XMega - The Background

The Background

I like the size, feature set, and pricing of the Atmel XMega line of chips. I used one model in a retail product when the classic ATMega328P didn't have enough I/O pins.

One of my struggles with using the XMega series of microcontrollers is that the documentation while good it's not always helpful. My plan here is to provide code and practical examples.

My Development Process

There are several language options for programming the XMega, primarily assembly and c. The Atmel Software Framework (ASF) is a great solution for creating C code that is more portable between all Atmel Microcontrollers especially if you stay within the XMega product line, moving to a new model is pretty easy. The downside is that all of the documentation is really dry and generic, so figuring out how to apply the code to solve my problem has been a bit of a challenge.

Some programmers feel that it makes the code "bloated". I wont argue what is bloated and what isn't. I will say that it has worked well enough for me, it either compiles to a binary that fits in FLASH or just a few optimizations will get it there. Code on this site will generally be C primarily using the ASF.

Atmel Studio is based on Visual Studio which is a professional level IDE. Some might say overkill for such a little chip but once you have more than a couple of hundred lines of code, it's nice to have an editor that makes it easy to break your project into smaller more manageable pieces. The alternative is a couple of source files that just keep getting longer and longer. I'll be using Atmel Studio for nearly everything.


I'll be using multiple boards for development and testing, some from 3rd parties some that I design myself. If it's relevant I may specify where a similar board can be purchased. Some will clearly be better for certain tasks. If the board isn't specified it's probably not important which one.

Math

While I am good at math I don't read formula's well so most math here will be what I would call Calculator math. Written so it's easy to punch in to the calculator of your choice. 

The Audience

Many other tutorials are more helpful if you are just starting out. I make some assumptions that you've written some microcontroller code before and about your knowledge of Atmel Studio,  Many of these posts will build on each other some code snippets can be used on their own.