arduino .ino

Creating a project

Let’s create a simple project:

 $ mkdir beep $ cd beep $ ino init -t blink 

Here we’ve created a new directory for our project and initialized project skeleton with ino init command. We chose to use blink as a project template. That will create a simple sketch for LED blinking on pin 13. Lets see what we’ve got:

 $ tree . ├── lib └── src └── sketch.ino $ cat src/sketch.ino #define LED_PIN 13 void setup() { pinMode(LED_PIN, OUTPUT); } void loop() { digitalWrite(LED_PIN, HIGH); delay(100); digitalWrite(LED_PIN, LOW); delay(900); } 

Here we have two directories. src is a source directory where we can put our project’s *.[c|cpp|pde|h|hpp] source files. sketch.ino was created for us, so we have a starting point. lib is a directory where we may put 3-rd party libraries if we would want.

Building

Lets build it:

 $ ino build Searching for Board description file (boards.txt) ... /usr/local/share/arduino/hardware/arduino/boards.txt Searching for Arduino core library ... /usr/local/share/arduino/hardware/arduino/cores/arduino Searching for Arduino standard libraries ... /usr/local/share/arduino/libraries Searching for Arduino lib version file (version.txt) ... /usr/local/share/arduino/lib/version.txt Detecting Arduino software version ... 22 Searching for avr-gcc ... /usr/bin/avr-gcc Searching for avr-g++ ... /usr/bin/avr-g++ Searching for avr-ar ... /usr/bin/avr-ar Searching for avr-objcopy ... /usr/bin/avr-objcopy Scanning dependencies of src src/sketch.cpp arduino/wiring_shift.c arduino/wiring.c arduino/WInterrupts.c arduino/wiring_digital.c arduino/wiring_pulse.c arduino/wiring_analog.c arduino/pins_arduino.c arduino/HardwareSerial.cpp arduino/WString.cpp arduino/main.cpp arduino/Print.cpp arduino/WMath.cpp arduino/Tone.cpp Linking libcore.a Linking firmware.elf Converting to firmware.hex 

Whew! A lot of work has been done behind the scenes for a single command. It’s at most about finding necessary tools and directories, and compiling the standard core library. Actually you shouldn’t care. The consequence is that we’ve got firmware.hex—ready to upload binary file.

Uploading

Lets upload it:

 $ ino upload Searching for stty ... /bin/stty Searching for avrdude ... /usr/local/share/arduino/hardware/tools/avrdude Searching for avrdude.conf ... /usr/local/share/arduino/hardware/tools/avrdude.conf avrdude: AVR device initialized and ready to accept instructions Reading | ################################################## | 100% 0.00s avrdude: Device signature = 0x1e950f avrdude: reading input file ".build/firmware.hex" avrdude: writing flash (428 bytes): Writing | ################################################## | 100% 0.08s avrdude: 428 bytes of flash written avrdude: verifying flash memory against .build/firmware.hex: avrdude: load data flash data from input file .build/firmware.hex: avrdude: input file .build/firmware.hex contains 428 bytes avrdude: reading on-chip flash data: Reading | ################################################## | 100% 0.06s avrdude: verifying ... avrdude: 428 bytes of flash verified avrdude: safemode: Fuses OK avrdude done. Thank you. 

Again, quite much output, but the job is done. Arduino flashes with its buil-in LED on pin 13.

Serial communication

OK, now lets deal with serial communication a bit. With editor of your choice change src/sketch.ino to:

 void setup() { Serial.begin(9600); } void loop() { Serial.println(millis()); delay(1000); } 

This should transmit number of milliseconds spent from power up every second via serial port. Lets build it:

 $ ino build Scanning dependencies of src src/sketch.cpp Linking firmware.elf Converting to firmware.hex 

As you can see much fewer of steps have been performed behind the scenes. It is because only things that have been changed are taken into account. This boosts up the build.

Lets upload it with ino upload. When uploading is done lets connect to the device with serial monitor to see what it prints:

 $ ino serial Searching for Serial monitor (picocom) ... /usr/bin/picocom picocom v1.4 port is : /dev/ttyACM0 flowcontrol : none baudrate is : 9600 parity is : none databits are : 8 escape is : C-a noinit is : no noreset is : no nolock is : yes send_cmd is : ascii_xfr -s -v -l10 receive_cmd is : rz -vv Terminal ready 0 1000 2004 3009 4014 

That’s what we want! Press Ctrl+A Ctrl+X to exit.

Tweaking parameters

All examples were done in assumption that you have Arduino Uno and it is available on default port. Now consider you have Arduino Mega 2560 and it is available on port /dev/ttyACM1. We have to specify this for our build steps as command-line switches.

Board model may be set with --board-model or -m switch. Port is set with --serial-port or -p switch. So lets do it:

 $ ino build -m mega2560 $ ino upload -m mega2560 -p /dev/ttyACM1 $ ino serial -p /dev/ttyACM1 

For the full list of board names refer to ino build --help.

Configuration files

It can be annoying to provide these switches over and over again. So you can save them in ino.ini file in project directory. Put following lines to the ino.ini:

 [build] board-model = mega2560 [upload] board-model = mega2560 serial-port = /dev/ttyACM1 [serial] serial-port = /dev/ttyACM1 

Now you can build, upload and communicate via serial not having to provide any parameters. Well, in most cases if you build for Mega 2560, you will want to upload to Mega 2560 as well. The same about serial port setting. So to don’t repeat settings for different commands shared switches could be moved up to an unnamed section. So having just following lines in ino.ini is enough:

 board-model = mega2560 serial-port = /dev/ttyACM1 

Furthermore, if you have Mega 2560, it is likely that you have it for all projects you make. You can put a shared configuration file to either:

1. /etc/ino.ini
2. ~/.inorc

And it’ll be used for setting default parameter values if they’re not overriden by the local ino.ini or by explicit command-line switches.

You can provide any arguments you use on command line in a configuration file. Just specify its long name without leading --. E.g. arduino-dist but not --arduino-dist or -d.