How to Use Debug AVR App - A simulated AVR ATmega328 CPU for Arduino Uno system debugging

Debug AVR is a simulated AVR CPU Debugger that might be helpful to the teacher, student, or hobbyist who wishes to develop and debug code for an AVR ATmega328 CPU which is the CPU in an Arduino Uno board. The current implementation supports commands similar to those that existed in DOS debug.

The Debug AVR version 1.0* is a 32-bit Windows applications that can run on 32-bit or 64-bit Windows. It is not digitally signed so you will get a warning when you install it that the author is unknown. Updates happen a few times a year so if something isn't working, make sure you have the latest version installed. Also, if you identify any problems please continue to report them to teraKUHN. The latest 1.1* release adds the ability to trigger AVR INT0 and INT1 hardware interrupts, implements some instructions not completely implemented in earlier versions, and implements fixes for problems users have reported. The simulator runs about 10 to 50 times slower than actual hardware. If you're running code that has delay() statements in your C or C++ code, you can divide the value passed to delay by 10 to get resonable speed.

If you don't already have Arduino IDE installed, download it and install it. You might also want to leverage VisualINO if you want a visual programming model instead of the C or C++ programming languages.

• Link to Arduino IDE (C++ compiler) - AVR
• Link to VisualINO - AVR

Once installed, start Arduino IDE as you normally would as if you had an Arduino Uno board attached to your PC.

Debug AVR is compatible with an ATmega328 which is the CPU in an Arduino Uno, so select that as your board type in Arduino IDE under the Tools menu.

See this Arduino Controller example for code that will flash Debug AVR digital outputs on and off. Otherwise pick almost any of the numerous pieces of example code that come with Arduino IDE.

Once you think you're ready to compile and upload your code to an Arduino Uno, instead of uploading to an Arduino Uno board you will select to export compiled binary. This command under the Sketch menu will create a file on your computer with a *.hex extension in the same directory as your Arduino IDE project.

While not required, you might also find it useful to create an assembly listing file from the tools that come with Arduino IDE. There are two ways that you are supposed to be able to do this: through avr-gcc.exe with the -S option or avr-objdump.exe. I have only been able to get the later tool to reliably give me assembly listing files. This is how to generate an assembly listing file through the later tool. Unlike most software development environments that build your source code where you save it on disk, Arduino IDE copies your source code to a temporary directory before it compiles it. If you look at the Arduino IDE command window when you've completed a compile, there will be a number of commands of which one looks something like this:

  C:\Program Files (x86)\Arduino\...\avr-gcc ... -o "C:\.../{project_name}.ino.elf" ...

Make a note of the path after -o that specifies the .elf file. That's the current temporary directory that Arduino IDE used to compile your code. You will want to create a command using that path. The command should look something like this:

  C:\Program Files (x86)\Arduino\...\avr-objdump.exe -d -S -C "C:\.../{project_name}.ino.elf" > {project_name}.asmlist

This will generate an assembly listing file that you can open with a text editor such as notepad. If you want to step through or set breakpoints in the AVR assembly code with Debug AVR, this file will give you an idea of what the code is doing.

After installing Debug AVR from it's Windows msi install file, start Debug AVR. If you get a dialog indicating you don't have the current version of Debug AVR, you're either not connected to the internet or you should download and install the update.

You can load the *.hex memory file into the simulated AVRs main program memory space through two different ways. The simplest approach is to load the *.hex memory file that has the machine code you want to debug by loading it through the file open menu. The other way is to list the memory files in the Debug AVR initialization file (DbgAVR.ini) located in the same directory as the executable (DbgAVR.exe). The entries in the Debug AVR initialization file include lines that have the path to the memory file followed by ' 0 0'.

ex:
..\BASIC.hex 0 0

The advantage of the later approach is that if you make changes to your code and compile again, you just need to go to File, Reload New to update and reset Debug AVR with the new code.

At this point you can select Go, Proceed, or Step/Trace commands under the Project menu. The Go command will run the code just like if you had uploaded it to an Arduino Uno board. The window on the right displays a simple representation of the Arduino Uno input and output pins. As your program runs the pins will be white or black indicating the pin would be at 0 volts or 5 volts. Once you start the code with the Go command, you can stop it with the Stop Debug command. The Proceed and Step/Trace commands are for assembly level debugging of the AVR assembly code generated when you compiled and exported your code.

Digital outputs will show bits that are on as black buttons and bits that are off as white buttons. Digital inputs can be clicked on to toggle between if the input is on (black) or off (white). Clicking on a bit configured as digital output will generate a beep and will not change it's state. Analog inputs are controlled by sliders going from minimum value on the left to maximum value on the right. Buttons that are grey are there to represent pins that you would see on an Arduino board. Any text that the Ardunio is programmed to send to its serial output port will show up in a simulated 5 line LCD display below the digital and analog controls.

In addition to the menu commands, you can enter commands in the text window on the left. Debug AVR uses a text window to allow the user to enter assembly level debugging commands and inspect the state of the CPUs memory, I/O, and registers. The text window takes single line commands at the end of the text that are described with the following syntax:

where all fields in [] are optional and the fields have the following meaning:
B - breakpoints - Use this command to set breakpoints where you want execution to stop and to echo out what breakpoints are set. This command can set new breakpoints in the program's code, but will not clear any existing breakpoints. Breakpoints can only be set at an address containing the first byte of a valid instruction. Note that DebugCPU replaces the original instructions of any listed breakpoint addresses with a halt, break, or software interrupt. The instruction at these locations are restored to their original value if the breakpoint is encountered or when the G command is next used. If DebugCPU does not hit a breakpoint, then the breakpoint is still enabled.
C - compare memory - use this command to compare a range of memory to memory at another location.
D - dump memory - use this command to report what is stored in main program memory in hexidecimal.
8 - octel dump - use this command to report what is stored in main program memory in octel.
O - dump Output/RAM - use this command to report what has been received by IO ports.
E - enter memory - use this command to modify what is stored in main memory.
I - enter Input/RAM - use this command to modify what has been sent to IO ports.
G - go - Use this command to start executing code in the debugger. This is the same as selecting Go in the menu command. This command will clear any existing breakpoints and can set new breakpoints in the program's code.
M - move memory - use this command to move a range of memory to another location.
P - proceed - Use this command to continue executing code in the debugger. This is the same as selecting Proceed in the menu command. This command can set new breakpoints in the program's code, but will not clear any existing breakpoints.
R - register - use this command to report what is stored in registers.
T - trace - Use this command to execute one or more instruction in the debugger. This is the same as selecting Step or Trace in the menu command. This command will not clear any existing breakpoints.
U - unassemble - use this command to report what CPU opcodes are stored in main program memory.

address - a 16-bit hexidecimal memory address
addresses - a sequence of up to 8 16-bit hexidecimal memory addresses
value- an 8-bit hexidecimal data value
list - a sequence of up to 8 8-bit hexidecimal data values
=address - =# where # is a 16-bit hexidecimal memory address where something will start
range - either 2 16-bit hexidecimal memory addresses indicating start and end or 1 16-bit hexidecimal memory address indicating start and L # where # is the length to end

In addition to entering single line commands at the end of the text window the Go, Proceed, and Trace commands can be entered through menu commands.