Arduino IDE

Post tags: | arduino | arduino_ide |

Makefile alternative to Arduino IDE

I am goint to try out the Github Makefile project for Arduino from Sudar Muthu

A Makefile for Arduino Sketches - managed by Sudar Muthu

This is a very simple Makefile which knows how to build Arduino sketches. It defines entire workflows for compiling code, flashing it to Arduino and even communicating through Serial monitor. You don’t need to change anything in the Arduino sketches.

Installation Options

Through package

If you’re using FreeBSD, Debian or Ubuntu, you can find this in the arduino-mk package and can be installed using apt-get or aptitude.

From source

Download the latest release

Or clone it from Github using the command git clone Github Repo

Sudar Muthu

Night Dreaming (by Sudar) WordPress, JavaScript, Android, Arduino and some random stuff

Hello and Welcome

I am Sudar and this is my personal site. It serves as a starting point for most of the information I have put on the web. I started this site as a hobby so that I can return back what I can to this online world from where I have learned and still learning so many things. Have a nice sta

Features

  • Very robust
  • Highly customizable
  • Supports all official AVR-based Arduino boards
  • Supports chipKIT
  • Works on all three major OS (Mac, Linux, Windows)
  • Auto detects serial baud rate and libraries used
  • Support for *.ino and *.pde sketches as well as raw *.c and *.cpp
  • Support for Arduino Software versions 1.0.x as well as 0.x. Support for Arduino 1.5.x is still work in progress
  • Automatic dependency tracking. Referred libraries are automatically included in the build process. Changes in *.h files lead to recompilation of sources which include them

Article / guide - Compiling Arduino sketches using Makefile

One of the main reasons why Arduino is very popular with beginners is that it is completely self-contained which makes it very easy to use. Once you have an Arduino board, all you have to do is to download the software and within minutes you can make your first led blink. The software has everything you need right from the IDE, to the compiler and even serial monitor to communicate with Arduino, all within one single package.

While the Arduino IDE is very good for beginners, you might start to feel its limitations, once you start working with it regularly. I use vim for everything and always wished writing Arduino sketches in vim.

I configured Arduino IDE, to use an external editor and started using vim to write code and then Arduino IDE to compile and upload. While this worked for sometime, I started to feel the need for a proper makefile so that I can do everything from vim itself.

My Setup and Use Log

Get the Linux tarball.

Linux tarball


        lug$ cd /opt/Arduino
        log$ wget http://arduino.googlecode.com/files/arduino-1.0.5-linux64.tgz
        lug$ tar xzf arduino-1.0.5-linux64.tgz
        lug$ ln -s arduino-1.0.5 arduino
        lug$ ls -l
        lrwxrwxrwx 1 craig craig       13 Mar 23 14:45 arduino -> arduino-1.0.5
        drwxr-xr-x 8 craig craig     4096 May 17  2013 arduino-1.0.5
        

Install dependencies

The Makefile delegates resetting the board to a short Perl program. You’ll need to install Device::SerialPort and YAML library.

On Debian or Ubuntu:


        apt-get install libdevice-serialport-perl
        apt-get install libyaml-perl
        

Clone Arduino-Makefile from github

I forked Arduino-Makefile from sudar.


        $ mkdir /opt/sudar; cd /opt/sudar
        $ git clone git@github.com:CootCraig/Arduino-Makefile.git
        $ cd /opt/sudar/Arduino-Makefile
        

Pull in upstream changes


        $ git remote add upstream https://github.com/sudar/Arduino-Makefile.git
        $ git fetch upstream
        $ git merge upstream/master
        

Set up git branches for craig local working changes. Leave master as copy of upsteam.


         $ git checkout -b craig
         Switched to a new branch 'craig'
         craig@lug:/opt/sudar/Arduino-Makefile$ git branch
         * craig
           master
         $ git checkout -b craig-develop
         Switched to a new branch 'craig-develop'
         $ git branch
           craig
         * craig-develop
           master
        

Setup environment variables

What are the avr packages.


        $ dpkg --get-selections |grep avr
        avr-libc					install
        avrdude						install
        binutils-avr					install
        gcc-avr						install
        

Where are the avr files.


        /usr/bin/avr-g++
        /usr/bin/avrdude
        /usr/lib/avr/lib/libc.a
        /usr/lib/avr/bin/ar
        /usr/lib/gcc/avr/4.7.2/
        

~/.profile


        export ARDUINO_DIR=/opt/arduino/arduino
        export ARDMK_DIR=/opt/sudar/Arduino-Makefile
        export AVR_TOOLS_DIR=/usr
        

Example sketch Makefile


        /opt/sudar/Arduino-Makefile/Arduino.mk
        

Per sketch variables

After the global settings, you will need to specify the following variables for each sketch

BOARD_TAG – The Arduino board that you are using. By default Uno is used ARDUINO_PORT – The serial port where Arduino is connected ARDUINO_LIBS – Space separated set of libraries that are used by your sketch