What happens when you need 3.3V controller board and spare DEV-32 board lying around? Well, you end up converting one into 3.3v logic friendly controller board.

The process is not too complicate but requires extra hardware such as ATMega324p or ATMega644, a couple of 3.3V voltage regulators in TO-92 form-factor and some patience. You could use any other newer micro-controllers that support lower voltages and are pin compatible with ATMega32.

 Benefits of running DEV-32 at 3.3V

• you can easily interface with 3V logic level components such as XBee, EM408 GPS, Copernicus GPS, etc. without extra voltage level-shifting components;
• you reduce your power requirements;
• you can use one of the lighter/smaller LiPo batteries to power your micro;

It seems that we are done with Arduino/Wiring IDE port for ATMega32 and ATMega644. Code runs on both microprocessors in the exactly the same manner.

The ultimate test - if robot performs identically after the brain swap the port is successful. We upgraded robot main controller from ATMega168 (Arduino Board) to ATMega32 and then to ATMega644. And yes, the bot performed exactly the same regardless of what micro the code was running on.

Here is the micros that we were used to run the tests.

Well, here we go. Most of the testing for ATMega32 is done and all seems to work as expected. So, if you would like to try writing code in WIRING for your robot or embedded control project you can download Arduino patches here. Here is the screen-shot of a DIFF utility showing what files were modified to get Arduino /Wiring code working with ATMega32 microcontroller. 

We are currently busy porting Arduino /Wiring IDE to ATMega32 and ATMega644 micros from Atmel, so you could get a simplicity of wiring programming language on these two powerful embedded controllers. We will post 1st iteration of the port once we are confident that it's reasonably stable. If someone feels adventurous and wants to try it NOW, send us an email and we will make it available.