Getting Started with Arduino & Arduino IDE

-
Now, that you have Arduino IDE downloaded and installed, fire it up by clicking the icon that must have appeared on your desktop. When you first open the IDE, a window will open up that shows something called as a sketch. Every program that we write in the IDE is called a sketch. On the toolbar, you can see a variety of options similar to every windows program. You can click File  to open a menu that gives variety of options like "New", "Open", "Open Recent" etc. There are several other options that can be explored as you get familiar with the tool.

Go ahead, and click on the "New" option in the File menu. This will open a new sketch with some default codes present in your sketch. Also, you can notice some buttons below the toolbar. These are shortcut buttons for :

  • Verifying the Sketch
  • Uploading the Sketch
  • Create a new Sketch (What we did just now)
  • Open an existing Sketch
  • Save the current sketch
The above options are self explanatory except the Verify and Upload buttons. We will get to them in a while. You will be able to see two functions in the sketch that you have opened. These functions have been briefly explained below:
  • Setup()- This function runs only once in the program. Its mainly present to setup and configure your hardware or to run a piece of code that needs no repetition.
  • Loop()- This is the main function that repeats indefinitely to get the main work done. For instance, if you are trying to control a light or fan in your room, the control code has to be placed in the Loop function as your control code needs to run repeatedly so you can control your light or fan at any given point of time.
Another important menu is the Tool Menu. Since Arduino IDE supports a variety of board, you can select the board that you are using from the Tool Menu. Com Port can also be selected depending upon the boards or ports that are being used in your PC.


Note for installation of Arduino IDE: The installation of this software is pretty regular as any other software. However, at a point of time, it will pop up a window mentioning the installation of driver. Please select Yes, and install the driver so that your PC can successfully communicate with the Arduino.


Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Microcontroller GPIO

-
Image
A general-purpose input/output (GPIO) is a digital signal pin on an integrated circuit or electronic circuit board(In our case, a microcontroller or arduino board) whose behavior—including whether it acts an input or output—is controllable by the user. GPIOs have no predefined purpose and are unused by default. If used, the purpose and behavior of a GPIO is defined by the user or the developer. These pins basically act as bridges to interface with the outside world. For instance, a LED can be connected to these pins as an output device or a sensor can be connected to GPIO for obtaining some input which can be processed by the microcontroller. However, these pins should be made available by the board manufacturer so that they can be used by developers and prototypers. Arduino also has many GPIO pins available for users to program and interface. The pin number and location can be found on multiple diagrams available on the internet. You can see the different pins as well as ...
Read more

Leap Motion

-
Image
The multi-touch desktop is a (miserably) failed product due to the fact that hands could get very tired with prolonged use, but  Leap Motion  wants to challenge this dark area again with a more advanced idea. It lets you control the desktop with fingers, but without touching the screen. It’s not your typical motion sensor, as Leap Motion allows you to scroll the web page, zoom in the map and photos, sign documents and even play a first-person shooter game with only hand and finger movements. The smooth reaction is the most crucial key point here. More importantly, you can own this future with just $70, the price of a premium  PS3  game title! If this device could completely work with Oculus Rift to simulate a real-time gaming experience, gaming is going to get a major make-over. Seriously, a great technology indeed!!
Read more

Uploading your first Dummy Program on Arduino

-
Image
Now, with everything setup, plug in your Arduino Board. If the drivers have been installed successfully, the PC should detect the board. Under the "Tools" option in the IDE, select the "Board" option and from the sub menu, select Arduino UNO as the board. Again, select "Port" option from the "Tools" menu and select the com port that is present there. In case of  multiple com ports, you will need to check in the Device manager to which port the arduino is attached to. Now, Simply Click on "New" under the "File" menu to open a new sketch. Alternatively, click on the "New" button below the toolbar. Don't worry about writing anything in your sketch. Let's first upload the blank sketch and check if the upload is successful or not. You can follow the video below to see a video guide for uploading the program. When you click on Upload, first an operation called compiling takes place. Compiling basically checks...
Read more