How to program a uC preloaded with Arduino-bootloader from AVRStudio

Posted on 16 May 2017 in misc

To-do: Explain the different ways of programming a microcontroller, its memory zones, bootloader zone, fuses, etc.

These are the steps to program a microcontroller (e.g. Atmega328p, aka Arduino Pro Mini), preloaded with an Arduino-compatible bootloader directly...

From AVR Studio

Install avrdude from the WinAVR project, or find its path inside an installation of the ArduinoIDE.
Open the Atmel Studio IDE.
Go to the Tools menu and choose External Tools.
Add a new one named avrdude, with its path pointing to the avrdude.exe file you found in the first step above.
In Arguments, write the following (for Arduino Pro Mini, Atmega328p), obviously replacing the path to avrdude.conf, the serial port name with your own actual values. Alternatively, replace the quoted string between :w: and :i with the full, absolute path of the final .hex file produced by your project compilation.
```
-C "C:\avrdude\avrdude.conf" -p atmega328p -c arduino -P COM9 -b 57600 -U flash:w:"$(ProjectDir)Debug\$(ItemFileName).hex":i
```

From a Linux terminal

Install avrdude:
```
  sudo apt install avrdude
```

Take the compiled program in .hex format and program it with:

  avrdude -p atmega328p -c arduino -P /dev/ttyUSB0 -b 57600 -U flash:w:"YOURPROGRAM.hex":i