Only one person in your team will have to create the “skeleton” of the Android project. They will then commit it to the SVN repository’s trunk. All the other members of the team will follow the next set of instructions in order to check-out (download) the skeleton to their computer.

1. After following the previous set of instructions, you should see the “trunk” item in the “SVN Repositories” panel. It has a green up arrow as the icon to the left of it.
2. Right click on the folder you are created the project in (“trunk”) and choose “Find/Check Out As…”
3. The options you want are “Check out as a project configured using the New Project Wizard” and “Head revision”. Click “Finish” to complete this step.
4. Select “Android > Android Project” in the next screen and continue on.
5. Enter a project name and choose the option to “Create a new project in workspace”.
6. Check the box to use “Google APIs” for platform 2.3.3 (or whatever version of Android you are targeting). Click on “Next” to proceed.
7. Fill out the following page carefully! You namespace is probably “com.companyname.appname” or similar – you can make it whatever you’d like. Then click “Finish” to complete this step.
8. A new project will be created in your “Package Explorer” panel!
9. To upload this new project to the repository, right click on the project (not the SVN repo), and hover your mouse over “Team”. When the menu expands, click “Commit” and wait a little bit.
10. Review the changes, enter a brief commit log, and click on “OK” – you’re done!

First Time Android Project Checkout from SVN Repository Trunk

After one member of your team has completed the steps in the previous section, you will need to download the skeleton project that they made and add it to your Eclipse workspace.

1. After following the previous set of instructions, you should see the “trunk” item in the “SVN Repositories” panel. It has a green up arrow as the icon to the left of it.
2. Right click on the folder your team leader created the project in (“trunk”) and choose “Find/Check Out As…”
3. The options you want are “Check out as a project with the name specified” and “Head revision”. Click “Finish”.
4. The name should already be filled in with your project’s name. Click “Finish” and wait a little bit.
5. Switch over to the “Java” view by click in the >> icon in the top right of the window.
6. If you notice a red error message in the console about the Android compiler compliance level not being correct, you will have to right click the newly checked out project (not the repo), mouse over “Android Tools”, and click on “Fix Project Properties” to resolve this issue.
7. Congrats! You should now see your project’s source code in the “src/” folder!

End of Guide

This is the end of the series of guide posts for this topic on my blog! Now you will be able to begin working on your program’s code. If you have any suggestions or corrections for this series of tutorial posts, please feel free to let me know and I will update the text as necessary. If you have any questions I would suggest searching for an answer on Google. Most of the information in this tutorial can be found elsewhere online in more detail, should you need it.

You will most likely want to use a version control system for managing the source code in your project. This set of instructions will step you through adding the Subversion plug-in to your existing Eclipse installation.

1. Start up the Eclipse IDE if you haven’t already done so.
2. Go to the “Help” menu again and select “Install New Software…” from the drop down.
3. In the “Work With” drop down, select the “Indigo” source (or whatever is the name of your release).
4. The list below will populate. Scroll up and expand the “Collaboration” section.
5. Place a check in the selection box next to “Subversion SVN Team Provider (Incubation)”.
6. Click “Next” and then click “Next” again at the confirmation page.
7. Accept the license agreement. Now click “Finish”. Wait for a bit while the plug-in is downloaded and installed.
8. Restart Eclipse when you are prompted to do so.
9. Go to the “Window” menu and select “Open Perspective” from the drop down. Then click “Other…”
10. Pick “SVN Repository Exploring” from the list and click on “OK”.
11. Place a checkbox next to “SVN Kit 1.3.5” in the next window. Then click “Finish”.
12. Click “Next” and then click “Next” again at the confirmation page.
13. Accept the license agreement. Now click “Finish”. Wait for a bit while the plug-in is downloaded and installed.
14. Restart Eclipse when you are prompted to do so.
15. You should now have a Subversion view available in addition to the normal Java view. Look in the top-right hand corner of the Eclipse window. You will see the current view, along with a small >> button to select other views.

Connecting the Eclipse SVN Plug-in to Your Repository

This step assumes you already have Subversion hosting provided to you. If you do not, you can create a free account for open-source projects through a website such as Google Code (http://code.google.com/) or SourceForge (http://www.sourceforge.net/). You can also run one on your own server, or use services provided by a hosting company to set one up. Doing this is outside the scope of this document, however.

1. When you are in the Subversion view inside of Eclipse, you should have a windows/tab called “SVN Repository Browser” located at the bottom of the screen (unless you closed or moved it).
2. In that window, right click and select “New” from the drop down menu, then click “Repository Location…”
3. If you are using Google Code, in the URL field, enter the URL https://PROJECTNAME.googlecode.com/svn/ where PROJECTNAME is changed to the unique name of your Google Code project. If you aren’t using Google Code, your Subversion host will have provided you with the correct URL.
4. Fill in the “Username” field. If you are using Google Code, this is something like YOURNAME@gmail.com.
5. Fill in the “Password” field. If you are using Google Code, your password is not your Google account password, but a different one that can be found at https://code.google.com/hosting/settings.
6. Check the box next to “Save Authentication” and “Validate Repository on Finish”.
7. Click “Finish” to complete this step.
8. Your repository should show up in the left hand side of the screen. Expand it to see the contents.

Note: Only follow the next two instructions if you do NOT want to create a specific Eclipse project for the repository you just checked out. This is likely not the case, so move on to the next part of this guide.

1. Right click on the root node of the tree (the repo URL) and click on “Check-out” to download the contents of the repo to your local workspace.
2. Now when you right click on the root node, you can go to the “Team” sub-menu which will contain all of the SVN functions such as “Commit”, “Update” and more!

Continuing from the previous post I made regarding Eclipse, we will now download the standalone Android tools from Google. This is required to do Android development.

1. Go to http://developer.android.com/sdk/index.html.
2. Download the Starter Package installer, “installer-r16-windows.exe”.
3. Run the installer executable and follow the prompts. You will not need the installer anymore after this.
4. At the end, you will be prompted to start the Android SDK Manager. Do this.
5. The package selection screen will load. Ensure the following items and all their sub-items are completely checked:
   1. Tools
   2. Android 2.3.3 (API 10) (as of writing, this is the most widely used version of Android)
   3. Google USB Driver Package (found under “Extras”)
   4. Android Support Package (found under “Extras”)
   5. Click on the button “Install packages…” in the lower right of the window.
   6. Click on “Accept All” for the license agreement. Then click “Install” and wait a while for it to finish!
   7. Note: If for some reason you get prompted to enter a username and password, you probably selected a package that requires authentication to download. In this case you can just click “Cancel” and get on with your life.

Adding the Android Development Tools Plug-in to Eclipse

The Android Development Tools (ADT) plug-in allows Eclipse to integrate with the Android SDK and allows you to easily create, build, and debug Android projects. These instructions are copied almost directly from http://developer.android.com/sdk/eclipse-adt.html#installing.

1. Start up Eclipse. (If this is your first time running Eclipse, you will be prompted to set a workspace directory – just use the default unless you have a specific reason to choose otherwise.)
2. Click on the “Help” menu. Then select “Install New Software…” from the drop-down menu.
3. Click “Add” in the top right corner.
4. Under “Location” enter this exact URL: https://dl-ssl.google.com/android/eclipse/
5. In the Available Software dialog, select the checkbox next to “Developer Tools” and click “Next”.
6. In the next window, you’ll see a list of the 4 tools to be downloaded. Click “Next”.
7. Read and accept the license agreements, then click “Finish”. Now you must wait.
8. When the installation completes, restart Eclipse as prompted.
9. After the restart, the ADT setup window will pop up. Don’t bother to have it download the SDKs all over again, just point it at the folder you installed to previously. By default this is C:\Program Files\Android\android-sdk.
10. You can test that you have succeeded by going to the “File” menu and selecting “New” and then “Project”. If you see “Android > Android Project” in the list then you’re good to go make your first Android project in Eclipse!

You will need this installed before you can do anything else. If you already have the JDK installed (you can check by going to the Windows Control Panel and opening the “Programs & Features” list), you can skip this step.

1. Go to http://www.oracle.com/technetwork/java/javase/downloads/index.html.
2. Scroll down to “Java SE 6 Update 31” and click the red download button under “JDK”.
3. Accept the license agreement and download the file “jdk-6u31-windows-i586.exe” (for 32-bit Windows) or “jdk-6u31-windows-x64.exe” (for 64-bit Windows).
4. Run the installer executable and follow the prompts, accepting default options.
5. Installation is now complete! You do not need to register. You do not need the installer after this step.

Installing the Eclipse IDE

After you’ve installed the JDK, you will need to install Eclipse. If you already have a suitable version of Eclipse installed, you can skip this step.

1. Go to http://www.eclipse.org/downloads/.
2. Download “Eclipse Classic 3.7.1” for Windows and pick either 32-bit or 64-bit depending on the version of the JDK you have installed.
3. Extract the archive “eclipse-SDK-3.7.1-win32*.zip” that you just downloaded to a folder of your choice. You will not need the archive anymore after this step.
4. Eclipse is now installed! You can run it by going to the folder and launching “eclipse.exe”.

takeown /f %1 /r /d y && icacls %1 /grant Administrators:F /t

Save this line in a .CMD file and call it with the directory you want to use it on as the first parameter. You will need to have elevated (Administrator) permission to do this properly.

0. What’s an FPGA and Why Should I Care?
1. Installation and “Hello World” Simulation
2. USB ByteBlaster Driver Installation
3. Pin Mapping and JTAG Programming
4. Digital Logic Redux
5. Basic VHDL Syntax and Multiplexer Example
6. Basic Testbenches
7. External Libraries and 4-bit Adder Example
8. Finite State Machine Redux
9. Creating a Register using VHDL
10. Creating a FSM using VHDL

The NEZbox is a simple ATmega168-based external status meter. I put it together for about $25. The materials used include a Radioshack black plastic project box, a piece of protoboard, an ATmega168 microprocessor, 14.7456MHz crystal (not 16MHz, better for serial com), a USB-to-serial adapter (UART) PL2303 cable, a 4-line LED-backlit character LCD, a 50uA analog meter, a temperature sensor, and some wire and resistors. Later I discovered that my USB ports always stay powered even when my computer is off, so I added an small ON/OFF switch to the back. A Dremel was used to cut out slots for the meter and LCD, and epoxy glue holds them in place.

The PWM/LCD/serial code running on the ATmega168 is simple embedded C. Under Linux, a small shell script sends commands every five seconds to /dev/ttyUSB telling the MCU to write to the LCD or move the analog meter’s needle. There is also a command to query the temperature sensor. Likewise, under Windows this is accomplished with a small C# program. Overall the results are pleasing to me for this simple and inexpensive project.

Source code available on GitHub.

First, be sure to read through the ArduinoISP tutorial to get the circuit wired up correctly. You may also with to consult this ATmega168 pin-mapping diagram.

Here are some helpful commands and settings:

To program your fuse bytes first do:
avrdude -v -v -patmega168 -cstk500v1 -P/dev/cu.usbserial-A600cnPP -b19200 -e -Ulfuse:w:0xE2:m -Uhfuse:w:0xD5:m -Uefuse:w:0xF8:m

I highly suggest to think about your fuse bits before writing them to the chip. You can use an online fuse bit calculator such as this one.

From a post on the Avrfreaks forum:

Note in the ATmega168 datasheet, page 288, that in the extended fuse byte, bits 7, 6, 5, 4, and 3 are all unused. Avrdude knows this, and it intentionally masks those bits off when it reads the extended fuse byte. [...] If I recall correctly, the problem is that avrdude applies the mask at the end of the programming session when it verifies the success of safemode, but not beforehand when it reads the initial value, or something like that.

Arduino’s “unlock” lock bits are: (not typically needed?)
-Ulock:w:0x3F:m

Then, finally, to program the flash memory with your code do:
avrdude -v -v -patmega168 -cstk500v1 -P/dev/cu.usbserial-A600cnPP -b19200 -e -Uflash:w:blink_1MHz.hex

The code in blink_1MHz.hex is from this Sparkfun introductory tutorial.

.text   executable code       RAML1 (internal DSP memory)
                              starting address = 0x9000, 4K Words
.data   initialized data      RAML2 (internal DSP memory)
                              starting address = 0xA000, 4K Words
.bss    reserved space for uninitialized data
                              starting address = 0xB000

CPU Control Registers

ACC   Accumulator (32 bits) => AH (high 16 bits) and AL (low 16 bits)
XAR0  Auxiliary Register0 (32 bits) => AR0H (high 16 bits) and AR0 (low 16 bits)
   ....up through...
XAR7  Auxiliary Register7 (32 bits) => AR7H (high 16 bits) and AR7 (low 16 bits)
XT    Multiplicand Register (32 bits) => T (high 16 bits) and TL (low 16 bits)
P     Product Register (32 bits) => PH (high 16 bits) and PL (low 16 bits)
PC    Program Counter (22 bits)
SP    Stack Pointer (16 bits)
DP    Data Page Register (16 bits)
ST1,ST0  Status Registers (flags)

Initialization of Constants

.byte val[,..n]
.char val[,..n]
.field val[,size]                (size ranges from 1 to 32)
.float val[,..n]
.int val[,..n]
.long val[,..n]
.pstring expr|"string"[,..n]     Example: .pstring "Austin", "Houstin"
.string expr|"string"[,..n]      Example: .string "ABCD"
.word val[,..n]
.xfloat val[,..n]
.xlong val[,..n]

Define Assembly-Time Constant

Usage: symbol .set value
Example: AUX_R1 .set AR1 ;symbol AUX_R1 now means the same thing as AR1

Assembler Macros

Usage: macname .macro [param,..n]  <MACRO CODE>  .endm

add3   .macro    P1, P2, P3, ADDRP
MOV    ACC, P1
ADD    ACC, P2
ADD    ACC, P3
ADD    ACC, ADDRP
.endm

Direct Memory Addressing

memloc    .set    0xA000
MOV       DP, #memloc >> 6     ; sets datapage pointer to right page
MOV       @memloc, #0          ; load 0 into memory location 0xA000

Indirect Memory Addressing

memloc    .set    0xA000
MOVL      XAR5, #memloc       ; put the address into XAR5 (32-bits)
MOV       *XAR5, #0           ; load 0 into memory location 0xA000

Disabling the Watchdog Timer

WDCR        .set    0x7029    ; watchdog register is at address 0x7029
EALLOW                        ; enable protected register writes (needed to change control registers)
MOV         AL, #0x0068       ; magic value that disables watchdog timer
MOV         AR1, #WDCR        ; set AR1 to point to the watchdog register
MOV         *AR1, AL          ; disable watchdog timer to run this code on our board w/o it resetting

General Purpose I/O

GPAMUX1    .set    0x6F86
GPADIRA    .set    0x6F8A
GPADATA    .set    0x6FC0     ; 0x6FC0 -> GPIO15:0, 0x6FC1 -> GPIO31:16
MOV    AR1, #GPAMUX1    ; set the GPAMUX1-A to zero (GPIO output)
MOV    *AR1, #0x0
MOV    AR1, #GPADIRA    ; set GPIO-A 11:4 direction to output mode (1) and 3:0 to input mode (0)
MOV    *AR1, #0x0FF0
MOV    AR1, #GPADATA    ; set GPIO-A 11:4 to be high
MOV    *AR1, #0x0FF0

Compare Flags Operands

COND     Syntax         Description                   Flags Tested
0000     NEQ            Not Equal To                      Z = 0
0001     EQ             Equal To                          Z = 1
0010     GT             Greater Then                 Z = 0 AND N = 0
0011     GEQ            Greater Then Or Equal To          N = 0
0100     LT             Less Then                         N = 1
0101     LEQ            Less Then Or Equal To        Z = 1 OR N = 1
0110     HI             Higher                       C = 1 AND Z = 0
0111     HIS, C         Higher Or Same, Carry Set         C = 1
1000     LO, NC         Lower, Carry Clear                C = 0
1001     LOS            Lower Or Same                C = 0 OR Z = 1
1010     NOV            No Overflow                       V = 0
1011     OV             Overflow                          V = 1
1100     NTC            Test Bit Not Set                 TC = 0
1101     TC             Test Bit Set                     TC = 1
1110     NBIO           BIO Input Equal To Zero          BIO = 0
1111     UNC            Unconditional                       -

Write programs that do one thing and do it well.
Write programs to work together.
Write programs to handle text streams,
because that is a universal interface.

— Doug McIlroy

Unix philosophy on Wikipedia