How to Install Forth on ATMega32U4 SparkFun's Pro Micro

How to install Forth on AVR's ATMega32U4 board (SparkFun's Pro Micro Arduino board)

On Windows

How to Restore Pro Micro's Bootloader

Once you put Forth on Pro Micro you will lose the Arduino bootloader and will not be able to upload any Arduino sketch. In order to bring it back connect the board to a programmer (I have a USBASP clone from China) and upload the original bootloader. I did it using avrdudess which is a GUI for avrdude (avrdude comes packaged within).

pushd C:\app\electro\AVRDUDESS
avrdude -u -c usbasp-clone -p m32u4 -U flash:w:"ArduinoLeonardoBootloader.hex":i -U eeprom:w:"ArduinoLeonardoBootloader.epp":i -U lfuse:w:0xFF:m -U hfuse:w:0xD8:m -U efuse:w:0xCB:m -U lock:w:0x2F:m

Install Precompiled Hex File

• Download FlashForth from here
• Unzip the ZIP archive ff5.0.zip into the project directory, e.g. c:\avr\
• Locate 32u4-16MHz-USB.hex in the project directory (e.g. c:\avr\flashforth\avr\hex\32u4-16MHz-USB.hex)
• Upload the hex file using the USBasp or similar programmer
• avrdude -u -c usbasp-clone -p m32u4 -U flash:w:"c:\avr\flashforth\avr\hex\32u4-16MHz-USB.hex":a -U lfuse:w:0xFF:m -U hfuse:w:0xDF:m -U efuse:w:0xFF:m
• Plug the ATMega32U4 board into the PC and you should be able to connect to it using a terminal application (e.g. TeraTerm works well, also PuTTY and RealTerm)
• Press ENTER and you should be greeted with an ok prompt. Type words<ENTER> and it should print out its dictionary of known words.

  ok<#,ram>
words
p2+ pc@ @p hi d. ud. d> d< d= d0< d0= dinvert d2* d2/ d- d+ dabs ?dnegate dnegate s>d rdrop endit next for in, inline repeat while again until begin then else if zfl pfl xa> >xa x>r dump .s words >pr .id ms ticks r0 s0 latest state bl 2- ['] -@ ; :noname : ] [ does> postpone create cr [char] ihere ( char ' lit abort" ?abort ?abort? abort prompt quit true false .st inlined immediate shb interpret 'source >in tiu tib ti# number? >number ud/mod ud* sign? digit? find immed? (f) c>n n>c @+ c@+ place cmove word parse \ /string source user base pad hp task ulink rsave bin hex decimal . u.r u. sign #> #s # digit <# hold up min max ?negate tuck nip / u*/mod u/ * u/mod um/mod um* 'key? 'key 'emit p++ p+ pc! p! p@ r>p !p>r !p u> u< > < = 0< 0= <> within +! 2/ 2* >body 2+ 1- 1+ negate invert xor or and - m+ + abs dup r@ r> >r rot over swap drop allot ." ," s" (s" type accept 1 umax umin spaces space 2swap 2dup 2drop 2! 2@ cf, chars char+ cells cell+ aligned align cell c, , here dp ram eeprom flash >< rp@ sp! sp@ 2constant constant 2variable variable @ex execute key? key emit Fcy mtst scan skip n= rshift lshift mclr mset ic, i, operator iflush cwd wd- wd+ pause turnkey to is defer value fl+ fl- c! c@ @ a> ! >a literal int! ;i di ei ver warm txu rxu rxu? usb- usb+ empty rx0? rx0 tx0 load- load+ busy idle exit
marker  ok<#,ram>

Compile Your Own Hex File

• Download FlashForth from here.
• Unzip the ZIP archive ff5.0.zip into the project directory.
• Follow the instructions as described here.
• Install MPLABX and XC8.
• Create a new project for ATMega32U4 in MPLABX and add avr/src/ff-xc8.asm as the only source file.
• Open project configuration dialog box.
• Add compiler option for the include directory.
• Add linker option -nostartfiles.
• Configure options according to your hardware and preferences in avr/src/config-xc8.inc. In my case I set #define OPERATOR_UART 3 on line 18 indicating I want USB as the UART used for the operator.
• Build the project Production | Build Main Project.
• You should get the output similar to the following and the output hex file should be in the dist/default/production/ subdirectory.

make -f nbproject/Makefile-default.mk SUBPROJECTS= .build-conf
make[1]: Entering directory 'D:/RE/Electronics/Arduino/Forth/flashforth/avr/src'
make  -f nbproject/Makefile-default.mk dist/default/production/src.production.hex
make[2]: Entering directory 'D:/RE/Electronics/Arduino/Forth/flashforth/avr/src'
"C:\app\electro\Microchip\xc8\v2.32\bin\xc8-cc.exe" -c  -mcpu=ATmega32U4  -x assembler-with-cpp -D__ATmega32U4__   -mdfp="C:/app/electro/Microchip/MPLABX/v5.50/packs/Microchip/ATmega_DFP/2.3.126/xc8"  -Wl,--gc-sections -O1 -ffunction-sections -fdata-sections -fshort-enums -funsigned-char -funsigned-bitfields -Wall -DXPRJ_default=default  -gdwarf-3 -Wa,--defsym=__MPLAB_BUILD=1 -I.   -MD -MP -MF "build/default/production/ff-xc8.o.d" -MT "build/default/production/ff-xc8.o.d" -MT build/default/production/ff-xc8.o -o build/default/production/ff-xc8.o  ff-xc8.asm 
"C:\app\electro\Microchip\xc8\v2.32\bin\xc8-cc.exe"  -mcpu=ATmega32U4 -Wl,-Map=dist/default/production/src.production.map  -DXPRJ_default=default  -Wl,--defsym=__MPLAB_BUILD=1   -mdfp="C:/app/electro/Microchip/MPLABX/v5.50/packs/Microchip/ATmega_DFP/2.3.126/xc8"  -Wl,--gc-sections -O1 -ffunction-sections -fdata-sections -fshort-enums -funsigned-char -funsigned-bitfields -Wall -gdwarf-3 -nostartfiles      -Wl,--memorysummary,dist/default/production/memoryfile.xml -o dist/default/production/src.production.elf  -o dist/default/production/src.production.elf  build/default/production/ff-xc8.o      -Wl,--start-group  -Wl,-lm -Wl,--end-group 
Info: Loading file: c:\app\electro\microchip\xc8\v2.32\avr\avr\bin\../lib\ldscripts/avr5.xn
"C:\app\electro\Microchip\xc8\v2.32\bin"\\avr-objcopy -O ihex "dist/default/production/src.production.elf" "dist/default/production/src.production.hex"
make[2]: Leaving directory 'D:/RE/Electronics/Arduino/Forth/flashforth/avr/src'
make[1]: Leaving directory 'D:/RE/Electronics/Arduino/Forth/flashforth/avr/src'

BUILD SUCCESSFUL (total time: 1s)
Loading code from D:/RE/Electronics/Arduino/Forth/flashforth/avr/src/dist/default/production/src.production.hex...
Program loaded with pack,ATmega_DFP,2.3.126,Microchip
Loading completed

• Upload the hex file to the ATMega32U4 board.

avrdude -u -c usbasp-clone -p m32u4 -U flash:w:"D:\RE\Electronics\Arduino\Forth\flashforth\avr\src\dist\default\production\src.production.hex":a -U lfuse:w:0xFF:m -U hfuse:w:0xDF:m -U efuse:w:0xFF:m

[NOT WORKING] Change the VID and PID and Compile Your Own Hex File

• Download FlashForth here
• Unzip the ZIP archive ff5.0.zip into the project directory, e.g. c:\avr\
• Download and install Microchip Studio (ex Atmel Studio)
• Locate avrasm2.exe in the Microchip Studio installation (e.g. C:\app\electro\Atmel\Studio\7.0\toolchain\avr8\avrassembler\) and copy it into the project directory (e.g. c:\avr\flashforth\)
• Locate m32U4def.inc (e.g. C:\app\electro\Atmel\Studio\7.0\packs\atmel\ATmega_DFP\1.6.364\avrasm\inc) and copy it to the newly created include directory under the project directory (e.g. c:\avr\flashforth\include)
• Read the atmega.sh from the project directory
• Comment out the definitions of U_VID and U_PID in the source, see avr\src\usbcdc.asm
• Run avrasm2.exe -Dffm32u4 -Dop3 -DU_VID=0x1B4F -DU_PID=0x9205 -I include/ avr/src/ff-atmega.asm -o avr/hex/32u4-16MHz-USB_VID1B4F_PID9205.hex -fI
• Upload the produced 32u4-16MHz-USB_VID1B4F_PID9205.hex file using the USBasp or similar programmer
• avrdude -u -c usbasp-clone -p m32u4 -U flash:w:"c:\avr\flashforth\avr\hex\32u4-16MHz-USB_VID1B4F_PID9205.hex":a -U lfuse:w:0xFF:m -U hfuse:w:0xDF:m -U efuse:w:0xFF:m