EggTimer programming on a Mac

Anyone have any tips for bringing up the EggTimer on OX terminal?

It should not be too bad though you will likely not be able to do it from Terminal without additional software. It looks ATMega based so the Arduino package may do the trick, if you are not up for compiling avrdude from scratch. In any case I will be in the same boat once my purchased unit arrives, and I will be more than happy to share my experience with it!

Thank you, I was so happy when it actually turned on and started beeping. I have never built a project like this. Lots of fun and frustration when I got a little over confident.

To bring up the Flight Settings and downloads screens, any VT100/ANSI terminal program will work, including Mac Terminal. You'll just need to get the driver for the Prolific PL2303 cable, from

https://www.prolific.com.tw/us/showproduct.aspx?p_id=229&pcid=41

To FLASH it, you'll need a Windows system and WinAVR, however I have heard lately that there is a native Mac version now. I don't have a Mac to test with, so I can't verify it, but others have said that they got it to work.

Awesome! Yes, as you may have guessed I thought we were talking about flashing it. Glad to hear the production interface can be accessed via plain terminal.

cerving said:

To bring up the Flight Settings and downloads screens, any VT100/ANSI terminal program will work, including Mac Terminal. You'll just need to get the driver for the Prolific PL2303 cable, from

https://www.prolific.com.tw/us/showproduct.aspx?p_id=229&pcid=41

To FLASH it, you'll need a Windows system and WinAVR, however I have heard lately that there is a native Mac version now. I don't have a Mac to test with, so I can't verify it, but others have said that they got it to work.

Click to expand...

How's dat for customer service !!!!!!!!!!
The question wasn't even directed his way !!!!!!!!!!!!

Teddy

I like the product and service a lot, thinking about adding one more Eggtimer to my order, the more I build, the more comfortable I am

Without a doubt Mick,,,,
It's like anything else in life,,,
After you do just 1 or 2 of those Eggtimers
you'll be assembling them in your sleep...

Teddy

onebadhawk said:

How's dat for customer service !!!!!!!!!!
The question wasn't even directed his way !!!!!!!!!!!!

Teddy

Click to expand...

Mick2b said:

I like the product and service a lot, thinking about adding one more Eggtimer to my order, the more I build, the more comfortable I am

Click to expand...

Yes! I bought more than I needed, partially because I would eventually use them but mostly because I simply wanted to support these guys.

watermelonman said:

Yes! I bought more than I needed, partially because I would eventually use them but mostly because I simply wanted to support these guys.

Click to expand...

www.Onebadhawk.com

lol...lol...

Teddy

onebadhawk said:

www.Onebadhawk.com

lol...lol...

Teddy

Click to expand...

Oh I picked up two of your harnesses from Wildman yesterday as well, hah.

watermelonman said:

Oh I picked up two of your harnesses from Wildman yesterday as well, hah.

Click to expand...

How funny is dat !!!!!!!!
Thank you,,, Thank you,,,
I hope you ALL had such a wonderful Thanksgiving....

Teddy

If anyone on here has the steps or programs that work with MAC to flash the altimeter, I would greatly appreciate the knowledge

Would need something like AVR Dude that runs on a MAC or could it be run under some kind of emulation successfully? Better to just borrow a machine with AVR dude to pull the update off. Kurt

I have done everything eggtimer related on Mac, including flashing the chip. You do NOT need a windows system (sorry Cris ) There is a native avrdude for OSX that installs with brew that works fine.

Here are some instructions I wrote up back when I did it:

1. Install the Prolific USB driver for the cable from https://prolificusa.com/pl-2303hx-drivers/ Scroll down to find the "Mac OS X Universal Binary Driver..."
2. Install iTerm (it's free) from https://iterm2.com (note: it's not on the App Store)
3. Create profiles for your devices in iTerm in Profiles | Open Profiles... | Edit Profile. The baud rates are different for various boards.
4. For Eggtimer boards, on the General tab set it to use a Command of "screen /dev/tty.usbserial 19200". For Eggfinder TRS and its LCD, use "screen /dev/tty.usbserial 9600".
5. Save the new iTerm profile - I named mine 'eggtimer' (Capt. Obvious here). You can now select it from the Profiles menu to open a new session.
6. Install Homebrew if you've never done that already - get from https://brew.sh
7. Oen a terminal session and install avrdude (the flash programmer package) via:
   brew install avrdude
8. Using a text editor, create yourself a shell script (I called it eggflash.sh) in your home directory to run avrdude with the following contents (adjusting the path in the -U option to suit where you downloaded the eggtimer firmware):
   
   Code:

   #!/bin/bash
   avrdude -v -v -v -v -pm328p -carduino -b115200 -P/dev/tty.usbserial -D -Uflash:w:/Users/youraccount/Downloads/Eggtimer_1_51/Eggtimer_1_51.hex:i

9. Make the shell script executable with (assuming you put it in your home directory):
   
   Code:

   chmod +x eggflash.sh

Now you are good to go - just follow the rest of Cris's instructions for updating the flash, using the above shell script instead of the Windows .bat file

"There is a native avrdude for OSX that installs with brew that works fine."

And so, for those of us with Macs but who are computer challenged, is there something we need to know that will allow some access we otherwise would not have? "avrdude" sounds cool, whatever it is.

caveduck said:

I have done everything eggtimer related on Mac, including flashing the chip. You do NOT need a windows system (sorry Cris ) There is a native avrdude for OSX that installs with brew that works fine.

Here are some instructions I wrote up back when I did it:

1. Install the Prolific USB driver for the cable from https://prolificusa.com/pl-2303hx-drivers/ Scroll down to find the "Mac OS X Universal Binary Driver..."
2. Install iTerm (it's free) from the Apple App Store
3. Create a profile in iTerm in Profiles | Open Profiles... | Edit Profile
4. On the General tab set it to use a Command of "screen /dev/tty.usbserial 19200"
5. Save the new iTerm profile - I named mine 'eggtimer' (Capt. Obvious here). You can now select it from the Profiles menu to open a new session.
6. Install Homebrew if you've never done that already
7. Install avrdude via:
   brew install avrdude
8. Create yourself a shell script (I called it eggflash.sh) to run avrdude with the following contents (adjusting the path in the -U option to suit where you downloaded the eggtimer firmware):

Code:

#!/bin/bash
avrdude -v -v -v -v -pm328p -carduino -b115200 -P/dev/tty.usbserial -D -Uflash:w:/Users/youraccount/Downloads/Eggtimer_1_51/Eggtimer_1_51.hex:i

Now you are good to go - just follow the rest of Cris's instructions for updating the flash, using the above shell script instead of the Windows .bat file

Click to expand...

Thank you, I guess I get it but get a little foggy around Step 7 and 8. I'll see what I can accomplish. The only home brew I have previously was a killer Amber ale recipe

No more iterm

Mick2b said:

Thank you, I guess I get it but get a little foggy around Step 7 and 8. I'll see what I can accomplish. The only home brew I have previously was a killer Amber ale recipe

Click to expand...

Homebrew is the name of a project that gets lots of free and open source software ported to Mac. Http://brew.sh

Mick2b said:

Thank you, I guess I get it but get a little foggy around Step 7 and 8. I'll see what I can accomplish. The only home brew I have previously was a killer Amber ale recipe

Click to expand...

Chuckle,, chuckle,,,,

Teddy

https://iterm2.com/downloads.html

It's out there but not on the app store. All the mac developers here at work use it.

Bump - updated instructions in post #15

caveduck said:

Bump - updated instructions in post #15

Click to expand...

Thank you so much, got Iterm2 all set. Now do I need to flash the chip if the current version is the most recent version? I know I need to do a master reset. I also need to figure out my path to the update. Some stuff on a MAC is harder to figure out even though I bought it for simplicity. You should write the Apple Addendums for the products

You don't normally need to flash the chip unless an Eggtimer firmware update comes out. I only did it the first time because I was having a problem with one of my units and wanted to make sure that the chip was programmed OK (and I wanted to see if it could be done on the Mac).

Thanks for the tips. I couldn't get iTerm2 to work worth a damn until you laid it out for me. I'll have to try to flash it now...

Bump for another edit back in the procedure - added command to make the shell script executable.

Bump for update of procedure in post #15 to account for different baud rates of original Eggtimer vs Eggtimer TRS and LCD boards. KenRico and I flashed an Eggfinder LCD board the other night from my Mac; worked perfectly.

caveduck said:

I have done everything eggtimer related on Mac, including flashing the chip. You do NOT need a windows system (sorry Cris ) There is a native avrdude for OSX that installs with brew that works fine.

Here are some instructions I wrote up back when I did it:

1. Install the Prolific USB driver for the cable from https://prolificusa.com/pl-2303hx-drivers/ Scroll down to find the "Mac OS X Universal Binary Driver..."
2. Install iTerm (it's free) from https://iterm2.com (note: it's not on the App Store)
3. Create profiles for your devices in iTerm in Profiles | Open Profiles... | Edit Profile. The baud rates are different for various boards.
4. For Eggtimer boards, on the General tab set it to use a Command of "screen /dev/tty.usbserial 19200". For Eggfinder TRS and its LCD, use "screen /dev/tty.usbserial 9600".
5. Save the new iTerm profile - I named mine 'eggtimer' (Capt. Obvious here). You can now select it from the Profiles menu to open a new session.
6. Install Homebrew if you've never done that already - get from https://brew.sh
7. Oen a terminal session and install avrdude (the flash programmer package) via:
   brew install avrdude
8. Using a text editor, create yourself a shell script (I called it eggflash.sh) in your home directory to run avrdude with the following contents (adjusting the path in the -U option to suit where you downloaded the eggtimer firmware):
   
   Code:

   #!/bin/bash
   avrdude -v -v -v -v -pm328p -carduino -b115200 -P/dev/tty.usbserial -D -Uflash:w:/Users/youraccount/Downloads/Eggtimer_1_51/Eggtimer_1_51.hex:i

9. Make the shell script executable with (assuming you put it in your home directory):
   
   Code:

   chmod +x eggflash.sh

Now you are good to go - just follow the rest of Cris's instructions for updating the flash, using the above shell script instead of the Windows .bat file

Click to expand...

Where I am stuck is on step 8 and 9. My text editor does not allow me to save a .sh file. I am also not sure what is meant by Home Directory. I am not full sure of my path to the update. When I view it is appears as Macintosh HD > Users > MickeySpain > Downloads > Eggtimer_1_52> Eggtimer_1_52.Hex

Sorry, some of the programing is above me but I am trying to understand, Just not sure if I am writing the Shell Script in and saving it in and then writing the execution code.
Thanks,
Mickey

This is what I get when I try in Terminal
Last login: Tue Mar 24 11:25:18 on ttys001
Maurice-Spains-MacBook-Pro:~ mickeyspain$ #!/bin/bash
Maurice-Spains-MacBook-Pro:~ mickeyspain$ avrdude -v -v -v -v -pm328p -carduino -b115200 -P/dev/tty.usbserial -D -Uflash:c:/Users/MickeySpain/Downloads/Eggtimer_1_52/Eggtimer_1_52.hex:i
avrdude: invalid I/O mode 'c' in update specification
allowed values are:
r = read device
w = write device
v = verify device
avrdude: error parsing update operation 'flash:c:/Users/MickeySpain/Downloads/Eggtimer_1_52/Eggtimer_1_52.hex:i'
Maurice-Spains-MacBook-Pro:~ mickeyspain$ #!/bin/bash
Maurice-Spains-MacBook-Pro:~ mickeyspain$ avrdude -v -v -v -v -pm328p -carduino -b115200 -P/dev/tty.usbserial -D -Uflash:w:Macintoshhardrive/Users/MickeySpain/Downloads/Eggtimer_1_52/Eggtimer_1_52.hex:i

avrdude: Version 6.1, compiled on Dec 6 2014 at 08:30:57
Copyright (c) 2000-2005 Brian Dean, https://www.bdmicro.com/
Copyright (c) 2007-2014 Joerg Wunsch

System wide configuration file is "/usr/local/Cellar/avrdude/6.1/etc/avrdude.conf"
User configuration file is "/Users/mickeyspain/.avrduderc"
User configuration file does not exist or is not a regular file, skipping

Using Port : /dev/tty.usbserial
Using Programmer : arduino
Overriding Baud Rate : 115200
avrdude: ser_open(): can't open device "/dev/tty.usbserial": Resource busy

avrdude done. Thank you.

Hi Mickey,

You have a typo in the -Uflash arg, right after "-Uflash" you should have <colon> w <colon>, not <colon> c <colon> (have to prevent the vbb code from generating a smiley here)

Also you're getting a "resource busy" error on the serial cable port - make sure you don't have a second terminal session active on the port.