Kushal Blog

Compile and Run Arduino Codes from Raspberry Pi

maddy -

Perhaps wondering how to compile the Arduino codes on the raspberry pi terminal. After spending a couple of days browsing the net, I came up with the following tutor which works great and don’t need the Arduino GUI.

At first, i did go for the default Arduino Program that is to run the Java program on a headless screen..but that did not go well for me…needless to say that I lost a couple of hours roaming around the configs..so ..  Below is a script that i tried to use which is available on the Arduino Website: (Xvfb [similar to VNC] is good but was not working for me)

root@R2-D2:~/project# cat arduino-headless 
#!/bin/bash
Xvfb :1 -nolisten tcp -screen :1  800x600x24 +extension RANDR &
xvfb=”$!”
DISPLAY=:1 arduino “$@”


##kill -9 $xvfb

So i have followed this step by step tutor (lost a bit midway..^^) but finally came up with the codes running on my arduino device…

  • Install the application arduino-mk
                     root@R2-D2:~# apt-get install arduino-mk
  • Install the application’s dependencies MAKE, gcc… (build-essentials) on linux
  • Create a Working folder
    • Mine was in /root/project and go to the directory  (mkdir /root/project && cd /root/project)
    • Add a symbolic link like this one:
      (      ln -s /usr/share/arduino/Arduino.mk Arduino.mk)

      • lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root   29 Apr  2 20:22 Arduino.mk -> /usr/share/arduino/Arduino.mk
        • In case the Application Arduino.mk is not on the default path (/usr/share/arduino), do a locate of the application
          (locate Arduino.mk on terminal)
    • Create a Makefile file with the following options
                     root@R2-D2:~/project# cat Makefile 
                     BOARD_TAG = uno
                     ARDUINO_PORT = /dev/ttyUSB0
                     ARDUINO_LIBS =
                     ARDUINO_DIR = /usr/share/arduino
                     include Arduino.mk
 
          • BOARD_TAG — name of your board [mine was UNO] 
            view the text file /usr/share/arduino/hardware/arduino/boards.txt to get a list of available board
            REMOTELY
          • ARDUINO_PORT (the path of the connected arduino)
            To know path –  follow this tuto:
                             ls -l /dev/ >> /root/dev.1.txt 
                         Pluggin your Arduino device (with the Usb Port of the Arduino to the USB port of the Raspberry Pi)
                             ls -l /dev/ >> /root/dev.2.txt
              Then do a diff on those two files to know which device is added.
          • ARDUINO_DIR — the path where the arduino is installed
          • include the whole folder (Arduino.mk)Use the command make help to get a list of the available options
  • You are one step closer towards compiling the arduino codes. (A file with .ino extention)
    • Upload the arduino codes to the working directory – below a sample codes for led testing  on pin 13 and ground on ground ^^
           root@R2-D2:~/project# ll
           -rwxrwxrwx 1 root root  127 Apr  2 20:00 arduino-headless
            lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root   29 Apr  2 20:22 Arduino.mk -> /usr/share/arduino/Arduino.mk
           -rwxrwxrwx 1 root root  111 Apr  3 03:40 Makefile
           -rw-r–r– 1 root root 2398 Apr  9 14:07 waza.ino
  • To verify the codes (launch the command make) on the working directory, there should not be any errors unless the codes is creepy. A folder named build-uno should appear.
  •    To upload the codes on the Arduino, launch the command make upload (a lot of compilation should appear on the terminal…)
  • Now the codes are uploaded, time to interact with the arduino from the Raspberry Pi
    • We can use the command screen to interact with it:
    • screen /dev/ttyUSB0(press the buttons 1,2.. to see the led lighting) 😀
    • In order to exit the screen (Ctrl+A then press k, choose y – to kill the window)
== > Compile and upload Arduino codes REMOTELY without physical access to the arduino 😀

The sample codes of waza.ino: (which blinks based on the number given)

#define led 13
 
void setup() {
  Serial.begin (9600);
  pinMode(led, OUTPUT);
}
 
 
void move(int n) {
switch (n) {
case 1: 
Serial.println(“.. Blink Once”);
digitalWrite(led,HIGH);
break;
case 2: 
Serial.println(“.. Blink twice fast”);
digitalWrite(led,HIGH);
delay (300);
digitalWrite(led,LOW);
delay (300);
digitalWrite(led,HIGH);
break;
default:screen
Serial.println(“Spinning”);
digitalWrite(led,HIGH);
       break;
       }
}
 
void getInputs() {
digitalWrite(led,LOW);
if (Serial.available())  {
Serial.println(“Input: “);
      move(Serial.read() – ‘0’);
  }
  delay(500);
 
}
 
void loop()
{
getInputs();
 
}
Coming soon with another post of controlling a remote RPI car based on Arduino using a web interface (Html.PHP and Ajax) that connects to a Client server system based on Python which then interacts with the Arduino…