{"id":3090,"date":"2010-09-20T08:35:29","date_gmt":"2010-09-20T13:35:29","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/mightyohm.com\/blog\/?p=3090"},"modified":"2022-12-28T14:34:10","modified_gmt":"2022-12-28T22:34:10","slug":"improved-firmware-for-usbtinyisp-fixes-usb-issues-in-virtualbox","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mightyohm.com\/blog\/2010\/09\/improved-firmware-for-usbtinyisp-fixes-usb-issues-in-virtualbox\/","title":{"rendered":"Improved firmware for USBTinyISP fixes USB issues"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

I am a big fan of VirtualBox<\/a>. \u00a0I have used it in various forms over the past couple years: to run Windows within Linux, Linux within Windows, Linux within OSX, Windows within OSX, etc. \u00a0It is fast, powerful, configurable, and best of all, free.<\/p>\n

However, there is one major disadvantage to using a virtual machine for hardware development. \u00a0Sometimes USB devices don’t get along with the VM very well. \u00a0What’s worse is that sometimes certain combinations of host and guest OS will work for a given USB device, while others won’t. \u00a0This can make debugging very frustrating!<\/p>\n

I recently set up VirtualBox on my Windows 7 x64 PC so that I could run Ubuntu 10.04 alongside Windows. \u00a0Everything was going great until I plugged in my Adafruit Industries USBTinyISP<\/a> so I could flash an AVR from within the Ubuntu virtual machine.<\/p>\n

Instead of seeing the USBTinyISP show up on the VM, I got something like this:<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

The USBtinyISP is shown as “State: Captured:” in the VirtualBox USB device menu but there is no checkmark along side it, it doesn’t show up in lsusb, and avrdude can’t find it either.<\/p>\n

When I tried to attach the USBtiny in Virtualbox again, I got this error message:<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Bad news.<\/p>\n

I tried various combinations of relaunching VirtualBox, rebooting, adding USB filters to the VM, unplugging, replugging, etc. \u00a0No dice.<\/p>\n

I decided that there must be an issue with the USB stack running on the USBTinyISP. \u00a0Most USB devices can handle the hand-off between the Windows host and the Ubuntu virtual machine, but for some reason the USBTinyISP can’t. \u00a0(It’s also worth mentioning that the Atmel AVRISP mkII programmer doesn’t work with Virtualbox either. \u00a0It shows up but can’t flash a device. \u00a0I’ll have to look into this someday, but since I mainly use the USBTinyISP, fixing the AVRISP wasn’t a priority.)<\/p>\n

The firmware that powers the Adafruit USBTinyISP is based on Dick Streefland’s\u00a0usbtiny<\/a> project. \u00a0Dick has released a couple more revisions of his code since the v1.3 release that Limor Fried used to create the USBTinyISP v2.0 firmware<\/a>. \u00a0There have been a few bug fixes and improvements<\/a> to the code, including some that address USB enumeration\/communication issues. \u00a0In addition, the usbtiny code now includes a branch specifically for the USBTinyISP. \u00a0A pre-compiled hex file is provided for easy flashing to an ATtiny2313.<\/p>\n

I was hopeful that these fixes might solve my Virtualbox problems, so\u00a0I downloaded Dick’s new usbtiny-1.5 source<\/a> and used my spare AVRISP mkII (within Windows) to burn the main.hex file to a spare ATtiny2313.<\/p>\n

\"Flashing<\/p>\n

The USBtinyISP source sets the fuses on the ATtiny2313 for an external clock, so \u00a0I had to wire up a ceramic resonator (small orange blob to the lower left of the AVR) to verify the AVR after setting the fuses. \u00a0You can see my Sparkfun AVR ISP adapter<\/a> on the right. \u00a0I also wired up \u00a0an external 5V power supply (the test leads at the top of the breadboard).<\/p>\n

After burning the new usbtiny-1.5 firmware to the ATtiny2313, I installed it in my USBTinyISP and connected it to my computer.<\/p>\n

At first, I still couldn’t get the USBTiny to attach to the VM if I plugged it into my PC and then selected it from VirtualBox’s USB menu.<\/p>\n

However, when I created a USB filter in VirtualBox for the USBTinyISP and restarted the VM, it started working! \u00a0This was a huge improvement over the original firmware, which never worked once, despite all of the combinations I tried!<\/p>\n

Here is the USB filter setup, accessible from the VM settings:<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Note that the revision is now shown as 0105 (instead of 0104 with the old usbtiny firmware):<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

lsusb shows the USBTinyISP (1781:0x9f Multiple Vendors) and avrdude no longer complains about finding the programmer. \u00a0(The initialization failed\u00a0message\u00a0shown below is because I didn’t have an AVR connected.) \u00a0 The red LED on the USBTinyISP flashes when I run avrdude – a sure sign that the VM is communicating with the programmer.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Here is my modified USBTinyISP, with the reflashed ATtiny2313 and shorted R4 & R7 (handy for programming devices that try to pull up\/down the SCK\/MOSI lines!)<\/p>\n

\"Modified<\/a><\/p>\n

I hope this helps anyone else who is trying to get the USBTinyISP working in Virtualbox on Windows. \u00a0It may help solve other USB problems as well – the fixes in the newer usbtiny code may apply to other situations as well. \u00a0If you are having problems with USB and the USBTinyISP, try upgrading the firmware and post your results here!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I am a big fan of VirtualBox. \u00a0I have used it in various forms over the past couple years: to run Windows within Linux, Linux within Windows, Linux within OSX, Windows within OSX, etc. \u00a0It is fast, powerful, configurable, and best of all, free. However, there is one major disadvantage to using a virtual machine … Continue reading Improved firmware for USBTinyISP fixes USB issues<\/span> →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[10,443],"tags":[198,184,351,61,344,350,349],"class_list":["post-3090","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-microcontrollers","category-projects-2","tag-adafruit","tag-attiny","tag-attiny2313","tag-avr","tag-usbtiny","tag-usbtinyisp","tag-virtualbox"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pioCd-NQ","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":3068,"url":"https:\/\/mightyohm.com\/blog\/2010\/09\/fixed-usbtinyisp-drivers-for-64-bit-windows-7\/","url_meta":{"origin":3090,"position":0},"title":"Fixed USBTinyISP drivers for 64-bit Windows 7 \/ Vista x64","author":"Jeff","date":"September 9, 2010","format":false,"excerpt":"For some time now, those wanting to use the Adafruit Industries USBTinyISP with the 64-bit versions of Windows 7 or Vista were faced with the following errors when attempting to install the device drivers supplied by Adafruit: For some reason, the 32-bit versions of these operating systems don't prevent the\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Microcontrollers"","block_context":{"text":"Microcontrollers","link":"https:\/\/mightyohm.com\/blog\/category\/microcontrollers\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/mightyohm.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/09\/unsigned-driver-500x382.png?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":2910,"url":"https:\/\/mightyohm.com\/blog\/2010\/03\/run-avrdude-without-root-privs-in-ubuntu\/","url_meta":{"origin":3090,"position":1},"title":"Run avrdude on Ubuntu without root","author":"Jeff","date":"March 30, 2010","format":false,"excerpt":"A quick tip for Ubuntu users: As installed by the avrdude package on Ubuntu, avrdude needs root priveledges to work properly with the Adafruit USBTinyISP AVR programmer.\u00a0 This gets annoying pretty fast because to program an AVR you need to run avrdude (or make) with sudo every time or log\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Microcontrollers"","block_context":{"text":"Microcontrollers","link":"https:\/\/mightyohm.com\/blog\/category\/microcontrollers\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":3333,"url":"https:\/\/mightyohm.com\/blog\/2010\/11\/atmel-avrisp-mkii-working-in-virtualbox\/","url_meta":{"origin":3090,"position":2},"title":"Atmel AVRISP mkII working in Virtualbox","author":"Jeff","date":"November 17, 2010","format":false,"excerpt":"In the past I have had problems getting the Atmel AVRISP mkII to work with Virtualbox. \u00a0This can be really irritating if, like me, you want to write code in Linux but are forced to run Windows for Skype and various closed-source development tools (ugh). Today, it seems to be\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Microcontrollers"","block_context":{"text":"Microcontrollers","link":"https:\/\/mightyohm.com\/blog\/category\/microcontrollers\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":822,"url":"https:\/\/mightyohm.com\/blog\/2008\/12\/building-a-wifi-radio-part-7-building-an-lcd-display\/","url_meta":{"origin":3090,"position":3},"title":"Building a Wifi Radio – Part 7, Building an LCD Display","author":"Jeff","date":"December 18, 2008","format":false,"excerpt":"This is the seventh part of an ongoing series about building a low cost, open source streaming internet radio.\u00a0 If you haven\u2019t already, check out the previous parts (see the links at the end of this article) for some background about the project. In part six, we used OpenWrt's UNIX-style\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Electronics"","block_context":{"text":"Electronics","link":"https:\/\/mightyohm.com\/blog\/category\/electronics\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"http:\/\/www.lduhtrp.net\/image-3238164-10440897","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":1962,"url":"https:\/\/mightyohm.com\/blog\/2009\/06\/wifi-radio-cost-breakdown\/","url_meta":{"origin":3090,"position":4},"title":"Wifi Radio Cost Breakdown","author":"Jeff","date":"June 10, 2009","format":false,"excerpt":"Many people have asked me for a cost breakdown of my Wifi Radio project.\u00a0 Well, here it is! I added a link to possible sources for as many parts as I could.\u00a0 However, there were a few things I scrounged from local surplus electronics stores and couldn't easily find a\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Electronics"","block_context":{"text":"Electronics","link":"https:\/\/mightyohm.com\/blog\/category\/electronics\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"http:\/\/www.ftjcfx.com\/image-3238164-10440897","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":4695,"url":"https:\/\/mightyohm.com\/blog\/2012\/02\/tutorial-geiger-counter-data-logging\/","url_meta":{"origin":3090,"position":5},"title":"Tutorial: Geiger Counter Data Logging","author":"Jeff","date":"February 10, 2012","format":false,"excerpt":"http:\/\/www.flickr.com\/photos\/mightyohm\/6849183393\/in\/photostream So, you want to log data with your Geiger Counter kit? Here's how to do it! You will need: A MightyOhm Geiger Counter Kit\u00a0- available on this site or from one of my distributors. A USB-Serial cable I recommend the FTDI TTL-232R-3V3, available from many electronics suppliers, such as\u00a0Adafruit\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Kits"","block_context":{"text":"Kits","link":"https:\/\/mightyohm.com\/blog\/category\/kits\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/mightyohm.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/02\/realterm-500x319.png?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mightyohm.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3090","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mightyohm.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mightyohm.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mightyohm.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mightyohm.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3090"}],"version-history":[{"count":19,"href":"https:\/\/mightyohm.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3090\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":15902,"href":"https:\/\/mightyohm.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3090\/revisions\/15902"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mightyohm.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3090"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mightyohm.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3090"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mightyohm.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3090"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}