Arduino

Installing the Arduino IDE on OLPC OS.

13.2.0

Switch to the Gnome desktop. This is because the application has been tested with Gnome, and not with Sugar.

Packages

In Terminal, type this:

sudo yum install -y arduino

Roughly 61 MB of lists and packages are downloaded and installed.

Choose a larger font

The default font is very small on the XO laptop, to fix it:

• Applications -> Programming -> Arduino,
• File -> Preferences,
• Editor font size to 18, OK,
• Quit and restart Arduino.

12.1.0

As above for #13.2.0 but before starting Arduino you must fix a problem. The IDE requires that the user be a member of the lock group. See also <trac>11972</trac>. This fix also restarts Gnome, so that the membership change is effective.

In Terminal, type this:

sudo groupmems --group lock --add olpc && \
   sudo systemctl restart prefdm.service

Testing

• start Applications -> Programming -> Arduino,
• connect Arduino board,
• choose Tools -> Board entry, e.g. Arduino Uno,
• choose Tools -> Serial Port entry, e.g. /dev/ttyACM0,
• choose File -> Examples -> Basics -> Blink,
• choose Upload to send the program to the Arduino board,
• see LED flashing.

Firmata

Firmata is a generic protocol for a computer to communicate with microcontrollers. The Sugar Labs Turtle Art activity included in OLPC OS builds supports Firmata, and can use an Arduino board as a general purpose analog and digital I/O interface.

The StandardFirmata may be uploaded to an Arduino board, using the Arduino IDE:

• start Applications -> Programming -> Arduino,
• connect Arduino board,
• choose File -> Examples -> Firmata > StandardFirmata,
• choose Upload to send the program to the Arduino board.

Alternatively, StandardFirmata may be uploaded without using the Arduino IDE, see How to upload StandardFirmata using ino. The download size is much smaller (18MB), but the steps required are more complex.

See also

XO Stick

XOrduino

XO_Stick/Bootloader

XOrduino/bootloader

How to use TurtleBots with the SparkFun ProtoSnap - Pro Mini

References

• http://arduino.cc/playground/Linux/Fedora
• http://blog.makezine.com/2007/12/21/howto-run-arduino-on-the-xo-la/
• http://tonyforster.blogspot.com.au/2012/01/arduino-and-xo-laptop.html
• http://lists.laptop.org/pipermail/devel/2012-January/034062.html
• http://tonyforster.blogspot.com.au/2010/10/arduino-fork-of-turtle-art.html
• http://wiki.sugarlabs.org/go/Activities/TurtleArt
• http://firmata.org/
• http://arduino.cc/playground/Interfacing/Firmata
• http://arduino.cc/en/Reference/Firmata