Arduino

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Arduino is an open-source electronics prototyping platform based on flexible, easy-to-use hardware and software. It is intended for artists, designers, hobbyists, and anyone interested in creating interactive objects or environments.

Installation

AVR Boards

To use AVR boards such as the Arduino Uno you can install arduino-avr-core optionally to use archlinux upstream avr-gcc instead of the bundled older avr-core. If you still want to use the older arduino-core you need to install it in the board manager. You can always switch between the different cores in the "Tools>Board" menu.

Pinoccio Scout

Pinoccio Scouts can also be programmed using the Arduino IDE. Instructions can be found here. Alternative you can install arduino-pinoccioAUR from the AUR.

Intel Galileo

To use the Intel Galileo boards with Archlinux install the Arduino IDE and download the Galileo tools package via "Tools->Board->Boards Manager". To fix the installation you can follow this github post.

On Arm7 devices

See here for a work around.

RedBear Duo

You might need to install perl-archive-zip or you will get an error about missing crc32.

SparkFun

To use SparkFun boards such as the Pro Micro you need to download their board definitions. More information here and here.

Configuration

Accessing serial

The arduino board communicates with the computer via a serial connection or a serial-over-USB connection, so the user needs read/write access to the serial device file. Udev creates files such as /dev/ttyUSB0 owned by group uucp so adding the user to the uucp group gives the required read/write access. See Users and groups#Group management for details.

Before uploading to the Arduino, be sure to set the correct serial port, board, and processor from the Tools menu.

stty

Preparing: 

# stty -F /dev/ttyACM0 cs8 9600 ignbrk -brkint -imaxbel -opost -onlcr -isig -icanon -iexten -echo -echoe -echok -echoctl -echoke noflsh -ixon -crtscts

Sending commands through Terminal without new line after command 

# echo -n "Hello World" > /dev/ttyACM0
Note: As autoreset on serial connection is activated by default on most boards, you need to disable this feature if you want to communicate directly with your board with the last command instead of a terminal emulator (arduino IDE, screen, picocom...). If you have a Leonardo board, you are not concerned by this, because it does not autoreset. If you have an Uno board, connect a 10 µF capacitor between the RESET and GND pins. If you have another board, connect a 120 ohms resistor between the RESET and 5V pins. See https://playground.arduino.cc/Main/DisablingAutoResetOnSerialConnection for more details.

Reading what your Arduino has to tell you 

$ cat /dev/ttyACM0

Arduino-Builder

You can also build Arduino sketches with the arduino-builder command line tool. In order to use the provided arduino-avr-core with upstream avr-gcc and avrdude you need to create a small settings file: 

build.options.json
{
    "fqbn": "archlinux-arduino:avr:uno",
    "hardwareFolders": "/usr/share/arduino/hardware",
    "toolsFolders": "/usr/bin"
}

Compile a sketch with: 

$ arduino-builder -build-options-file build.options.json blink.ino

Or pass all options via command line: 

$ arduino-builder -fqbn archlinux-arduino:avr:uno -hardware /usr/share/arduino/hardware -tools /usr/bin blink.ino

Alternatives for IDE

ArduIDE

ArduIDE is a Qt-based IDE for Arduino. arduide-gitAUR is available in the AUR.

Arduino-CMake

Using Arduino-CMake-Toolchain and CMake you can build Arduino firmware from the command line using multiple build systems. CMake lets you generate the build system that fits your needs, using the tools you like. It can generate any type of build system, from simple Makefiles, to complete projects for Eclipse, Visual Studio, XCode, etc.

Requirements: cmake, arduino, avr-gcc, avr-binutils, avr-libc, avrdude.

Makefile

Note: Update 2015-03-23. Due to recent changes in Arduino ≥v1.5, many old Makefiles do not work without some modification. A simple Makefile for Arduino version 1.5+ can be found on GitHub.

Instead of using the Arduino IDE it is possible to use another editor and a Makefile.

Set up a directory to program your Arduino and copy the Makefile into this directory. A copy of the Makefile can be obtained from /usr/share/arduino/hardware/cores/arduino/Makefile

You will have to modify this a little bit to reflect your settings. The makefile should be pretty self explanatory. Here are some lines you may have to edit. 

PORT = usually /dev/ttyUSBx, where x is the usb serial port your arduino is plugged into
TARGET = your sketch's name
ARDUINO = /usr/share/arduino/lib/targets/arduino

Depending on which library functions you call in your sketch, you may need to compile parts of the library. To do that you need to edit your SRC and CXXSRC to include the required libraries.

Now you should be able to make && make upload to your board to execute your sketch.

Arduino-mk

arduino-mkAUR is another alternative Makefile approach. It allows users to have a local Makefile that includes Arduino.mk. See project page for usage.

For Arduino 1.5, try the following local Makefile (because Arduino 1.5's library directory structure is slightly different): 

ARDUINO_DIR = /usr/share/arduino
ARDMK_DIR = /usr/share/arduino
AVR_TOOLS_DIR = /usr
AVRDUDE_CONF = /etc/avrdude.conf
ARDUINO_CORE_PATH = /usr/share/arduino/hardware/archlinux-arduino/avr/cores/arduino
ARDUINO_PLATFORM_LIB_PATH = /usr/share/arduino/hardware/archlinux-arduino/avr/libraries
BOARDS_TXT = /usr/share/arduino/hardware/archlinux-arduino/avr/boards.txt
ARDUINO_VAR_PATH = /usr/share/arduino/hardware/archlinux-arduino/avr/variants
BOOTLOADER_PARENT = /usr/share/arduino/hardware/archlinux-arduino/avr/bootloaders


BOARD_TAG    = uno
ARDUINO_LIBS =

include /usr/share/arduino/Arduino.mk

In some cases you could need to install avr-libc and avrdude.

Scons

Using scons together with arscons it is very easy to use to compile and upload Arduino projects from the command line. Scons is based on python and you will need python-pyserial to use the serial interface. Install python-pyserial and scons.

That will get the dependencies you need too. You will also need Arduino itself so install it as described above. Create project directory (eg. test), then create a arduino project file in your new directory. Use the same name as the directory and add .ino (eg. test.ino). Get the SConstruct script from arscons and put it in your directory. Have a peek in it and, if necessary, edit it. It is a python script. Edit your project as you please, then run 

$ scons                # This will build the project
$ scons upload         # This will upload the project to your Arduino

PlatformIO

PlatformIO is a python tool to build and upload sketches for multiple Hardware Platforms, at the moment of writing these are Arduino/AVR based boards, TI MSP430 and TI TM4C12x Boards. In the near future the author plans to add a library function that allows to search and include libraries directly from GitHub.

Installation

Install the platformioAUR or platformio-gitAUR package.

Usage

$ platformio platform install atmelavr
$ platformio init
$ vim platformio.ini

#
# Atmel AVR based board + Arduino Wiring Framework
#
[env:ArduinoMega2560]
platform = atmelavr
framework = arduino
board = megaatmega2560   
upload_port = /dev/ttyACM0 
targets = upload

$ platformio run

Emacs

It is possible to configure Emacs as IDE.

Install the package emacs-arduino-mode-gitAUR from the AUR in order to enable the arduino-mode in emacs.

Add to the init script: 

~/.emacs
;; arduino-mode
(require 'cl)
(autoload 'arduino-mode "arduino-mode" "Arduino editing mode." t)
(add-to-list 'auto-mode-alist '("\.ino$" . arduino-mode))

You can compile and upload the sketches using Arduino-mk (see above) with M-x compile make upload.

Main resource: here.

Troubleshooting

Consistent naming of Arduino devices

If you have more than one Arduino you may have noticed that they names /dev/ttyUSB[0-9] are assigned in the order of connection. In the IDE this is not so much of a problem, but when you have programmed your own software to communicate with an Arduino project in the background this can be annoying. Use the following udev rules to assign static symlinks to your Arduino's: 

/etc/udev/rules.d/52-arduino.rules
SUBSYSTEMS=="usb", KERNEL=="ttyUSB[0-9]*", ATTRS{idVendor}=="0403", ATTRS{idProduct}=="6001", SYMLINK+="sensors/ftdi_%s{serial}"

Your Arduino's will be available under names like /dev/sensors/ftdi_A700dzaF. If you want you can also assign more meaningfull names to several devices like this: 

/etc/udev/rules.d/52-arduino.rules
SUBSYSTEMS=="usb", KERNEL=="ttyUSB[0-9]*", ATTRS{idVendor}=="0403", ATTRS{idProduct}=="6001", ATTRS{serial}=="A700dzaF", SYMLINK+="arduino/nano"

which will create a symlink in /dev/arduino/nano to the device with the specified serialnumber. You do need to unplug and replug your Arduino for this to take effect or run 

# udevadm trigger

Common idVendor/idProduct pairs can be found in /usr/share/arduino/hardware/archlinux-arduino/avr/boards.txt in the distribution package. Note that some of them (notably FTDI ones) are not unique to the Arduino platform. Using serial attribute is a good way to distinguish between various devices.

Error opening serial port

You may see the serial port initially when the IDE starts, but the TX/RX leds do nothing when uploading. You may have previously changed the baudrate in the serial monitor to something it does not like. Edit ~/.arduino/preferences.txt so that serial.debug_rate is a different speed, like 115200.

Working with Uno/Mega2560

The Arduino Uno and Mega2560 have an onboard USB interface (an Atmel 8U2) that accepts serial data, so they are accessed through /dev/ttyACM0 created by the cdc-acm kernel module when it is plugged in.

The 8U2 firmware may need an update to ease serial communications. See [1] for more details and reply #11 for a fix. The original arduino bbs, where you can find an image explaining how to get your Uno into DFU, is now in a read-only state. If you do not have an account to view the image, see [2].

You can perform a general function test of the Uno by putting it in loopback mode and typing characters into the arduino serial monitor at 115200 baud. It should echo the characters back to you. To put it in loopback, short pins 0 -> 1 on the digital side and either hold the reset button or short the GND -> RESET pins while you type.

Not recognizing USB port with Mega2560 cheap Chinese clones

Try installing its driver: i2c-ch341-dkmsAUR.

Application not resizing with WM, menus immediately closing

see Java#Gray window, applications not resizing with WM, menus immediately closing

Fails to upload: programmer is not responding

Changing processor setting from ATmega328P to ATmega328P (Old Bootloader) (See Tools->Processor in Arduino IDE) may help with upload failures.

Crashing with java.lang.NullPointerException after a fresh install

You need to install arduino-avr-core.

See also