Appendix A. Installing the Arduino IDE

This appendix details how to install the Arduino IDE on the Windows, Mac OS X, and Linux platforms. The Arduino IDE for all platforms is available from the Arduino website (http://arduino.cc/en/Main/Software). Download the IDE package for your platform and continue with the appropriate installation section for your operating system.

A.1. Windows

Arduino for Windows comes packaged as a zip file, so once it’s downloaded you must first extract its contents. Browse to where you downloaded the file (typically your User/Downloads folder) and double-click the zip file. As shown in figure A.1, extract or drag the containing folder to somewhere accessible on your hard drive, such as C:Program Files.

Figure A.1. Extracting/copying the Arduino IDE and drivers to your local hard drive on Windows 7

A.1.1. Installing drivers for your board

Now that you have the Arduino package copied to your computer, you’re ready to install the drivers for your board. Follow the instructions in the appropriate subsection for the board and version of Windows that you’re using.

Driver installation for the Arduino Uno

To begin the driver installation process, connect your Arduino Uno to the computer using a USB cable. The Uno board is USB-powered, so the green ON LED will light up. Once connected, Windows will attempt to install the board’s drivers, but it will fail. This is OK!

In the Windows Start menu, select Control Panel > System and Security > System > Device Manager. Next, click and expand Ports (COM & LPT). Your Uno should appear in the list as Arduino UNO (COMxx). If Ports (COM & LPT) does not appear in the Device Manager, or your Arduino isn’t in the list, your Uno may be recognized as an unknown device. If this is the case, expand the Other Devices menu and your Arduino should appear in the list as an unknown device.

Right-click the Arduino UNO (COMxx) or Unknown Device item and select Update Driver. If you are on Windows XP, the Hardware Update wizard will ask, Can Windows Connect to Windows Update to Search for Software? Select the radio button that says No, Not at This Time, and click Next to continue.

Next, you need to manually instruct the driver installer where your Uno driver file is located. On Windows XP, the wizard should now ask, What Do You Want the Wizard to Do? Select the radio button that says Install From a List or Specified Location (Advanced). On Windows 7, simply select the list item that says Browse My Computer for Driver Software (Locate and Install Driver Software Manually).

Now, on Windows XP, make sure the radio buttons that say Search for the Best Driver in These Locations and Include This Location in the Search are both clicked. Finally, click the Browse button to set your driver path to the Arduino folder you previously extracted, and then to the folder named Drivers. Similarly for Windows 7, under Search for the Best Driver Software in This Location, browse and navigate to the Arduino folder you previously extracted, and then to the folder named Drivers (shown in figure A.2). Make sure the Include Subfolders check box is checked, and click Next.

Figure A.2. Setting driver location search path for Arduino Uno driver installation on Windows 7

The Windows driver installer will complete the driver installation process. If a warning message pops up that says Windows Can’t Verify the Publisher of This Driver Software, click Install This Driver Software Anyway.

After the installation process completes your Uno will successfully appear under Ports (COM & LPT). You’re all set.

Driver installation for the Arduino Duemilanove, Nano, or Diecimila

Connect your Arduino board to the computer using a USB cable. If this is your first time using the Arduino Windows will automatically begin the driver installation process. The board should be powered via USB and you should see the green PWR LED light.

Important

If you are using Windows Vista the driver will automatically be downloaded and installed, and you can skip this section. For Windows 7 and XP users, please continue to read.

If you’re on Windows XP the Hardware Update wizard will appear with the prompt Can Windows Connect to Windows Update to Search for Software? Select the radio button that says, No, Not This Time to continue with the manual install. Instead, select the radio button that says Install From a List or Specified Location (Advanced) and click Next. Depending on your version of Windows you’ll want to make sure that you uncheck the Search Removable Media check box, but make sure Search for the Best Driver in These Locations and Include This Location in the Search are both checked.

For Windows 7 the prompt will be slightly different. Instead, when asked How Do You Want to Search for the Driver? select the list item that says Browse My Computer for Driver Software (Locate and Install the Driver Software Manually). At the following prompt click the Browse button to set the path in which your drivers are located, making sure to also select the check box to Include Subfolders. Whether you are on Windows XP or Windows 7 (shown in figure A.3), for the driver search path you should browse to your downloaded Arduino folder and browse to the drivers/FTDI USB Drivers directory so that the Windows driver installer will know where to find the driver file.

Figure A.3. Setting driver location for FTDI-based Arduino boards (such as the Duemilanove, Nano, and Diecimila) on Windows 7

Click Next and the installation wizard will search for and find the driver, and it’ll then notify you that a USB serial converter has been found. Next, the New Hardware Wizard will appear again and it will take you through the process again. Select and set the same options and locations as before, and at the end a USB serial port will be found. You’re all set.

A.2. Mac OS X

The Mac OS X Arduino software is packaged as a zip file. Download the latest version. When the download has completed, double-click on the zip file to expand it. Copy the Arduino application to your Applications folder.

If you are using a board older than an Arduino Uno or Mega2560 you’ll need to also install FTDI drivers to work with the FTDI on these boards. The drivers can be downloaded from the FTDI website at http://www.ftdichip.com/Drivers/VCP.htm as a disk image (.dmg) file. Once it’s downloaded, double-click the file and follow the instructions given. When the drivers are installed you’ll need to restart your machine to load them.

The next step is to connect your Arduino board to your computer using an appropriate USB cable. Power to the Arduino board is provided by the USB cable.

Start up the Arduino application by clicking on its icon—this will load the Arduino IDE. To work with your board you’ll need to set two settings in the menu. The first is the board type, found under Tools > Board, as shown in figure A.4.

Figure A.4. Select the type of Arduino board

The next step is to select the serial port that connects your computer to the Arduino board. This can be found under Tools > Serial Port, as shown in figure A.5.

Figure A.5. Select your serial port

That completes the setup of your Arduino software.

A.3. Linux

There are many flavors of Linux, each of which comes with slightly different instructions. We’re going to outline the instructions for Debian, because that’s a very popular distribution, but you can find instructions for other distributions on the Arduino website in the “Getting Started” section. They’re fairly similar but have slight differences across versions.

To correctly install Arduino on a Debian-based system you’ll want to first start up the Synaptic Package Manager (System > Administration > Synaptic Package Manager) and enter your system administrator password so that you can make changes to your system. Once you have Synaptic up and running, type 'jre' in the quick search box and find Openjdk-7-jre (Java Runtime Environment). Figure A.6 shows the Synaptic Package Manager.

Figure A.6. Using the Synaptic Package Manager to install dependencies for Linux

Now click on Openjdk-7-jre and select the Mark for Installation check box, as shown in figure A.7.

Figure A.7. Marking OpenJDK for installation

The package manager will want to install a lot of other supporting libraries, as shown in figure A.8, so go ahead and mark all of those for installation as well.

Figure A.8. Libraries to be installed for OpenJDK

Next you need to install the compiler that Arduino uses, so enter ‘gcc-avr’ into the quick search box and mark it for installation, just like you did with Openjdk. Finally, you need to install avr-libc, so search for it, mark it, and allow any extra libraries.

Now you’re done with Synaptic, so you can close it down. You might also need to restart your computer, particularly if you’re on Ubuntu, to make sure all the changes you’ve made have percolated through your system. Even if you’re not on Ubuntu restarting is a good idea to ensure that the new libraries you’ve added can be found.

Now you can go ahead and download the Arduino IDE from the website and unzip it to a friendly location on your computer. You should now be able to run the Arduino IDE and use it to program and communicate with your Arduino boards in the same way as the other operating systems in this appendix.