Mac OS X + Arduino + 3pi Robot = How to do?

Hi there,

If I buy a 3pi robot, can I program it using Arduino running on OS X? I understand that the Pololu USB AVR programmer does not work on Macs. Does anyone have any idea how to go about this or has anyone programmed the 3pi robot on a Mac? If yes, how does your set up look like?

Thanks.

Hello, pmgomez.

The Pololu USB AVR Programmer has limited support for Mac OS X which requires you to load a modified version of the firmware. See the “Getting Started in Mac OS X” section of the Pololu USB AVR Programmer User’s Guide. Using those instructions you should be able to get Mac OS X + AVRDUDE + Pololu USB AVR Programmer + 3pi Robot working.

The Arduino IDE uses AVRDUDE, so if you can get it to provide the right arguments to AVRDUDE, you should be able to get Mac OS X + Arduino + AVRDUDE + Pololu USB AVR Programmer + 3pi Robot working. I haven’t tried the Arduino IDE on Mac OS X so I can’t say for sure whether this will be possible, but I think it will be because the Arduino UNO’s USB interface is very similar to that of the Pololu USB AVR Programmer with modified firmware.

–David

I can confirm that the second generation USB programmer works just fine on Mac. I just got the latest “Arduino 0022” up and running with my Pololu USB programmer and my 3pi robot. I just did the following:

  1. reprogrammed the programmer with a firmware working on Macs. This was done on a windows laptop, as described step-by-step in the programmer manual “pololu_usb_avr_programmer.pdf”

  2. reconfigured the Arduino environment as described in the document “orangutan_arduino.pdf”

I will now try to run Atmel’s AVRStudio running out of the latest version of VirtualBox on my mac, as it has updated support for USB stuff… Would be cool :slight_smile: