ATTINY Arduino Toolchain

  1. 1: UPDI Connection
    1. ATTINY412 Example
    2. ATTINY1614 Example
  2. 2: Arduino Setup
  3. 3: Pin Mappings
    1. ATTINY412 Mapping
    2. ATTINY1614 Mapping

The basics on this one are very similar to the SAM arduino guide. This time, though, no bootloaders! Wonderful, we get right into it.

This guide is for the ATTINY412 and ATTINY1416 specifically, which are available in the fab lab inventory, but extends to a wide array of parts in the ATTINY family, as documented here.

1: UPDI Connection

The UPDI connection is made by connecting both ends (tx and rx) of a usb to serial converter to the UPDI pin on the target microcontroller: the RX line connects directly, and the TX line connects to that with a ~ 5k ohm resistor. For more detail, check this out. FTDI connectors carry a semi-standard pinout, which is shown below, converting to a three pin UPID header:

conn board files here, ctrl + f for ‘UPDI’

The connection can then be made to the microcontroller, examples for the ATTINY412 and ATTINY1614 are included below.

ATTINY412 Example

board is here, from Neil, ctrl + f for ‘attiny412’ (t412-blink-3 pin)

412

ATTINY1614 Example

board is here, from Neil, ctrl + f for ‘attiny412’ (t1614-echo)

With this schematic, we use a 2-pin UPDI connector, meaning we also need to provide it with power when it’s being programmed!

1614

2: Arduino Setup

These boards aren’t supported by arduino out of the box. In order to make that happen, we need to open up arduino and do:

  • file -> preferences -> additional board manager URLS
    • add this link: http://drazzy.com/package_drazzy.com_index.json
  • now arduino will be able to find the “board definitions” when we do:
  • tools -> board -> board manager
    • search for megaTinyCore
    • hit install

The tiny board should show up in your board manager options. To program a board, attach your serial programmer to ground, UPDI, and to power if needed, and change the following settings:

  • choose correct board
  • choose programmer as Serial-UPDI with Slow 57600 baud

You should now be able to program from the Arduino IDE.

3: Pin Mappings

For more explainer on pin mappings, read this: the arduino “pin numbers” don’t always correlate directly to the ATTINY pin numbers (either physically, on the package, or port-wise, in the ATTINY core software).

ATTINY412 Mapping

412map ATTINY412 pin mapping

ATTINY1614 Mapping

1614map ATTINY1614 pin mapping