The avr_boot bootloader loads a program from the SD card on startup. This documentation is specific to Arduino IDE boards installation. The main documentation is located here.
- Installation
- Using the Board Menu Entries
- Burning the Bootloader
- Uploading Your Sketch
- Troubleshooting
- Supported Microcontrollers
- Supported Boards
- Board Addition Requests
- Acknowledgments
WARNING: avr_boot is not compatible with Arduino AVR Boards 1.6.12(included with Arduino IDE 1.6.10).
There are two options for installing avr_boot boards in the Arduino IDE:
- Open the Arduino IDE.
- Open the File > Preferences menu item.
- Enter the following URL in Additional Boards Manager URLs: https://zevero.github.io/avr_boot/package_zevero_avr_boot_index.json
- Open the Tools > Board > Boards Manager... menu item.
- Wait for the platform indexes to finish downloading.
- Scroll down until you see the avr_boot entry and click on it.
- Note: If you are using Arduino IDE 1.6.6 you may need to close Boards Manager and then reopen it before the avr_boot entry will appear.
- Click Install.
- After installation is complete close the Boards Manager window.
- Download the avr_boot files here: https://zevero.github.io/avr_boot/avr_boot_manualinstall_1.3.0.zip
- Extract the .zip file.
- Move the avr_boot folder into the hardware folder in your sketchbook folder. You can find the location of your sketchbook folder at File > Preferences > Sketchbook location:.
- If the Arduino IDE is running then restart it.
After installing avr_boot several new boards are added to the avr_boot section of the Tools > Board menu. When any of these boards are selected additional menus will appear under the Tools menu.
Whenever you change a setting in these menus you need to Burn Bootloader to reconfigure your board.
Provides a list of the available microprocessor versions(e.g. ATmega328P, ATmega328). Note that although Arduino calls the microprocessor on their Uno and similar boards "ATmega328" they actually are ATmega328P.
BOD stands for Brown-out Detection. This feature is intended to avoid improper operation caused by insufficient supply voltage. If the supply voltage drops below the BOD value then the microcontroller is reset.
Displays a list of board models for your Board menu selection. You don't need to re-burn the bootloader after changing the model menu selection
The SD CS pin may be connected to different Arduino pins depending on which shield you are using or your wiring preference if not using a shield.
- Ethernet Shield: 4
- Arduino Ethernet: 4
- Seeed SD card shield: 4
- SparkFun MicroSD Shield: 8
- Adafruit Data Logger Shield: 10
Note that ATmel has recently removed full swing support from some of the AVR models(http://img.digikey.com/Retractions/WC154601%20-%20PCN-12-23-2015.pdf).
- 16MHz External Low Power - This is usually the best setting to use for commercially produced boards that run at 16MHz as it will decrease power usage compared to the 16MHz Full Swing setting.
- 16MHz External Full Swing - This setting can be used for breadboard or homemade 16MHz boards where the 16MHz Low Power setting causes unreliability due to electrical interference.
- 20MHz External - If your board has a 20MHz crystal this is the one for you.
- 8MHz External Low Power - For boards with an external 8MHz crystal.
- 8MHz External Full Swing - For boards with an external 8MHz crystal where the 8MHz Low Power setting causes unreliability due to electrical interference.
- 8MHz Internal - For boards without an external crystal or to reduce power consumption.
- ATmega1284/P, ATmega644/P/A/PA, ATmega324P/A/PA, and ATmega32/A
- Included pinout variants:
- Supported with installation of Mighty 1284P(ATmega1284/P only) or MightyCore(ATmega32/A, 324/P/A/PA, 644/P/A/PA, 1284/P):
- ATmega1284/P
- Supported with installation of Mighty 1284P
- ATmega1281, ATmega128/A ATmega64/A
To burn the bootloader, you will need an ISP(in-system programmer). After you have connected the Arduino board and the programmer to your computer navigate to the Tools > Board menu and select the correct board. Then go to Tools > Programmer and select the programmer you are using. In case you are using Arduino as ISP, make sure that the selected port in the Tools > Serial Port menu refers to the Arduino as ISP board and not the board that you want to burn the bootloader on. Now, just launch the Tools > Burn Bootloader command and wait until the operation completes. You will no longer be able to upload sketches to your board using USB once the avr_boot bootloader is installed. To go back to normal uploading repeat the bootloader burning process with a non-avr_boot board selected.
See the Compile and put your sketch on SD Card instructions here.
java.lang.NullPointerException(Arduino IDE 1.6.5-r5 or previous) orpanic: runtime error: invalid memory address or nil pointer dereference(Arduino IDE 1.6.6 or higher) error while compiling/uploading with ATmega1284/P or ATmega644/P/A/PA.- Your Pinout menu selection requires the installation of Mighty 1284P or MightyCore. Either install it or choose a different pinout.
- avr_boot boards don't appear in the Tools > Board menu after manual installation.
- avr_boot requires Arduino IDE 1.6.1 or higher.
avrdude: verification error; content mismatcherror during lock verification while burning bootloader with AVRISP mkII or other STK500v2 programmer.- avr_boot is not compatible with Arduino AVR Boards 1.6.12. Please use any other version of Arduino AVR Boards.
- avr_boot entry doesn't appear in Boards Manager when using Arduino IDE 1.6.6.
- Close Boards Manager and then open it again.
Bootloader file specified but missingwarning when compiling when using Arduino IDE 1.6.6.- Please ignore, this is caused by a bug in that IDE version and will not cause any problems.
Warning: This core does not support exporting sketches. Please consider upgrading it or contacting its authorwhen doing Sketch > Export compiled Binary while using Arduino IDE 1.6.5 on Windows.- This is caused by a bug in Arduino IDE 1.6.5. Please either use the alternate method of obtaining the compiled .hex file or upgrade to a more recent version of the Arduino IDE.
avrdude: AVR Part "build.mcu" not found.oravr-g++: error: unrecognized argument in option '-mmcu=build.mcu'.- avr_boot requires Arduino IDE 1.6.1 or greater,
avrdude: AVR Part "atmega644a" not found.or similar error during Upload or Upload Using Programmer to ATmega644A, ATmega644PA, ATmega1284, ATmega32A, ATmega128A or ATmega64A.- This is caused by a limitation of the Arduino IDE that does not allow avr_boot's custom avrdude.conf file to be used for these actions when one of the Arduino AVR Boards programmers is selected. Since it doesn't interfere with avr_boot's intended usage for SD card program uploads, the issue will not be fixed at this time. You can solve the issue by installing MightyCore or ATTinyCore and selecting the version of your programmer marked
(MightyCore)or(ATtiny)from the Tools > Programmer menu.
- This is caused by a limitation of the Arduino IDE that does not allow avr_boot's custom avrdude.conf file to be used for these actions when one of the Arduino AVR Boards programmers is selected. Since it doesn't interfere with avr_boot's intended usage for SD card program uploads, the issue will not be fixed at this time. You can solve the issue by installing MightyCore or ATTinyCore and selecting the version of your programmer marked
- Using non-An analog pin numbers notation with
analogRead()doesn't work correctly(e.g. 4 instead of A4).- This is a known limitation of Arduino's
analogRead()function with non-standard microcontroller parts. Please use An pin notation or use the equivalent digital pin number(e.g. 14 for A0 on Uno).
- This is a known limitation of Arduino's
- An Arduino core or other library doesn't work correctly with one of the microcontrollers supported by avr_boot
- avr_boot is a bootloader, not a core. The Arduino AVR Boards core and the Arduino libraries are used by avr_boot. These will often work well for non-standard microcontrollers but not always. For improved support of ATmega1284/644/324/32 microcontrollers please use MightyCore. For improved support of ATmega128/64 please use MegaCore. You can use the avr_boot bootloader with the files generated by compiling with these cores.
- My SD card reader's CS line is connected to to a pin not included in the menu.
- Please compile avr_boot from source. You can set any SD CD pin you like.
- I found a bug.
- Make sure you are using the latest version of avr_boot and the latest version of the Arduino IDE.
- Spend some time troubleshooting and doing research to verify the issue and make sure it's caused by avr_boot.
- Do a search of https://github.com/zevero/avr_boot/issues to make sure your issue hasn't already been reported.
- Report the issue at https://github.com/zevero/avr_boot/issues or submit a pull request at https://github.com/zevero/avr_boot/pulls
- Please give as much information as possible, including:
- avr_boot version
- Arduino IDE version
- Operating system
- Installation method(Boards Manager, Manual, or compile from source)
- Which selections you are using in the Tools > Board, Tools > Processor, Tools > Pinout, Tools > Clock, Tools > BOD menus.
- Complete error messages.
- Full description of the steps required to reproduce the issue.
- Please give as much information as possible, including:
- ATmega328, ATmega328P
- ATmega32U4
- ATmega1284, ATmega1284P
- ATmega644, ATmega644A, ATmega644P, ATmega644PA
- ATmega324, ATmega324A, ATmega324P, ATmega324PA
- ATmega32, ATmega32A
- ATmega1281
- ATmega128, ATmega128A
- ATmega64, ATmega64A
- ATmega1280
- ATmega640
- Other microcontrollers can be used if you compile avr_boot from source.
- ATmega328P based:
- Uno
- Duemilanove(ATmega328P version)
- Diecimila(ATmega328P version)
- Nano(ATmega328P version)
- Mini(ATmega328P version)
- Ethernet
- Fio
- BT(ATmega328P version)
- LilyPad(ATmega328P version)
- Pro(ATmega328P version)
- Pro Mini(ATmega328P version)
- SparkFun RedBoard
- Metro
- Pro Trinket
- Digital Sandbox
- RedBot
- ATmega32U4 based:
- Leonardo
- Micro
- Esplora
- LilyPad USB
- Flora
- Bluefruit Micro
- Feather 32u4
- Adafruit 32u4 Breakout
- Circuit Playground 32u4
- MaKey MaKey
- Pro Micro
- Fio v3
- Qduino Mini
- ATmega1280 based
- Arduino Mega 1280
- ATmega1284P based:
- Mighty 1284P
- Mighty Mini 1284P
- Bobuino
- Skinny Bob
- Sleeping Beauty
- Calunium PCB
- Calunium Stripboard
- Firebirduino UU(Sleeping Beauty pinout)
- Mbili(Standard pinout)
- Ndogo(Standard pinout)
- Tatu(Standard pinout)
- EMC01(avr-developers.com pinout)
- Goldilocks v1.1
- Goldilocks Analogue
- WildFire v2
- WildFire v3
- ATmega644/P/A/PA based:
- Sanguino(avr-developers.com pinout)
- Wiring S
- Wiring S with Play Shield
- ATmega1281 based:
- Wiring 1.1
- ATmega128 based:
- Wiring 1.0
Do you have a board or microcontroller that has not been added to avr_boot's Arduino IDE support files? I am willing to consider adding it provided you can meet the following requirements:
- If you only want a model of board for a preexisting microcontroller added please provide a link to its standard boards support files. This should be a simple process and you can disregard the rest of the requirements.
- ATmega2560 can not be supported currently. I have already tried and failed(see #4). If you can help add ATmega2560 support to the bootloader source code we would be very grateful and I will then add Arduino IDE support for that board.
- A variant file for the board or microcontroller must exist. This is the pins_arduino.h file found in the variants folder.
- You must already have successfully used avr_boot, whether with your own build for the target microcontroller or another microcontroller. This is to ensure that you can provide effective testing.
- You must be willing to thoroughly test my work and be a communicative, active participant in the process. If I owned this hardware then avr_boot would already support it so I'm relying on you for testing.
- The target microcontroller must support a 4096 byte(2048 word) boot section. Microcontrollers such as ATmega168 don't support the size of the avr_boot bootloader. See the Boot Size Configuration table of the datasheet for your microcontroller.
- As the name suggests, this bootloader is for AVR architecture only.
Please submit an issue with your request.
- David A. Mellis - avr_developers variant
- Steve Marple - Calunium PCB and Stripboard variants
- Mighty 1284P - Standard, Bobuino, and Sleeping Beauty variants
- MCUdude - MegaCore variant for ATmega64/A, 128/A
- Phillip Stevens - Goldilocks v1.1 variant
- WickedDevice - WildFire v2/v3 variants
- Adafruit - adafruit32u4, bluefruitmicro, circuitplay32u4, feather32u4, flora variants
- SparkFun - promicro variant
- Others listed in the main documentation