Arduino Community Joins Visual Studio Community

by Visual Micro 30. May 2015 16:44

Micro-controller circuit board manufacturers Arduino, Sparkfun, Adafruit and the entire community have joined together to make installing and programming micro-controllers much simpler. Previously different files and instructions had to be discovered from various places on the web, then downloaded and installed.

Arduino.cc have designed and included a tool in their development software called a 'Boards Manager'. The Boards Manager provides a simple way to see and install available hardware. The hardware is discovered from .json file(s) that are located under the arduino ide folder. The files contain definitions for avr and sam (arduino uno, arduino due boards)

The Boards Manager is supported with a free respository (managed by arduino.cc) that enables any software author to register (and make available for programming) packages of hardware and software tools.

Arduino have been bold and allowed competitive hardware manufacturers to also use the system, this provides a great facilioty for us all! Therefore, the facility also exists to add additional urls of package.json files that contain the software tools to build programs for different types of Arduino compatible hardware. This can be Arduno clones or entirely different hardware. For example sparkfun boards, adafruit boards, intel boards or the new esp8266 $5 programmable wifi server.

For more information about how to add your own .json urls please see the viaual micro "Ide locations configuration window" or the "arduino ide" file>preferences window. Both Visual Studio, with Visual Micro installed, and the arduino ide use the same system. Some arduino.cc approved thrird party urls are located on ths page

The list of urls shown at the bottom of this page result in the ability to install any of the hardware (and more) shown below. A clever design by Arduino.ccFederico Fissore and the community.

Microsoft Visual Studio management tool for Arduino Community hardware

 

Announcing the Wiring Ide for Visual Studio

by Visual Micro 7. March 2015 11:17

The Wiring Ide has been added to the standard list of supported Visual Studio Ide's.

The Wiring Ide gives an interesting alternative to building programs with the Arduino core/backend.

Hardware manufacturers, such as sparkfun electronics, make simple update packs for Wiring that extend the list of available boards that can be developed using the Ide.

Read more

Image of the Wiring Ide hardware being programmed in Microsoft Visual Studio