AT89S8252 Development Software and Utilities
Last Updated: July 7th 2002
On this page you'll find the freeware utilities that I use on a daily basis for the AT89S8252 microcontroller and other 8031/32/51/52 family microcontrollers. These utilities and tools were used to develop the Experimenter's DDS Signal Generator. My source code editor was DOS Edit (which I still think is the best for assembler coding!)
It is the authors intention that this page will provide the hobbyist with the tools needed to develop his and her own firmware and hardware for microcontroller projects. Once you get started writing firmware, the sky is the limit as far as what you can achieve. There are an endless number of possible projects!
Download File Name: AT89S8252.pdf
Web Address: http://www.atmel.com/
File Description: Data sheet for the Atmel AT89S8252 microcontroller.
Download File Name: ASM51.zip
Web Address: http://www.metaice.com/
File Description: 8031/32/51/52 (MCS-51) Family Source Code Assembler from MetaLink. Take your .asm files and translate them into executable Intel hex files for the MCS-51 family of microcontrollers. This is the best assembler I've ever used. It rivals a lot of the commercial assemblers. Thanks MetaLink!!!
Download File Name: asm51.pdf
File Description: This is the complete manual for the MetaLink ASM51 Assembler in PDF format ready for printing.
Download File Name: Isp_hb.zip
Web Address: http://www.mikrocontroller.com/
File Description: Freeware In System Programming tool for the AT89S8252 microcontroller. The AT89S8252 Firmware Uploader Interface is designed to be used with this software. This software works fine as is in DOS through Windows 98. Windows NT/2000/ and XP users need to also download the Port Talk software to enable direct I/O Port access for this software since Windows NT/2000/ and XP does not give direct I/O Port access to application software. This is the author's favorite ISP software as it lends it's self to batch file execution and thus very quick to use. Here are some example batch files. They should be kept in the same folder as the source code and the ISP software. If Windows NT/2000/or XP is used, then the porttalk files (AllowIO.exe and porttalk.sys) need to be in the same folder as the firmware also.
Example Batch File for DOS through Windows 98:
@ECHO OFF
ISP_HB.EXE /LPT1 /ERASE my_binary_firmware_file.bin
PAUSE
(I add a pause statement to keep the DOS command window open in Windows after the program is through so that I can see any errors)
Example Batch File for Windows NT/2000/ and XP
@ECHO OFF
ALLOWIO.EXE 0x378 ISP_HB.EXE /LPT1 /ERASE my_binary_firmware_file.bin
PAUSE
One last comment on this file. Meta-Link's ASM51 creates an Intel Hex file from the source code, but this ISP software needs a binary file to upload to the microcontroller. The ISP_HB package contains a HEX2BIN program that converts the Intel Hex file into a Binary File for this program to use. I typically take care of this in my assembler batch file as follows:
@ECHO OFF
ASM51.EXE my_assembly_source_code_file.asm
HEX2BIN my_Intel_Hex_firmware_file.hex my_binary_firmware_file.bin
PAUSE
Download File Name: porttalk22.zip
Web Address: http://www.beyondlogic.org/porttalk/porttalk.htm
File Description: Port Talk is a piece of software that allows older software to have direct access to the I/O Ports on a PC from Windows 2000/XP. It's a great piece of software if you have older development software that needs direct access to the I/O Ports.
Download File Name: aec_isp.zip
Web Address: http://www.aec-electronics.co.nz/index.htm
File Description: This is another very good ISP application also compatible with the AT89S8252 Firmware Uploader Interface. The big advantage of this software is that it works in DOS through Windows XP. The disadvantage is that it can't be used in a batch file, so you must use the DOS Menu each time you want to update the firmware, which is time consuming in the authors opinion. Other than that, it's a very solid development tool, and also supports some other Atmel microcontrollers. Definitely worth a look!
73's Trev