Rugged Circuits -- Quick Start

Quick Start Tutorial

Here’s what you’ll see when you start our software:

Once you plug your GATOR Plus+ board in, it will show up in the list of connected devices:

Click on the name of the connected device so that it becomes highlighted:

Now that you have selected a connected device (if you have more than one GATOR Plus+ board plugged in, you’ll have to pick one!) you can pick an application from the tabs at the top of the window. If you have custom code that you want to install on your board, type in the location of the HEX file at the bottom of this window then press the Install button.

Let’s start with the I/O application. Click on the I/O tab at the top of the screen:

All of the interface elements will be disabled except three buttons at the top-right:

The Help button gives you a brief overview of the application.
The Install button installs the IO firmware on the GATOR Plus+ board.
The Connect button connects to the IO firmware if it was previously installed.

Go ahead and press the Install button now. After a few seconds the application will be installed on the board and you will automatically be connected. The interface elements in the window will now be enabled.

The window is broken up into four “ports” named A through D, corresponding with the I/O ports on the ATmega324P microcontroller. Each one of the 28 I/O pins can now be controlled by clicking on the radio buttons. The top two radio buttons in each column set the I/O pin high and low, respectively. The bottom-most button sets the pin to be an input and not actively driving high or low (the default). The third radio button down sets the pin to be an input but with an internal pull-up resistor so that it will become high unless an external signal pulls it low.

Go ahead and click on some of the radio buttons. If you have an LED handy, connect it to two adjacent I/O pins (like Port B pins 7 and 6). See if you can make the LED light with the right combination of output high and output low settings.

Now click on the Devices tab again, then click on the I/O tab. You are back in the I/O application but all of the interface elements are disabled again. YOU DO NOT HAVE TO PRESS THE INSTALL BUTTON AGAIN! Since the last application you installed was the I/O application, now you just have to press the Connect button. This saves wear on the ATmega324P’s FLASH memory. Even though the FLASH is rated for at least 10,000 erase-and-program cycles, which would take over 27 years to reach assuming one such cycle every single day, it doesn’t hurt to not use up one of those 10,000 erasures if you don’t have to.

That’s the end of our tutorial. You can use our Support resources if you have trouble or need further help.