Hi,

Thanks for posting the question. 

It's better than lots of emails and considering that Visual Micro is mainly free it saves me time by allowing others to use the search facility and find answers.  I will try to answer all your questions from the past few months from oldest to newest.

Quote:


Arduino doesn't support real hardware debugging. You have to use a native cpp project, bring libraries and core sources locally, dump the .ino code files and either change or corrupt your board. The dragon is good for advanced users who have only one or two arduino projects (or have excellent compiler/config knowledge)

Normally for Arduino people hack their code with Serial messages and add special code to handle changing the values of variables remotely. The Visual Micro debugger removes the need for this but allows the Arduino projects to remain Arduino.

The Visual Micro debugger also supports visualizations such as the @Plot facility which allows real-time graphs to be created using simple break-point syntax.

The Visual Micro debugger also works over bluetooth, RF and Wifi. However with its default settings it can work with seamlessly with the standard Arduino usb upload system. 

So for most users it's a useful addition to their Arduino development.

It's unfortunate that $49 for 3 machines would be considered a lot of money and even more so that only the debug element of Visual Micro is considered of value in this respect. I try to keep the product free for most but it takes a huge amount of time to produce the product, pay for documentation and run the web site.

This means the price is set to the lowest value that I am prepared to accept to justify the effort and impact on my personal time. It is of no consequence to me what one piece of cheap easy to manufacture hardware costs in comparison.

If you are competent enough and have the time to invest in using a dragon then maybe you don't need Arduino in your life at all. Arduino is just source code that you could copy into your project.

Quote:


I am unaware of any "Atmel videos". There are some videos created by some users on the web. I have no control over their content.

Nearly every page on visualmicro.com states that a free trial is included with the standard product and also has "Buy now" buttons. 

Furthermore the Atmel gallery entry for Visual Micro clearly states that an optional debugger is available.

I can only assume from your statement that you did not read anything that has been published by the manufacturer of Visual Micro. 

I have to say that although a lot of effort has been made to document the product you are not alone in being a non documentation reader.

Quote:


I am experimenting with the length of the trial period but actually there were two so you could have started another trial when prompted.

Fortunately for me others don't agree with you. As I have said there is much to Visual Micro. In fact the debugger is only part of the pro pack which is being added to all the time.

Do you really expect me to take your views seriously when you are new to Arduino, don't really want to use Arduino and take for granted the entirety of the product?

Quote:


Your projects might be open source. Arduino might be open source so they can sell more hardware. Atmel might make some open source so they can sell some hardware. 

Windows and Visual Studio are not open source.

As I have said, the question is not what Visual Micro is worth to you but what price stops people who don't read manuals and will bog me down with support from buying or using the product. 

My experience is that if something is very cheap then it is taken for granted. I get more hassle from the free users that the ones who invest in helping this project.

Having said that there is a scenario that doesn't apply to you but might reduce the price. I have recently received a few letters from people who live in countries where salaries are extremely low. For these people the price is too high so I might reduce it.

Quote:


I disagree. Getting the job done the fastest way possible is what most people are looking for. They aren't looking to have the most complex and technically perfect solution unless you look at something like a drone but of the drone guys have been using Arduino so it's got something!

I know of many people who have tried both hardware debug and Visual Micro. Hardware debug has a place but I hear that often it's just a pain they end up back with Arduino projects and a ready-to-go solution with Visual Micro.

In terms of cost I guess people will have to decide if they want to part with a small amount of money to keep this project alive or abuse it and treat it like crap. 

In the main I can say so far so good!

Quote:


I defiantly agree that you would be better with native atmel projects and that Arduino for a seasoned programmer will be too simplistic.

It's been about 4 months since you first wrote to me. How many prototypes have you had to produce?

Quote:


This forum is here for a reason. One search would have given you the answer.

Please see this existing article which explains how to use the dragon with the free version of Visual Micro

http://www.visualmicro.com/forums/YaBB.pl?num=1426785729

I also recommend installing the beta of Atmel Studio 7. You won't have read that it contains an "Arduino converter" that will convert your Arduino projects to native atmel and bring the core and lib sources locally. 

So you won't need Visual Micro at all

Quote:


So you are complaining that the for an additional 10 GBP you get two licences instead of one? You want me to mess about and do something different for $7

You are comparing the service I offer with some cheap e-bay knock off. Thanks, I don't think old age has anything to do with it.

Best of luck.