After several months of sporadic coding, I finally got this large project to a point where I can consider making the first alpha release. So without further ado, I present AVRweb, a web-based UI for programming AVR chips.

Basically, it is a self-contained web server that allows you to interface with avrdude to read fuse settings, change them, and in the future, much more. The first alpha release is centered around fuse settings, and should already make the changing of AVR fuse bits a much quicker task – current settings are automatically read from the connected device, so you don’t need to toggle switches anymore to find the current setup. Also, new settings can be changed with a press of a button. See the video demonstration below (note that I’m running AVRweb on a PC, and just using the web interface with iPad, it’s not an iPad application!):

Upcoming features

A few things I’m planning to add in the future:

• Flashing simple “LED blink” type test program to MCU for quick testing of clock source settings
• “One-click” interface for flashing .hex files to MCU
• Makefile support to build chosen Makefile targets
• “Chip history” log where you can view what you have previously flashed to a given MCU
• Web integration to support intelligent URLs to set fuses or flash software (for example, you could have a link in a web tutorial to make AVRweb update fuses as required by that tutorial)

All comments are welcome. And if there are readers who feel brave enough, you can even try it out yourselves. Although I have to warn you: The fuse settings have not been manually double-checked and there may still be bugs in the software, so try it at your own risk!

AVRweb home & sharing the word

There is a permanent home for the AVRweb project, where you can always find the latest version:

/avrweb

If you find this project interesting, please spread the word! I’m releasing the code under GPL v3 to ensure the tool will stay free and open in the future. My hope that this tool would make it easier for beginners to move from Arduino to AVR programming.