Keyboard firmwares for Atmel AVR and Cortex-M
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build.md 7.3KB

Build Firmware and Program Controller

Download and Install

1. Install Tools

  1. Toolchain On Windows install MHV AVR Tools for AVR GCC compiler and Cygwin(or MinGW) for shell terminal. On Mac you can use CrossPack. On Linux you can install AVR GCC with your favorite package manager.

  2. Programmer On Windows install Atmel FLIP. On Mac and Linux install dfu-programmer.

  3. Driver On Windows you start DFU bootloader on the chip first time you will see ‘Found New Hardware Wizard’ to install driver. If you install device driver properly you can find chip name like ‘ATmega32U4’ under ‘LibUSB-Win32 Devices’ tree on ‘Device Manager’. If not you shall need to update its driver on ‘Device Manager’. You will find the driver in FLIP install directory like: C:\Program Files (x86)\Atmel\Flip 3.4.5\usb. In case of dfu-programmer use its driver.

If you use PJRC Teensy you don’t need step 2 and 3 above, just get Teensy loader.

2. Download source

You can find firmware source at github:

If you are familiar with Git tools you are recommended to use it but you can also download zip archive from:

Build firmware

1. Open terminal

Open terminal window to get access to commands. Use Cygwin(or MingGW) shell terminal in Windows or Terminal.app on Mac OSX. In Windows press Windows key and R then enter cmd in ‘Run command’ dialog showing up.

2. Change directory

Move to project directory in the firmware source.

cd tmk_keyboard/{'keyboard' or 'converter'}/<project>

3. Make

Build firmware using GNU make command. You’ll see <project>_<variant>.hex file in that directory unless something unexpected occurs in build process.

make -f Makefile.<variant> clean
make -f Makefile.<variant>

Program Controller

Now you have hex file to program on current directory. This hex is only needed to program your controller, other files are used for development and you may leave and forget them.

1. Start bootloader

How to program controller depends on controller chip and its board design. To program AVR USB chips you’ll need to start it up in bootloader mode. Most of boards with the chip have a push button to let bootloader come up. Consult with your controller board manual.

2. Program with DFU bootloader

Stock AVR USB chip including ATmega32U4 has DFU bootloader by factory default. FLIP is a DFU programmer on Windows offered by Atmel. Open source command line tool dfu-programmer also supports AVR chips, it runs on Linux, Mac OSX and even Windows.

To program AVR chip with DFU bootloader use FLIP or dfu-programmer. If you have a proper program command in Makefile just type this.

FLIP has two version of tool, GUI app and command line program. If you want GUI see tutorial below. To use command line tool run this command. Note that you need to set PATH variable properly.

$ make -f Makefile.<variant> flip

Or to program with dfu-programmer run:

$ make -f Makefile.<variant> dfu

FLIP GUI tutorial

  1. On menu bar click Device -> Select, then. ATmega32u4.
  2. On menu bar click Settings -> Communication -> USB, then click ‘Open’ button on ‘USB Port Connection’ dialog. At this point you’ll see grey-outed widgets on the app get colored and ready.

  3. On menu bar click File -> Load HEX File, then select your firmware hex file on File Selector dialog.

  4. On ‘Operations Flow’ panel click ‘Run’ button to load the firmware binary to the chip. Note that you should keep ‘Erase’, ‘Blank Check’, ‘Program’ and ‘Verify’ check boxes selected.

  5. Re-plug USB cord or click ‘Start Application’ button to restart your controller. Done.

See also these instructions if you need.

3. Program with Teensy Loader

If you have PJRC Teensy see instruction of Teensy Loader.

Or use this command if you have command line version of Teensy Loader installed.

$ make -f Makefile.<variant> teensy

4. Program with Other programmer

You may want to use other programmer like avrdude with AVRISPmkII, Arduino or USBasp. In that case you can still use make target program for build with configuring PROGRAM_CMD in Makefile.

$ make -f Makefile.<variant> program

Makefile Options

1. MCU and Frequency.

MCU = atmega32u4       # Teensy 2.0
#MCU = at90usb1286      # Teensy++ 2.0
F_CPU = 16000000

Set your MCU and its clock in Hz.

# Boot Section Size in *bytes*
#   Teensy halfKay   512
#   Atmel DFU loader 4096
#   LUFA bootloader  4096
OPT_DEFS += -DBOOTLOADER_SIZE=4096

If you are using PJRC Teensy use 512 for BOOTLOADER_SIZE, otherwise use 4096 unless you are sure.

2. Features

Optional. Note that comment out with # to disable them.

BOOTMAGIC_ENABLE = yes      # Virtual DIP switch configuration(+1000)
MOUSEKEY_ENABLE = yes       # Mouse keys(+4700)
EXTRAKEY_ENABLE = yes       # Audio control and System control(+450)
CONSOLE_ENABLE = yes        # Console for debug(+400)
COMMAND_ENABLE = yes        # Commands for debug and configuration
SLEEP_LED_ENABLE = yes      # Breathing sleep LED during USB suspend
#NKRO_ENABLE = yes          # USB Nkey Rollover - not yet supported in LUFA
#BACKLIGHT_ENABLE = yes     # Enable keyboard backlight functionality

3. Programmer

Optional. Set proper command for your controller, bootloader and programmer. This command can be used with make program. Not needed if you use FLIP, dfu-programmer or Teensy Loader.

# avrdude with AVRISPmkII
PROGRAM_CMD = avrdude -p $(MCU) -c avrispmkII -P USB -U flash:w:$(TARGET).hex

# avrdude with USBaspLoader
PROGRAM_CMD = avrdude -p $(MCU) -c usbasp -U flash:w:$(TARGET).hex

# avrdude with arduino
PROGRAM_CMD = avrdude -p $(MCU) -c arduino -P COM1 -b 57600 -U flash:w:$(TARGET).hex

Config.h Options

1. Magic command key combination

#define IS_COMMAND() (keyboard_report->mods == (MOD_BIT(KB_LSHIFT) | MOD_BIT(KB_RSHIFT)))

2. Mechanical Locking Support for CapsLock

/* Mechanical locking CapsLock support. Use KC_LCAP instead of KC_CAPS in keymap */
#define CAPSLOCK_LOCKING_ENABLE
/* Locking CapsLock re-synchronize hack */
#define CAPSLOCK_LOCKING_RESYNC_ENABLE

3. Disable Debug and Print

/* disable debug print */
#define NO_DEBUG

/* disable print */
#define NO_PRINT

4. Disable Action Features

#define NO_ACTION_LAYER
#define NO_ACTION_TAPPING
#define NO_ACTION_ONESHOT
#define NO_ACTION_MACRO
#define NO_ACTION_FUNCTION

TBD