The Arduino open source platform consists of physical electronics (hardware) and an Integrated Development Environment or IDE (software) that communicates and programs the hardware.
Arduino and Arduino-compatible hardware are circuit boards designed with common components, according to common design files and principles.
The Arduino IDE is software that is used to programme and communicate with Arduino-compatible hardware such as the Freaklabs’ boards. It contains a text editor for writing code, a message area (showing upload status), a text console (or serial monitor / command line interface), a toolbar with buttons for common functions and a series of menus.
The platform abstracts a lot of the complexity in developing embedded devices, allowing people to focus on what’s important – building and programming their own devices.
In the next sections, we’ll cover
- Installing the Arduino IDE and the IDE folder structure
- Installing Board Definition Files
- Installing Libraries
- Arduino IDE Menu and Sketch (programs) structure
- Uploading Sketches (programs) to your board
Let’s get started!