Setting up for competition oriented Arduino programming - quasics/quasics-frc-sw-2015 GitHub Wiki

There's four core things that you should do in order to get set up to write Arduino code for the robot (e.g., for lighting control):

  • Get an account set up on GitHub (this site).
  • Install Subversion tools, which are used to access the team's source code repository.
  • Install the Arduino tools.
  • Check out an initial copy of the Arduino code folder.

Phase 1: Getting a GitHub account set up

Instructions are here.

Note: This doesn't actually need to be finished until you're ready to make changes to the code, but it can take time (and people sometimes run into problems), so it's worth starting early. You can continue on with the rest of what's outlined below while you're waiting to get (and accept) an "invitation to collaborate" with the team on GitHub.

Phase 2: Installing Subversion tools to access the GitHub repository

There's a couple of different options here, depending on the operating system you're using.

  • If you're working on Microsoft Windows, the easiest tool set to use is probably TortoiseSVN; see directions here.
  • If you're working on a Mac or Linux machine, it may be simplest to install the command-line tools for these environments. (They're also available for Windows.)
    • Mac tools installs are covered in a lot of places, including here. If you need help with the part that talks about "edit[ing] your .profile", please talk to Mr. Healy.
    • Linux tools installs are covered in a lot of places, including here. (We assume that if you're using Linux, you'll know the basics of using a terminal window; if not, please talk to Mr. Healy.)

Phase 3: Installing the Arduino tools

The installers for the Arduino tools (also known as the "Arduino IDE") can be downloaded from here.

  • If you're installing the tools in the lab, you'll want to pick the "Windows ZIP file for non admin install" option. (In fact, Mr. Healy recommends doing this for any Windows box.)
    • Once you've downloaded it, you'll want to extract the files from the .ZIP file (this can be done by right-clicking on the downloaded file and selecting the "Extract" option), and move them into a directory someplace convenient (e.g., a folder named "Arduino Tools" on your desktop).
  • If you're not installing them under Windows, download an appropriate installer program for your machine, and then run it in order to put a copy of the tools on your machine.

The first time that you run the main "Arduino" program, it may want to update the files for various libraries and/or "boards": let it do so.

Phase 4: Checking out the Arduino code collection

All of the Arduino code that we write and store in the repository lives in a folder that is (conveniently enough!) named "Arduino", which should be visible to Subversion as "https://github.com/quasics/quasics-frc-sw-2015.git/trunk/Arduino".

  • If you're using TortoiseSVN on Windows, follow the directions for checking out the RoboRio code, but instead of looking for the robot code for this season, you'll check out the "Arduino" folder.
  • TBD: Using command-line tools on Mac/Linux