I feel I've hijacked kaito83's thread so I've started a new one since I'm not likely to be the only person who has problems using ATMEL STUDIO.
Initial actions:
Installed ATMEL STUDIO 7 and learnt what I could from the following tutorial.
https://slightlyovercomplicated.com/2015/11/13/programming-arduino-with-atmel-studio-7/.
I messed about with this and tried to manually import/add files. I was able to build the project but avrdude would not burn it.
I realised when I downloaded a new copy of AstroEQ -master that when I looked in AstroEQ-Firmware some files were now linked to ATMEL STUDIO. Great. Also that Tom has also supplied avrdude so I should be able to run the AS7 from here.
Steps so far:
Open AS7 and add an external programmer for arduino.
In the command line I used C:\.................................. \avrdude.exe pointing at the avrdude in Tom's download.
In the Arguments I used this convoluted list from the above link and pointing to Tom's avrdude.conf.
-C"C:\..................................\avrdude.conf" -patmega2560 -cwiring -P\\.\COM5 -b115200 -D -U flash:w:"$(ProjectDir)Debug\$(TargetName).hex":i
Happily this was sufficient to burn a blink sketch to the mega2560.
Opened AS7 afresh and click open project. Navigate to AstroEQ-Firmware\AstroEQ and click on AstroEQ6Mega2560.
The first time I did this there was an error and I had to reload AstroEQ6Mega2560. Subsequent times it opened fine.
Clicked on build and the following 4 warnings and 6 errors logged.
implicit declaration of function 'setPinDir' [-Wimplicit-function-declaration] AstroEQ6Mega2560 C:\Users\Sue\Desktop\AstroEQ-master\AstroEQ-Firmware\AstroEQ\AstroEQ.c 353
implicit declaration of function 'setPinValue' [-Wimplicit-function-declaration] AstroEQ6Mega2560 C:\Users\Sue\Desktop\AstroEQ-master\AstroEQ-Firmware\AstroEQ\AstroEQ.c 354
implicit declaration of function 'getPinValue' [-Wimplicit-function-declaration] AstroEQ6Mega2560 C:\Users\Sue\Desktop\AstroEQ-master\AstroEQ-Firmware\AstroEQ\AstroEQ.c 576
implicit declaration of function 'togglePin' [-Wimplicit-function-declaration] AstroEQ6Mega2560 C:\Users\Sue\Desktop\AstroEQ-master\AstroEQ-Firmware\AstroEQ\AstroEQ.c 758
'gpioPin_0_Define' undeclared here (not in a function) AstroEQ6Mega2560 C:\Users\Sue\Desktop\AstroEQ-master\AstroEQ-Firmware\AstroEQ\AstroEQ.h 157
'gpioPin_0_Define' undeclared here (not in a function) AstroEQ6Mega2560 C:\Users\Sue\Desktop\AstroEQ-master\AstroEQ-Firmware\AstroEQ\AstroEQ.h 157
'gpioPin_2_Define' undeclared here (not in a function) AstroEQ6Mega2560 C:\Users\Sue\Desktop\AstroEQ-master\AstroEQ-Firmware\AstroEQ\AstroEQ.h 157
'gpioPin_2_Define' undeclared here (not in a function) AstroEQ6Mega2560 C:\Users\Sue\Desktop\AstroEQ-master\AstroEQ-Firmware\AstroEQ\AstroEQ.h 157
recipe for target 'commands.o' failed AstroEQ6Mega2560 C:\Users\Sue\Desktop\AstroEQ-master\AstroEQ-Firmware\AstroEQ\ATMega2560\Makefile 107
recipe for target 'AstroEQ.o' failed AstroEQ6Mega2560 C:\Users\Sue\Desktop\AstroEQ-master\AstroEQ-Firmware\AstroEQ\ATMega2560\Makefile 107
Gone for more coffee.