Getting Started with Arduino Part-2

The Software (IDE)

The IDE (Integrated Development Environment) is a special program running on your computer that allows you to write sketches for the Arduino board in a simple language modeled after the Processing (www.processing.org) language. The magic happens when you press the button that uploads the sketch to the board: the code that you have written is translated into the C language (which is generally quite hard for a beginner to use), and is passed to the avr-gcc compiler, an important piece of open source software that makes the final translation into the language understood by the microcontroller. This last step is quite important, because it’s where Arduino makes your life simple by hiding away as much as possible of the complexities of programming microcontrollers. The programming cycle on Arduino is basically as follows:

» Plug your board into a USB port on your computer.

» Write a sketch that will bring the board to life.

» Upload this sketch to the board through the USB connection and wait

a couple of seconds for the board to restart.

» The board executes the sketch that you wrote.



Installing Arduino on Your Computer

To program the Arduino board, you must first download the development environment (the IDE) from here: www.arduino.cc/en/Main/Software. Choose the right version for your operating system.

Download the file and double-click on it to open it; on Windows or Linux, this creates a folder named arduino- version], such as arduino-1.0. Drag the folder to wherever you want it: your desktop, your Program Files folder (on Windows), etc. On the Mac, double-clicking it will open a disk image with an Arduino application (drag it to your Applications folder). Now whenever you want to run the Arduino IDE, you’ll open up the arduino (Windows and Linux) or Applications folder (Mac), and double-click the Arduino icon. Don’t do this yet, though; there is one more step. 

Now you must install the drivers that allow your computer to talk to your board through the USB port.

Installing Drivers: Macintosh

• The Arduino Uno on a Mac uses the drivers provided by the operating system, so the procedure is quite simple. Plug the board into your computer.

• The PWR light on the board should come on and the yellow LED labeled “L” should start blinking.

• You might see a popup window telling you that a new network interface has been detected.

• If that happens, Click “Network Preferences...”, and when it opens, click “Apply”. The Uno will show up as “Not Configured”, but it’s working properly. Quit System Preferences.

• If you have an older Arduino board, look for instructions here: www.arduino.cc/en/Guide/MacOSX.

Installing Drivers: Windows

• Plug the Arduino board into the computer; when the Found New Hardware Wizard window comes up, Windows will first try to find the driver on the Windows Update site.

• Windows XP will ask you whether to check Windows Update; if you don’t want to use Windows Update, select the “No, not at this time” option and click Next.

• On the next screen, choose “Install from a list or specific location” and click Next.

• Navigate to and select the Uno’s driver file, named ArduinoUNO.inf, located in the “Drivers” folder of the Arduino Software download (not the “FTDI USB Drivers” sub-directory). Windows will finish up the driver installation from there.

•  If you have an older board, look for instructions here: www.arduino.cc/en/Guide/Windows.

Once the drivers are installed, you can launch the Arduino IDE and start using Arduino. Next, you must figure out which serial port is assigned to your Arduino board—you’ll need that information to program it later.

Port Identification: Macintosh 
From the Tools menu in the Arduino IDE, select “Serial Port” and select the port that begins with /dev/cu.usbmodem; this is the name that your computer uses to refer to the Arduino board

Port Identification: Windows
On Windows, the process is a bit more complicated—at least at the beginning. Open the Device Manager by clicking the Start menu, right-clicking on Computer (Vista) or My Computer (XP), and choosing Properties. On Windows XP, click Hardware and choose Device Manager. On Vista, click
Device Manager (it appears in the list of tasks on the left of the window). Look for the Arduino device in the list under “Ports (COM & LPT)”. The Arduino will appear as “Arduino UNO” and will have a name like COM3.

Once you’ve figured out the COM port assignment, you can select that port from the Tools > Serial Port menu in the Arduino IDE. Now the Arduino development environment can talk to the Arduino board and program it.