Practical Arduino C

 Back when the Arduino project was getting under way and indeed when most of us started to get to grips with controlling a brilliant low-cost microprocessor like an Arduino Uno the concept of a program user interface (UI) would have been something of a joke. The final chapter of my book on Arduino C programming built upon the capability of an Arduino MKR WiFi 1010 board to serve a UI to any device on a local network with a Web browser – all to control the project’s skylight closer. The intention was to show that any suitable Arduino project could be extended to include an effective user interface over WiFi. The User Interface was clearly a key component of the project and I though a good demonstration of the concept. One can imagine w lot of microprocessor projects that could be enhanced with an effective UI. A popular Arduino project is to set up an automated plant or seedling watering system as that makes use of sensors and activators. If the plants are outdoors you could concei...

 The upcoming version 2 IDE for Arduino C development had me writing some notes on this new desktop tool for my Arduino C book support web pages. I made the effort as it was always possible that there would be a key change that might have made life difficult for new users working through the book. In fact, the changes are largely improvements to the user interface including a nice “intellisense” addition when entering code. The most significant addition seemed to relate to debugging running code on an Arduino board. A little investigation revealed that the new “debug” facility only applied to a limited range of recent boards and that almost all of those would require the inclusion of some additional third-party test hardware. Only the new Arduino Zero has the capacity to natively support interactive debugging from the IDE. That capacity is probably a sign of things to come but while the Zero has that “Uno” format and thus heritage appeal the overall package leaves me wondering abo...