I am happy to have used Visual Micro debuger, it saves a lot of time certainly. I am using the latest (Ver 3) of VM. However, I am facing some issues while dealing with Mega projects like ArduPlane.

I have two issues:
1) Debugging ArduPlane on VS 2010 with Visual Micro
2) Enabling Visualizations to see IMU output.

The debugger works well for non-fast Serial programs. I am unable to use debugging feature on ArduPilot code. the debugger either throws error or gets hung after compilation/before upload onto APM board.

I am not unable to find the step by step 'tutorial'  and instructions for precisely making it work on 'Fast Serial' and on ArduPilot code (like ArduPlane/ ArduCopter).

If someone could help me with it and also how to set up visualizations (the tutorial that exists for this goes over my head and says get some visualization plugin from codeProject, I a project name/ link and a stepwise guide need to be provided for us to appreciate the true capability of VM). Any help is appreciated.

Thank you!

I've also just noticed this document on the main wiki which might be clearer

How to configure other debug transports such as SoftwareSerial or APM FastSerial

Hi Shyam, okay I'll check it but please look at this first...

What speed is the apm program using for FastSerial? Did you try 57600 in LocalSpeed and RemoteSpeed?

If it builds fine I would expect it to work because everything else is the same as normal debug.

Yes been thinking about pwms. You can hook them up yourself easy enough with what you have. Open another thread and I will explain.

Hi Shyam,

Thanks for trying. The idea to change the visual studio speed was only if your arduino program was already using a different speed. The idea is to make the debugger work at the right speed and not to change your program. You can clear the speeds and set the ardupilot code back to 115200

After some other reports I am starting to suspect that a settings refresh bug has crept into the system. I will be testing at the weekend and will test arduplane at the same time.

One thing: One user fixed the problem by switching to release and compiling then switching back to debug.

Tim

Yes Shyam, I agree. No need for logs I will test thanks

HI Tim,

The latest release is dated Sept 15, 09:00hrs as seen from the beta download page. Could you please pass me the link of current release of VM?

Thanks.

Hi Tim,

I downloaded 'Debug V3.1 (2012/09/29)', and guess what, Great work!! 

Now, works like a charm. I am able to get the debug trace running on ArduPlane (latest code)! While testing, I found an issue as under:

When I switch to 'True' the 'Report Digitals' OR 'Report Analogs' in F4 properties, I get the following error: (Error esp. while compiling breakpoints/ VM code)

Compiling 'ArduPlane' for 'Arduino Mega 2560 or Mega ADK'
Binary sketch size: 171488 bytes (of a 258048 byte maximum) (5.3723073 secs)
Compiling debug version of 'ArduPlane' for 'Arduino Mega 2560 or Mega ADK'
ArduPlane.cpp.o : In function `loop'
ArduPlane.cpp : printPortsDigital()'
ArduPlane.cpp.o : In function `setup'
AP_AHRS.h : printPortsDigital()'
avr-objcopy* : No such file
avr-objcopy* : No such file
Couldn't determine program size: D:\arduino-1.0.1-windows\arduino-1.0.1\hardware\tools\avr\bin\avr-size: ne.hex': No such file

How do I see the default visualizations from here?

Hi Tim,

I have added only one breakpoint in ArduPlane.pde under loop() on line 695 (in  ArduPlane v2.65) i.e. in fast_loopTimer_ms   = millis(); line.

Can you tell me (the settings) on how I can enable visualizations using the F4 property settings? Last time (without doing anything) I could see 2-visualization windows pop up.

Also, can I notice (analog) visualizations for a variable we define in code ?

Thanks for the quick response to the issues so far!

Hi Tim,

Sorry for the delay in reply! My answers in blue:

1) What happens if you click the project node in the solution explorer and then select "Build>Clean Solution". Does it compile okay after that?
- Yes, this looks Ok.

2) Do you have the visual studio breakpoint list open? Can you confirm there is only one breakpoint in the list
- Ya, there is only 1 breakpoint enabled.

3) What happens with a simple sketch, do the visualizations open?
- I checked this, with a simple sketch, visualization work when 'ReportDigital' is On. With ArduPlane (it does not seem to work) with the very same settings.

4) Please zip and email your visual studio .sln, .shu, .vcxproj files and the files from the Visual Micro folder below the ArduPlane folder to info [at] visualmicro.com.
- Thanks, I just sent it to the email.

My question:
What do the default analog/ digital visualizations indicate? How can I visualize a PWM and a variable in code graphically? This feature would be a ton helpful.

Thanks. Look forward to hearing 

HI Tim,

I have only 1 breakpoint in the whole solution. (Sorry for not being clear earlier), this being in ArpuPlane.pde. This only breakpoint was enabled and 'Inc. Breakpoints' is set to ' False'. 
Please let me know if you did not receive my zipped version by tomorrow morning, I will need to send it again (It was 1.2 MB in zip).

Sure, APM examples to generate PWM pin visualizations + variable in code visualizations would save me a year of work  !

Regards.

Hi Shyam,

Got your email thanks.

I've been looking at the project file with your source and it is not the project you have been opening. I think that after you first opened the ardupilot project and then closed vs you selected to save the project in another location. I can't recall if that is supported but it is much easier to have the project with the arduino files.

Your project file in the ardupilot folder is actually empty, this shows is was created by vm but that you subsequently saved it elsewhere. I suggest deleting the files in the attached image, then opening the ardupilot.pde in a new empty visual studio. Vm will prompt you to create a new project. Select OK.

After the new project has been created vm will automatically load all the ardupilot files into the project. At this point select "File>Save All" in Visual Studio. A prompt should appear allowing you to "save as" the solution with a different name. Save the solution with the name "ArduPilot" (or any name you like) but save it into the ArduPilot folder. You don't have to do this but, initially, it's easier to always have your solution in with the ardupilot project sources. Everything in one place.

When closing vs or whenever you are prompted to save the project, just click save, not save as. 

I'm going to make a note about this. I think I can change vm to do more of this automatically.

Let's get this structure right then try a breakpoint please.

Thanks very much

Thanks will look tomorrow

Hi Shyam,

This works fine for me in both debug and normal upload mode, but I would like you to do the following please:-

1) An Arduino rule is that sketches must reside in a folder with the same name. So you need to rename the folder called "main" to "maincam"

2) I can see that your Visual Studio project file started life as "main" but has been renamed in Visual Studio to "maincam". Renaming in Visual Studio doesn't alter the project name on disk. 

I would normally suggest renaming the project files using windows explorer. (I hope that the next release of vm will provide a facility to make this task easier). 

In your case, because of the problem you are hitting when trying to debug this particular project, I suggest deleting the .vcxproj files and .sln/.suo files and re-opening the maincam.pde in Visual Studio. In this case the plugin will re-create the project for you in a clean manner. Be sure to have renamed the folder to match Arduino rules before doing this.

3) If you still have a debug problem with this project after performing these two actions then please delete the following folder (vm compiler cache) 

"C:\Users\[YourName]\AppData\Local\VMicro\Arduino\Builds\maincam"

4) If the problem remains then please copy all of the text from the error into a new reply to this thread

Thanks