU from an Atmel competitor and found it unsuitable. As many other friends have noted about these other MCUs, Wayne said, “…a lot more coding had to be done to get the job accomplished.” He also ran into limitations where he had to do a work-around in the competitor’s chip. Another friend has commented that competing MCUs can often do one thing well, but when it needs to do two tasks, even simple ones, there are real headaches. That is why they love AVR chips. AVRs were “invented” as a complete modern architecture. Once you know one chip, it’s easy to move around to others in the AVR family, even the AVR 32-bit chips.

The only reason Wayne did not start with the AVR is that he thought he could not keep his obsolete Studio 4 install, which he knows and trusts, and still program the ATtiny10. I asked around, and my Atmel pals told me that everything Wayne would need is in the Atmel Software Framework (ASF). Sure enough that lead Wayne to a solution, and he had his ATtiny10s working under Studio 4. I kept telling Wayne to just upgrade to Studio 6, which will let you program AVR-32 and our ARM-based MCUs as well as all the 8-bit AVRs. Wayne did not want to risk changing environments, since he has several existing products that he changes and customizes and supports with Studio 4. My friends say the answer there is to just run virtual computers with VM Ware or Virtual Box. You can have Studio 4 on one Windows install and Studio 6 on another. Or you can set restore points and go back and forth between the two Studios on one install.

Wayne Yamaguchi uses toner-transfer and a homemade acid bath to make prototypes in an hour.

Another interesting thing in Wayne’s blog linked above is a picture he has of the prototype. At first blush it looks like he used a router like a LPKF machine to do the board. But if you look closely, you can see some un-etched copper at the edges. Wayne uses toner transfer and a ferric chloride tank to make his own PCBs in a couple hours. The reason they look like routed boards is that Wayne is smart enough to generate the Gerbers this way so that he uses the minimum amount of ferric chloride to etch the copper. Why etch off big areas if you don’ have to? He outlines this technique in an article about prototyping I wrote a few years ago.

Now wayne did the prototype raw-copper PCB in a day to get started, but he wanted a nicer board for development (see pics and below). For this he turned to OSH Park up in Oregon. He panalized the boards as you can see from the break-away tabs on the edge. The bottom line is each PCB ended up costing him a dollar. I think he was out 20 bucks for the order and got 18 boards. OSH Park collects orders for small lots and puts them all onto a 18×24 panel used in the PCB fab industry. I like the looks of the boards since you get a silkscreen and soldermask. Don’t think, “Its just a prototype, I don’t need a silk or soldermask.” It’s you the one soldering on the board and a silkscreen tells you what goes where. It’s you re-soldering stuff and hand-soldering stuff and the soldermask is a blessing, especially with tiny parts. You want your prototype to be as close to production as possible. OSH Park panelizes two-layer boards every other day and gets a four-layer panel together every four days. You might wait a bit, but I have heard of several happy customers. For small boards like the Blinkie, they make great sense. For anything more serious I will stick with Proto-Express, right here in Silicon Valley. They do 4-mil spacing, can do 24oz copper (not at the same time!) and once your board is perfect, they have a partner in China to do high-volume for cheap. Three standard 2-layer boards in 4 days for about $90 and three 4-layer boards for $150 or so. And that is silk both sides if I remember right.

In addition to the info on his blog post linked above, Wayne sent me an email with the information about the flasher. He uses Evernote to store his notes as he does a project, so below are his notes to himself. I put in current Digi-Key pricing.

Wayne Yamaguchi shows the Blinkie flasher he designed.

Wayne did this project a couple months ago. What was interesting was how much longer the flasher ran compared to his calculations. We are not sure if this is because the batteries really have more energy when you discharge them this way, or maybe there is some other factor we don’t understand. It’s good news nevertheless. I can tell you the flasher he gave me a couple months ago is still flashing every 2 seconds. Here are Wayne’s notes:

CR2016, CR2032 Battery Info UV Blinker

2016 – 90mAH

2032 – 240mAH

Compute the average current if LED is pulsed 1 sec every 10 minutes.

1 minute = 60 seconds, 10 minutes = 600 seconds.

1 out of 600.  0.17% duty cycle.

If the LED current is 10mA then average is 17uA.

Attiny10 Power down supply current @3V is 4.5uA.

Attiny10 pricing (Sept 17, 2013):

All prices are in US dollars.
Digi-Key Part Number	ATTINY10-TSHRCT-ND	Price Break	Unit Price	Extended Price
Quantity Available	Digi-Key Stock: 21,464	1	0.69	0.69
	Can ship immediately	25	0.576	14.4
Manufacturer	Atmel	100	0.464	46.4
		1,000	0.4256	425.6
Manufacturer Part Number	ATTINY10-TSHR
Description	IC MCU 8BIT 1KB FLASH SOT23
Lead Free Status / RoHS Status	Lead free / RoHS Compliant

CR1220 battery Energizer Specifications.  Typical Capacity 40mA/Hr.  down to 2V.

$0.90 each at Digi-Key (Panasonic)

The Nichia 310 in the open bag measure 3mA @3V.

Watch Dog Timer table (from ATtiny10 full datasheet):

CR1220 UV Blinker Board as rendered by OSH Park.

Here is the PCB layout for the CR1220 battery Blinkie

 Using 3mA for LED current and 40mA/hr battery capacity gives these run-times:

Delay	tiny10current	average LED current	Estimated Run Time
1 sec	4.5uA	30uA	1,159hrs – 48.3days (~1.61 mos)
2 sec	4.5uA	15uA	2,051hrs – 85.47days (~2.84 mos)
4 sec	4.5uA	7.5uA	3,333hrs – 139 days (~4.62 mos)
8 sec	4.5uA	3.75uA	4,848hrs – 202 days  (~6 mos)
0.25 sec	4.5uA	120uA	240hrs – 10.04 days
0.125 sec	4.5uA	240uA	163.6hrs – 6.82 days
64mS	4.5uA	480uA	82hrs – 3.4 days

CR2016 (20mm lithium) UV Blinker Board as rendered by OSH Park.

Here is a PCB layout for the Blinkie using the larger CR2016 battery.

Note to self: It appears that the ISPmk2 (in-circuit programmer) does program at 3V or other voltages.  The error message during programming is verification failed.  But, it appears to be programmed correct.

As a side note, future blinkies should have the LED driven from the free pin PB2.

Run-time test: 64ms sec Blinkie.  1220 battery.

6/22/2013 2.975v

6/26/2013 – 2.750V 6:16   (Should have ended today)

6/27/2013 – 2.736V 10:08am

6/28/2013 – 2.728V 2:06pm

7/3/2013 – 2.43V 9:57am

7/4/2013 – no LED.  Could be still running, but, LED is not visible.

Wayne Yamaguchi (L) explains the LED flasher held by crack protégé Francis Lau. Lunch was at the Pho Kim restaurant in San Jose.

It took a few tries, but I finally caught the Blinkie flashing when I snapped the picture.

-30-

Digitizing sculptures with MakerBot

In August, MakerBot began accepting pre-orders for its new Digitizer 3D scanner which is expected to ship in October. The Digitizer is currently priced at $1,400, plus an optional $150 for MakerCare, a comprehensive service and support program.

As previously discussed on Bits & Pieces, MakerBot’s Digitizer allows users to quickly “transform” (scan) objects and items into 3D models that can be easily modified, shared and printed on 3D printers like the company’s Atmel-powered MakerBot Replicator 2.

Although Digitizer has yet to hit the streets, the MakerBot crew has already fashioned a number of new creations using the device, including figures based on famous sculptures, such as those found along the the Pont Neuf in Paris on a series of historic lampposts designed by Victor Baltard in 1854.

“Robert Steiner, our Chief Product Officer here at MakerBot, wanted to incorporate elements of these lampposts into a design for some furniture of his own. He sent pictures (above) off to a sculptor in the Philippines. A few months later these sculpts (below, left) arrived in the mail, but they were not great objects for casting into molds, as Robert had planned. He put them in a box and nearly forgot about them until we launched the Digitizer. Sensing an opportunity, he brought them into the office and the dolphin scanned beautifully,” MakerBot’s Bre Pettis wrote in a recent blog post.

“Plaster, due to its pale and textured surface, is a great material for scanning. The Digitizer software had no problem filling in the occlusion behind the lips. Plaster originals at left, Digitized and Replicated versions at right. Robert asked the sculptor to give Neptune an open mouth, in hopes of turning it into a fountain spout. The Neptune face didn’t scan well laying flat, so I attached some clay to the base to help it stand up straight. This gave his beard a trim, but now the printed version has a flat base to stand on.”

Meanwhile, MakerBot’s Kate Hannum noted that Thingiverse super user Dutch Mogul (aka Arian Croft) artfully remixed the company’s official MakerBot Gnome into a steampunk model dubbed Sir Occulum Tanberry.

“This little guy is ideal for gaming, as he retains his detail even at the 28mm gaming scale. You can easily print Sir Occulum Tanberry in halves or as one piece with supports. As is noted in the description, he looks especially at home next to the MakerBot Crystals,” said Hannum.

“3D scanning gives folks who aren’t expert 3D modelers an easy way to modify, improve, share, and 3D print. For people who are expert modelers like Arian, scanning provides a jumpstart to creating seriously awesome things. We can’t wait until Thingiverse is flush with exciting new remixes of scans from community members – beginners and experts alike!”

Indeed, the MakerBot Digitizer outputs standard 3D file formats, so Makers can improve, shape, mold, twist, animate and transform objects in a third-party 3D modeling program. There is no patching, stitching, or repairing required, so Makers are able to skip straight to the creative process. Adding one 3D model to another is easy, like putting a hat on top of a gnome. Plus, Makers can either scan a second object, or search for it on Thingiverse.com, scaling down and multiplying targeted objects to create charms or game pieces.

Additional information about MakerBot’s 3D printer lineup and Digitizer is available here.

12-year-old Rohan Agrawal builds robots

12-year-old Rohan Agrawal is a young Maker who builds robots and tinkers with Atmel-based Arduino boards. According to Mashable, Agrawal spent the last few months at OLogic, a company that has designed robots for both Google and Disney. While there for a summer internship, Agrawal built a ‘bot capable of autonomously delivering bags of potato chips throughout the office.

“I’m self taught,” Agrawal told the publication. “My mom showed me Google once and I was really fascinated by it. I asked her how it works and she told me you use this thing called HTML.”

Agrawal coded his first website by the age of 5, tackled ham radio at 9, joined the Hacker Dojo at 10 and began experimenting with Arduino boards. Soon the young Maker was building small robots boasting basic autonomous capabilities.

“That’s how I got the idea for the autonomous [potato] chip robots,” he said.

“All you have to do is type in a command and it runs a program so it will automatically drive around and randomly select an audience. I’m working on getting it to see if there’s anybody in the room. If there isn’t, it will leave and won’t wait.”

Agrawal is now back at work in his mini-studio, a converted garage with a soldering iron and various electronic items. When he’s not at the studio, the 12-year-old Maker is mentoring others at the Hacker Dojo.

Agrawal’s advice to other young DIY Makers and aspiring engineers?

“If you’re interested in something, don’t be scared to get into it.”

We at Atmel couldn’t agree more couldn’t agree more.

3D printing electronic heart pumps

3D printing technology – projected to be a $3 billion business by 2016 – is rapidly evolving, particularly in the medical space. Indeed, 3D printed orthopedic implants were recently fitted in Peking’s University Third Hospital in Beijing, while doctors at the Kyoto University Graduate School of Medicine in Japan successfully transplanted 3D printed bones into four patients with cervical spine (cervical) disc herniation.

Similarly, 3D printing tech helped Doctors at the First Affiliated Hospital of Xi’an Jiaotong University repair a patient’s damaged skull in China, while researchers at the Huazhong University of Science and Technology used 3D printing technology to create living human kidneys. And now scientists at Nottingham Trent University and Nottingham University Hospitals NHS (UK) Trust are developing an electronic smart pump to help victims of chronic heart failure.

Essentially, the device creates a counter blood-flow by ‘beating’ out of phase with the diseased heart. When the heart fills with blood, the woven tube contracts to increase pressure in the heart. When the heart then pumps oxygenated blood around the body, the tube expands to release the pressure and increase the blood flow. Using 3D printing techniques, the smart pumps will be tailored for individual patients based on MRI scan data. The smart pump – powered by a battery implanted in the patient’s body – is also expected to be entirely self-contained.

“This device could really be groundbreaking and more effective than any other therapy currently being used around the world. Chronic heart failure is a major health challenge and up to 40 per cent of sufferers die within the first year,” Dr. Philip Breedon of Nottingham Trent University explained.

“The best form of treatment is a heart transplant, but the demand by far outweighs the supply . The technology currently used to help people with acute heart failure can only be used for a few days and involves the patient being attached to large external machines which need to be plugged into the mains power supply. [However], the smart aortic graft has the potential to not only extend a patient’s life, but also to provide them with mobility and comfort.”

As previously discussed on Bits & Pieces, the DIY Maker Movement has used Atmel-powered 3D printers like MakerBot and RepRap for some time now. However, 3D printing recently entered a new and exciting stage in a number of spaces including the medical sphere, architectural arena, science lab and even on the battlefield.

Xinchejian builds a Makerspace in a shipping container

Recently, Bits & Pieces ran an article about how the city of Baltimore is filling up with DIY spaces where Makers, hackers and modders can to share ideas, tools and projects. Besides the Hackerspace (founded in 2009), there is The Node in the Station North Arts District, Fab Lab, Unallocated Space and the Baltimore Foundery.

Unsurprisingly, the international Maker Movement is also taking China by storm, with the Xinchejian crew constructing a “Pop Up” DIY space in a shipping container as part of Make+, a non-profit art and technology program headquartered in Shanghai, China. The DIY Pop Up recently made its first successful appearance at the Creative Faire in Shanghai.

According to the Xinchejian team, the ‘space attracted numerous visitors interested in 3D printing, robotics, Atmel-powered Arduino boards and Maker Culture. The Xinchejian Makerspace won’t be dismantled, however, as it is slated to kick off a tour around China after the Shanghai Maker Faire on Oct 19-20.

Check out some of the pictures below to see more of the ‘space built in a re-purposed shipping container.

Atmel and Arduino: Inspiring DIY Makers

Atmel MCU Applications Manager Bob Martin recently went on camera to discuss Atmel’s unique relationship with Arduino, Maker Faire and the DIY Maker Movement.

As Martin points out, Atmel’s 8- and 32-bit microcontrollers have been the MCUs of choice for Arduino since the boards first hit the streets for DIY Makers way back in 2005. More specifically, he attributes the success of Arduino to its easy-to-use, free cross-platform toolchain and its simple do-it-yourself packages with Atmel MCUs.

“These factors helped initially steer the Arduino team to choose our AVR microcontrollers – and today, both our AVR and ARM-based MCUs,” Martin explained.

The Atmel MCU Applications Manager also noted that one of the coolest Maker technologies to surface in recent years is 3D printing technology, an industry expected to be worth $3 billion by 2016. To be sure, says Martin, almost every major 3D printer is currently based on Atmel AVR MCUs.

As previously discussed on Bits & Pieces, the Maker Movement is growing exponentially by taking advantage of 3D printers, inexpensive microcontrollers, robotics, CAD and the ability to control machines with computers, tablets and smartphones.
According to Larry Magid, a technology journalist who writes for the San Jose Mercury News, we are all Makers to a certain extent, even if some of us don’t know it yet.

“All of us – even Leonardo da Vinci – were late comers as far as the Maker movement is concerned,” he explained. “Our prehistoric ancestors millions of years ago, figured out how to turn stones into tools so that they could make things. Only they didn’t have fairs, books and websites to document the process.”

Similarly, Will.i.am, the technophile founder of The Black Eyed Peas, recently offered a ringing endorsement of the Maker Movement and related culture on Facebook.

“Every young person is going to be inspired to be a maker from now on,” said Will.i.am. “It’s like how everyone used to want to be a musician, an actor, an athlete — but a maker is what people are going to want to be.”

Indeed, as Arduino’s Massimo Banzi once famously noted, “You don’t need anyone’s permission to make something great.”

Chalk Talk with Atmel’s MCU maestro

Connecting your device to the rapidly expanding Internet of Things (IoT) opens up a wide world of potential new capabilities. In this episode of EE Journal’s Chalk Talk, Amelia Dalton chats with Andreas Eieland (Atmel) about some amazing new devices that can dramatically simplify the task of getting your next design into the IoT party.

As Eieland notes, the first ARM Cortex-M0+ powered lineup from Atmel is the general purpose SAM D20 family – ranging all the way from 32 pin devices with 16KB of embedded Flash to 64 pin 256KB devices.

“We have learnt a lot about microcontrollers (MCUs) since Atmel launched the first 8051 micro in 1995 and the first AVR in 1996,” Eieland explained. “A lot of this know-how is included in the new SAM D20 family: from simple things that make the devices easy to develop with like making the devices pin and code compatible, to more advanced system integration technologies.”

As previously discussed on Bits & Pieces, the Internet of Things (IoT) refers to a future world where all types of electronic devices link to each other via the Internet. Today, it’s estimated that there are nearly 10 billion devices in the world connected to the Internet, a figure expected to triple to nearly 30 billion by 2020.

According to lead IDATE analyst Samuel Ropert, the IoT actually aims to go beyond M2M by enabling any object to connect and leverage the Internet (Internet of Objects – IoO) even if it does not contain the electronics required to connect directly to the Internet; it connects to the internet with the use of an intermediate device.

“[Based on] this definition, 15 billion things (machines, connected devices and objects) were connected to the Internet in 2012, up from 4 billion in 2010. In 2020, there will be 80 billion where IoO will represent 85% of the total IoT, ahead of communicating devices with 11% and M2M with only 4%,” Ropert added.

Atmel ships new ARM Cortex M0+ processor-based MCUs in volume

Atmel is now shipping its recently launched SAM D20 microcontroller (MCU) lineup in production quantities. As previously discussed on Bits & Pieces, the SAM D20 is the first series in a new family of ultra-low power embedded Flash microcontrollers based on ARM’s powerful Cortex-M0+ processor.

“In this era of the Internet of Things (IoT), products used in building automation, consumer electronics, smart metering and industrial controls are becoming smarter and more connected,” Mr. Ingar Fredriksen, Atmel’s Sr. Director of Flash-based Microcontrollers, explained. “With Atmel’s new SAM D20 MCU available to the mass market, designers now have access to a new Cortex M0+ based MCU to easily add more intelligence and connectivity to next-gen IoT devices.”

According to Mr. Fredriksen, the new series combines innovative and proven technologies, including intelligent peripherals with Atmel’s Event System as well as capacitive touch support for button, slider and wheel capability and proximity sensing.
The new SAM D20 series is also supported by the latest version of Atmel Studio and Atmel Software Framework, the integrated development platform of choice for developing and debugging ARM Cortex-M and Atmel AVR MCU-based applications.

“We’ve built our decades of innovation and experience in embedded Flash MCU technology into our new Atmel SAM D20 family,” Mr. Fredriksen continued. “That is why the SAM D20 sets a new benchmark for flexibility and ease-of-use, while combining the performance and energy efficiency of the ARM Cortex-M0+ core with an optimized architecture and peripheral set. We’ve brought true differentiation into this new family, making it the ideal MCU for low-power, cost-sensitive industrial and consumer applications.”

Additional information about Atmel’s SAM D20 can be found here.

Dean Camera talks engineering, Atmel style

Atmel Applications Engineer Dean Camera recently sat down with EEWeb to discuss Atmel-powered Arduino boards, his favorite dev tools, tricky bugs and the contents of his bookshelf.

On the subject of DIY Makers and encouraging an interest in electronics from an early age, Camera said he recommends getting involved, asking questions and experimenting ASAP.

“The Arduino platform is a great start into the world of embedded systems; it gives you known working hardware and a simple environment,” Camera explained. “However, remember to gradually tear it down and replace bits and pieces with the less ‘kid glove’ versions so you learn how it all works.”

In terms of his favorite dev tools, Camera highlighted JTAG ICE-3 and Rigol DS1052E.

“For hardware, my JTAG ICE-3 and my Rigol DS1052E. If a problem can’t be solved with one, it can probably be solved by the other. Granted I need to invest in some more specialized equipment some day (the Saleae logic analyzers was a god-send at work) but for now those are my main gotos,” said Camera. “For software, Sublime Text is my one and only editor, and Git. PEOPLE, LEARN GIT.”

And the trickiest bug Camera’s ever fixed? A USB Mass Storage Class driver.

“My problem is that I forget problems once I (eventually) solve them – but I’ve gone through my share of Heisenbugs that change based on how you observe them. Race conditions are unfortunately a huge part of my life and I’m resigned to solving them with a smile, but it’s a grim task,” he added. “I can say from experience however that debugging a USB Mass Storage Class driver using the same host Windows platform is not fun, as the default behavior of the Windows storage driver appears to be ‘bluescreen.'”

And last, but certainly not least, Camera says he’s long kept the Forest Mims book on his bookshelf, along with books from Joe that helped him make his entry into the world of embedded C.

Interested in reading more about Dean Camera? The full interview can be found on EE Web here.

In-circuit emulation for AVR and ARM SAM D20 chips

You can do a firmware upgrade on your JTAGICE3 and it will work with the ARM M0+ based SAM D20. If you don’t want to use a separate emulator, there is also a debugger on the $39 SAM D20 Xplained Pro eval board. Atmel has a long history of providing inexpensive development tools. The $49 “Butterfly” eval board and $200 STK200 in-circuit emulator (ICE) was what got me to switch to Atmel micros back in 2000. These days we have three in-circuit emulators, sometimes called debuggers. The $49 Dragon is low cost and does all AVR chips, even the 32-bit AVR chips. The AVR ONE! is much more expensive, about 500 bucks, but it does have trace. That means you can go back and see where your program went as it executed. This can be worth every penny if you have complicated program flows with internal and external interrupts.

Most engineers like the JTAGICE3 emulator Atmel offers for only $99. Like the JTAGICE2, that predates it, the JTAGICE Mark3 can do all the AVR chips, including the newest XMEGA families. The great news is that Studio 6, the integrated development environment (IDE) program Atmel gives away for free, can do a firmware upgrade on your JTAGICE3 so it can work with the new SAM D20 ARM chip Atmel just released.  From the news bulletin:

Atmel Studio 6.1 SP2 includes a firmware update for the JTAGICE3 which adds programming and debugging support for the SAM D20 devices. The JTAGICE3 firmware will be automatically updated when a programming or debugging session is started in Atmel Studio 6.1 SP2.

Atmel Studio 6 users who want to take advantage of this firmware update will have to upgrade to Atmel Studio 6.1 SP2, which will be available for download at http://www.atmel.com/tools/atmelstudio.aspx starting August 15th.

Technical details can be found at http://www.atmel.no/webdoc/jtagice3/jtagice3.whats_new.html.

This is just too cool. Studio 6 has always supported code development of Atmel’s ARM MCU (microcontroller) chips, the ones with internal flash. Now you can debug the M0+ ARM-based SAM D20 with the same JTAGICE3 you use for AVR and AVR-32 chips.

I have to laugh when my buddies say Atmel tries to make money on our eval boards and emulators. We don’t look to make any appreciable profit on the tools. We give away Studio 6 for crying out loud, and anyone that has done product design knows what a cheap deal the eval boards and these emulators are. Atmel sells chips and touchscreens (XSense). That is where we make our money. So you folks that have bought a JTAGICE3, celebrate, you can now debug our great SAM D20 with it. Like I said, “Friends don’t let friends go without a debugger.”