How to load programs to an Arduino UNO from Atmel Studio 7

Meet Atmel Studio 7!!! #arduSerie-26

So you want to have a friendly IDE to encode your projects in arduino?
Here is how:

Why another IDE since we have one that works well?

“…enhancing not only the look and feel of the integrated development environment(IDE)but also the performance when working with large projects. An improved Help system enables better integration of Atmel documentation in the online as well as the offline help systems…”
see: http://www.atmel.com/microsite/atmel-studio/

This is a very small tutorial to get you started on Atmel Studio 7 as your IDE.
Let’s get started!

1. Download and install AtmelStudio 7 — link;
2. Download and install Arduino IDE version 1.8.2 or newer version, preferable on c:/ driver — link;
3. Open Arduino IDE and Example > Basic > Blink sketch;
4. Modify this sketch by add ‘const int led = 13;’ and change corresponding clause on loop();
5. Save as you wish in your project folder; I will go to named it as ‘_26_arduSerie_atmelStudio_00.ino’;
6. Now the real fun begins: Open your Atmel Studio 7 app — Connect your arduino on usb;
7. File > New > Project and hit ‘Create new project from Arduino sketch’;
8. Choose a ‘Name’ = studio_code, browse the file location of your project; this will create a folder ‘studio_code’ on your project;
9. Configure ‘Sketch File’= your file blink.ino location, Arduino IDE Path=your Arduino IDE, ‘Board’= Arduino/Genuino Uno, ‘Device’ = atmega328P and hit ‘Ok’;
10. This will install the necessary libraries of the arduino, mainly load the core.a, pins_arduino.h, all .h file, that is the base of the arduino configurations of the chosen platform, in this case Arduino Uno;
11. You will be presented with the code ready to hack as usual;
12. Build > Build solution and output will show:

‘Build succeeded.
== Build: 2 succeeded or up-to-date, 0 failed, 0 skipped ===’ ;

13. Now lets get this code uploaded to your board: on Atmel Studio 7 hit ‘Tools’ > ‘External Tools’;

14 . Configure it like this:

Title: ’Send to Arduino UNO’
Commands: click ‘…’ and navegate to your arduino installation: C:\arduino\hardware\tools\avr\bin\avrdude.exe and hit ‘open’;
Arguments: For this you will need to load your sketch via Arduino IDE nomally using the ‘Preferences’ setting by choosing ‘Show verbose output during’: ‘upload’;

note: Commands field needs avrdude.exe. See you can directly download avrdude program. Get the latest version here. This should work! I have not tested yet ;-)

15 . Go to to Arduino IDE and in a normal compilation output you’ll see:

Sketch uses 928 bytes (2%) of program storage space. Maximum is 32256 bytes.
Global variables use 9 bytes (0%) of dynamic memory, leaving 2039 bytes for local variables. Maximum is 2048 bytes.
C:\arduino\hardware\tools\avr/bin/avrdude -CC:\arduino\hardware\tools\avr/etc/avrdude.conf -v -patmega328p -carduino -PCOM3 -b115200 -D -Uflash:w:C:\Users\giljr\AppData\Local\Temp\arduino_build_666279/_26_arduSerie_atmelStudio_00.ino.ino.hex:i 
avrdude: Version 6.3, compiled on Jan 17 2017 at 12:00:53
 Copyright © 2000–2005 Brian Dean, http://www.bdmicro.com/
 Copyright © 2007–2014 Joerg Wunsch 
System wide configuration file is C:\arduino\hardware\tools\avr/etc/avrdude.conf” Using Port : COM3
 Using Programmer : arduino
 Overriding Baud Rate : 115200
 AVR Part : ATmega328P(…)

Ovrdude is the program responsible for record your code on the chip. Is that program we need within atmel Studio 7;

16 . Copy that piece of code to ‘Arguments’:

-CC:\arduino\hardware\tools\avr/etc/avrdude.conf -v -patmega328p -carduino -PCOM3 -b115200 -D -Uflash:w:

17. Complete it with:

"$(ProjectDir)Debug\$(TargetName).hex":i

so the result will be:

-CC:\arduino\hardware\tools\avr/etc/avrdude.conf -v -patmega328p -carduino -PCOM3 -b115200 -D -Uflash:w:"$(ProjectDir)Debug\$(TargetName).hex":i

18. Select ‘Use Output window’ and hit ‘Ok’;

19. That´s all: now hit ‘Tools > Send to Arduino UNO’ and the code must be uploaded to your Arduino Uno and now onboard led must be blinking;
you’ll see on Output:

avrdude.exe done. Thank you.

Thanks for the visit. check Jungletronics channel back often…

Note: (thanks Hayden NZ for his great esprit de corps for diy community):

He made important remarks that I decided to put into his own words:

For anyone else, I had trouble with my Arduino folder nested with the Program Files (x86) folder, after moving the Arduino file directly into the C:/ folder it worked perfectly. The error I was getting was: “avrdude.exe: error reading system wide configuration file “C:\Program” ”

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NEW! Grab your📲📱 smartphone and enjoy this serie: Atmel Studio 7 & UNO Serie (Ep#00) @giljrE https://medium.com/series/atmel-studio-7-uno-ep-00-969b9cc3cf7b

Update May/2018: Add Link to new serie about Atmel Studio 7 — PicoPower isssue!D Not Miss it!

Update jun/2017: put the colon after the ‘w’ in the second section of code in the 17th step — thanks Hayden NZ and set note.