I have just downloaded the Visual Micro plug in for Atmel Studio and I am having problems with debugging using an AVRDragon programmer.

I understand that VM uses USB serial port for its debugging info but can I switch off VM debugging so it uses the native Atmel Studio debugging?   

I have tried the options to disable it but whenever I try to debug it insists on trying to upload via USB rather than the programmer

I followed the instructions exactly and created a new driver but now my AVRDRagon isnt even listed in either Arduino IDE or AtmelStudio.

It does show in Windows device manager as working.

This is turning out to be a bit of a nightmare as I am worse off than I was previously

Hi,

Sorry for the confusion. When you posted against the avrisp mk II saying the problem was similar I thought you also meant the solution in the thread was similar.

I know the avrisp programmer because I have one and it is listed under programmers in the Arduino Ide.

If listed in the Arduino ide is should also be listed by Visual Micro under tools>visual micro>programmers in Atmel Studio. 

Visual Micro does not currently use any of the Atmel Stdio features for compile or upload. All of these features are overiden to ensure Arduino compatibility. 

However, as an advanced user, you can open the resulting elf and hex files manually in Atmel Studio and do with them as you please. We hope shortly to add some extra features that allows an Arduino project to be easily converted to a standard Atmel Studio project.

So in terms of USB drivers for the AVRDragon programmer to work with Arduino Ide, you should find some examples on the internet maybe on arduino.cc. 

When you have it working in the Arduino Ide it should work with Visual Micro, if not then we would appreciate a bug report to this forum.

Sorry if the documentation has confused this issue.

So right now I think you can only get the AVR Dragon to work easily with normal avr projects. You can delete the usb drivers via control panel>device manager and run the Atmel Studio installer again just selecting re-install of the default Jungo usb drivers or whatever drivers you were previously using. 

Visual Micro uses the same configuration system as Arduino 1.5.5. This system allows news programmers to be easily defined and added to the list of programmers in the Arduino ide and in Visual Micro. You might find that someone has made an Arduino 1.5 format configuration entry for the programers.txt config file?

I have managed to get the USBasp working so we seem to be getting somewhere.

Call me stupid but I didn't realise there was a Visual Micro/Programmers menu.  I was using the preferences menu and the visual micro section at the bottom.

So now I have begun to understand the principles I can probably sort this out now.

Another query:  do you have any info on using a programmer such as USBasp together with the usb serial debugger.   

If I plug USBasp into the ISP header on my board as well as the usb port on my board (for debugging) my PC 'blue screens'

Just tested upload via programmer but debug via serial with the default Visual Micro project settings. It worked fine, I had selected the correct COM port using the tool bar.

So I guess you didn't have a port selected?

Oh sorry. I was being thick. My avrisp mkII uses the ICSP port so I can connect programmer and usb at the same time. From the sounds of it the usbasp programmer uses the usb port of the board. (I haven't had a chance to read up on it).

If you have a board with more than one hardware serial tx/rx port then this is the best option with ftdi. Otherwise the digital pin option automatically makes use of the standard Arduino SoftwareSerial system. SoftwareSerial is okay but normal hardware serial is preferred. 

The youtube video on the debugger wiki page explains some options (the first few seconds are for beginners).

How to use different ports is explained in a few places but this document might give enough info

Well if you have selected the port then you should be able to leave both usb cables connected to your pc. Upload via one and debug via the other.

Does normal arduino serial work ok in the Visual Micro serial Monitor? Upload without debug then open the Serial Monitor.

void setup()
{
Serial.begin(115200);
}

void loop()
{
Serial.println("Hello world");
}

Hi, that makes sense. Nice to have someone with knowledge confirm the situation. Thanks!