[avrdude-dev] mcprog and libhidapi

[Stefan Rupp]

Hi everyone,

earlier this year, I've created yet another programmer for AVRs. It's
based on the MCP2210, which is an USB to SPI-master bridge,
and so it was given the name mcprog.

I have tried to integrate it into the avrdude code base and started
from the pickit2-code, as that also uses the HID protocol. I got it to
the point where it worked on Linux, but when I tried it on Mac, it
failed.
The problem is that in Mac OS X, these days (and for quite some time
actually) it's not any more supported to detach HID devices from the
kernel driver, so libusb just can't grab them. As I wanted this to be
supported on all major platforms, I started looking around and came
across libhidapi[1].
I've integrated libhidapi into avrdude and used that the mcprog code
instead of libusb. As a result, the code now works on Linux and Mac OS
X and (maybe) on Windows as well, but I haven't found anyone willing
to compile avrdude for Windows yet, so that's untested so far :)

Now, the question is: Is this of interest to you at all? Are you
willing to add another dependency for one more library? Basically,
libhidapi calls itself cross platform and should work on windows, but
I don't know how much of a hassle this would be.
On the plus side, one would then be able to revive some programmers that
are - at least up to my understanding - currently dysfunctional on MAC.

If anyone wants to look, I've uploaded what I've got to my server so
you can get it from here: [2].


Best regards,
Stefan



[1]: http://www.signal11.us/oss/hidapi/
[2]: http://struppi.name/avrdude_mcprog.patch