Hi,

Please close the ide and install the latest version http://visualmicro.codeplex.com/releases/view/106554

the new release adds some useful tips and info for new users.

Please also confirm the line of code that you have placed your breakpoint on. Does it start with an "if" or "switch" etc.? If so I will give you extra advice

Thanks

Hi Jan,

The cursor flashes the line of code is highlighted when visual micro stops at a breakpoint.

The breakpoints on "If" statements will only execute inside the If so unless the If resolves to true then the brealpoint will not be hit.

Might I suggest you see how the debugger works with a simple sketch such as blink which does not have conditional 'if' statements.

Question

Can you also confirm if your sketch uses Serial and if so does it initialize the serial at 115200? If not this would stop the debugger working unless you set the RemoteSpeed property

Thanks

Hi Jan,

You can put a breakpoint on an 'if', I simply pointed out that the breakpoint will only be hit if the 'if' evaluates to true.

Arduino does not have debugging so Visual Micro uses serial in the background. This means that during the compile process we have to inject serial.print() statements into the temporary copy of the code used by the compiler. The breakpoints are in a known format so that Visual Micro can intercept the messages and update running debugger status/trace/expressions windows.

Because serial messages are injected it was easier to inject at the end of a line. You have to think of a breakpoint in the same way as you would have done if you had manually added your own serial.print() debug statements throughout your code.

This means you can put breakpoints on blank lines and code lines which is weird but flexible. It's not a perfect solution but often better than hacking your code.

So the breakpoint on an 'if' executes inside the 'if' allowing you to put the breakpoint the line before to halt on the 'if'

Something important that appears to be lost somewhere within the depths of the new documentation is a note to explain that the default speed for the debugger is 115k. If your sketch code is sharing the same serial port that the debugger uses then you will see that the serial monitor shows a speed of 115k when the debugger opens.

Because your code has elected to use 9600 then you need to tell Visual Micro to use 9600. You do this using the LocalSpeed and RemoteSpeed project property. You will see that in your case you can just fill in one of the properties and the other will automatically populate with the same value. Either that or alter your sketch serial.begin() to 115k

So the fact that your arduino is sending at 9600 but the pc is using 115k is the reason why no breakpoint data is appearing. 

How to find the project properties window is here http://www.visualmicro.com/page/User-Guide.aspx?doc=Project-Properties-window.ht...

nb: You will also see that you can use one or two digital pins or other serial ports should in the future you find that your code design and/or the debugger need exclusive access to a port. This is immediately the case if your own code uses the Serial.read() functions and Visual Micro is allowed to break/pause or wait at start-up.

Tim@Visual Micro wrote on Jun 18^th, 2014 at 8:35pm:


But does not the atmel cpu have debugging ? There are debuggers sold for atmel.
I suppose this mean that I can't single step or step into a function unless I put breakpoints at every code line. Also
in order to examine variables and registers I must configure the breakpoint to print them.

Hi Jan,

Most Arduino users are debugging by adding Serial.print statements to their code. The Visual Micro debugger helps to avoid the need to do that.

If you read about the tools you are using, Atmel Studio you will find you can buy a hardware debugger then use it with Atmel Studio (after making small changes to the hardware).

Atmel Studio also has a simulator. After compiling your program with Visual Micro the simulator can run the resulting .elf

Hi Jan,

You can step between breakpoints but many of the start commands do the same thing (start the debug)

The menu items are all standard vs menus, Visual Micro uses serial and tries to replicate as many debug commands as possible. 

By the way of you have a hardware debugger then you might be able to use the native atmel debugger.

Thanks