AVR Simulation Using SimulIDE

Eng Medhat Saber Ahmed

MedTronic
9/9/2023
Contents
Preface .......................................................................................................................................................... 3
Dedication ..................................................................................................................................................... 3
Downloading SimulIDE .................................................................................................................................. 4
Opening SimulIDE ......................................................................................................................................... 5
Changing the Properties ............................................................................................................................... 7
Wiring ............................................................................................................................................................ 8
Simulating ..................................................................................................................................................... 8
Writing a toggle program .............................................................................................................................. 9
Monitoring Registers................................................................................................................................... 11
Some Notes ................................................................................................................................................. 12

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Preface
SimulIDE is a free and open source simulator which can be used to simulate AVR and PIC
microcontrollers and Arduino boards.

In the step-by-step tutorial, you will learn to download Simulide and simulate a simple circuit in the
Simulide. Then, you write a program in Atmel Studio (or Microchip Studio) and simulate it in Simulide.

Dedication
The step-by-step tutorial is dedicated to the memory of Vahid Mokhtari who sacrificed himself to serve
humanity and make a better world and passed away a few days ago in Tehran.

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Downloading SimulIDE
1. To download the latest version of SimulIDE, go to Simulide.com and click on Downloads.
2. Click on Windows 64 (or any other choice depending on your operating system). A zip file will be
downloaded to your computer.

3. Unzip the downloaded file. (If you don’t know where the file is downloaded, go to My Computer
and click on Downloads. The downloaded file is most probably here. Double click on the
SimulIDE_0.4.14-SR4_Win64 file. The compressed file contains a directory. To unzip, drag the
directory to your desktop.)

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Opening SimulIDE
4. Open the decompressed directory. Click on the bin directory. Then, click on the simulide
file to open it.

5. SimulIDE has 3 parts:

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6. Draw the following circuit. To do so:
a. Drag the Rail component and drop onto the Drawing Part. (Put the mouse
pointer on the Rail. Press the left button of mouse and while the button is down,
move the mouse to the Drawing Part. Then, release the mouse button.)
b. Drag a Switch component.
c. Drag a Resistor.
d. Drag and drop a Ground (0V).

.
e. Drag an LED and drop to the proper location. Then, to rotate the LED, right click
on the LED and choose rotate CW (clockwise).

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Changing the Properties
The resistor is 100Ω. But we need a 270Ω resistor. To access the properties of the resistor, right click on
the resistor and choose Properties.

7. Double click on resistance. Then, type 270 and press Enter. Close the Properties.

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Wiring
8. To connect Ground to the LED, move the mouse to the top of Ground. The shape of the
mouse pointer changes to cross. Now, click with the left button of mouse on top of the
Ground. Then, move the mouse cursor to the cathode pin of LED and click on it. A wire
should be added between the Ground and the LED.
9. Similarly, connect the other components together, as shown below.

Simulating
10. To run the simulator, press the Power button.

11. Now, press the gray button below the switch. When the switch is closed, the LED is ON.
Otherwise, it is OFF.

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Saving the simulation
12. To save the circuit, press Ctrl + S or click on the save icon.

Writing a toggle program

C Assembly
#include <avr/io.h> LDI R16, HIGH(RAMEND)
#define F_CPU 16000000UL OUT SPH, R16
#include <util/delay.h> LDI R16, LOW(RAMEND)
OUT SPL, R16
int main(void)
{ SBI DDRB, 5
DDRB |= (1<<5);
while (1) L3: SBI PORTB,5
{ CALL DELAY
PORTB ^= (1<<5); CBI PORTB,5
_delay_ms(500); CALL DELAY
} RJMP L3
}
DELAY:
LDI R20, 64
D0: LDI R21, 200
D1: LDI R22, 250
D2: NOP
NOP
DEC R22
BRNE D2
DEC R21
BRNE D1
DEC R20
BRNE D0
RET

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14. Press F7 to build the hex file.
15. Open Simulide.
16. Drag and drop an Arduino UNO board from the Component list.

17. Right click on the Arduino board and choose Load Firmware. Then, choose the hex file
which you made in Atmel Studio.

18. Press the Power Button to run the simulator. The LED of the Arduino board begins
blinking. The LED is connected to pin 13 of Arduino (PB5 of ATmega328). You can also

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 connect an LED together with a 270-ohm resistor to pin 13 of Arduino. In the case, the
LED also blinks.

Monitoring Registers
19. You can monitor the values of I/O registers. To do so, right click on the Arduino board
and choose Open RamTable.
20. Double click on a cell below the Reg. column and type PORTB and press Enter. The value
of PORTB changes between 0 and 32, while the LED blinks.

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 Some Notes
1. If you change the source code, you need to reload the firmware to run the new code in
SimulIDE. To do so, press the Power button to stop simulation. Then, right click on the Arduino
(or the microcontroller) and choose Reload firmware.

2. When you open your simulation file in the simulIDE, don’t forget to load the firmware! SimulIDE
does not save the firmware.

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