Ah yes, it is finally time to make your Arduino do something! We're going to start with the classic hello world! of electronics, a blinking light.

This lesson will basically get you up and running using the Arduino software and uploading a sketch to the Arduino board. Once you've completed this step we can continue to the really exciting stuff, which is when we start writing our own sketches!

These instructions mostly show Windows software. Except when indicated, the software (should be) identical on all platforms. Linux will be added once I figure out how to get it working (yay)

Not much is needed for this lesson, just a USB cable and an Arduino.If you have an older Arduino you may also need an LED. Any LED is fine as long as it looks sorta like the photo, with a plastic bulb and two legs

Make sure you've gone through Lesson 0 first!

	Assembled Arduino board, preferrably a Diecimila (or whatever the latest version is)	Adafruit	$35
	USB Cable. Standard A-B cable is required. Any length is OK.	Adafruit Or any computer supply store	$5
	LED - Optional Nearly any LED is OK, as long as it has two wire legs. This part is only required for NG rev c Arduinos (and maybe other older ones). Diecimila Arduino's have this part 'built-in'	Any electronics supply store	$1

The first thing to do is download the Arduino software.

Go to the Arduino Software Download page and grab the right file for your OS. As of Sept 2007 the version is 009 but you should use whatever is most recent.

The packages are quite large, 30-50 MB so it may take a while to finish

Extract the package onto the Desktop

Double click the Arduino software icon

To open up the workspace

I think I get the red error text shown because I already have Arduino installed. Either way, it isn't a problem if you do or don't see it.

The first step is to configure the Arduino software for the correct chip. Almost all Arduinos use the ATmega168, but there's a chance you have an ATmega8. Look for the chip on the Arduino that looks like this:

If the text says ATMEGA8-16P then you have an atmega8 chip. If the text says ATMEGA168-20P then you have an atmega168 chip. If it says "ATMEGA328P-20P" you have an atmega328p chip

Make sure the correct chip is selected (this picture is really old, will be fixed soon). This preference is saved so you only have to set it once, the program will remember next time it's run.

Next, its time to configure the Serial Port (also known as the COM Port). Go back to lesson 0 to remind yourself of which port it is. On a PC it will probably be something like COM3 or COM4. On a Mac it will be something like tty.usbserial-xxxxx

This preference is saved so you only have to set it once, the program will remember next time it's run.

However, if you have multiple Arduino's, they may be assigned difference COM ports. So every time you plug in a new Arduino, double check that the correct port is selected.

Sketches are little scripts that you can send to the Arduino to tell it how to act. Let's open up an Example Sketch. Go to the File menu → Sketchbook → Examples → Digital → Blink

The window should now look like this, with a bunch of text in the formerly empty white space and the tab Blink above it

The first step to getting a Sketch ready for transfer over to the arduino is to Verify/Compile it. That means check it over for mistakes (sort of like editing) and then translate it into an application that is compatible with the Arduino hardware.

After a few seconds, you should see the message Done compiling. in the Status Bar and Binary Sketch Size: in the Notification area. This means the sketch was well-written and is ready for uploading to the Arduino board!

To tell the Arduino that it should prepare itself for a new Sketch upload, you must reset the board. Diecimila Arduino's have built-in auto-reset capability, so you don't need to do anything. Older Arduinos, such as NG, must be manually reset before uploading a sketch. To do that simply press the black button on the right hand side of the board, shown here.

Now it's time to upload. Make sure the Arduino is plugged in, the green light is on and the correct Serial Port is selected.

If you have an NG Arduino, press the Reset Button now, just before you select the Upload menu item.

Select Upload to I/O Board from the File menu

After a few seconds you should get this screen, with the message Done uploading. in the status bar.

If you get the following error message "avrdude: stk500_getsync(): not in sync: resp=0x00" that means that the Arduino is not responding

Then check the following:

• If you have a NG Arduino, did you press reset just before selecting Upload menu item?
• Is the correct Serial Port selected?
• Is the correct driver installed?
• Is the chip inserted into the Arduino properly? (If you built your own arduino or have burned the bootloader on yourself)
• Does the chip have the correct bootloader on it? (If you built your own arduino or have burned the bootloader on yourself)

If you get the following error message:

It means you dont have a serial port selected, go back and verify that the correct driver is installed (lesson 0)

and that you have the correct serial port selected in the menu.If you get the following error Expected signature for ATMEGA

Then you have either the incorrect chip selected in the Tools menu or the wrong bootloader burned onto the chip

If you get the following error: can't open device "COM10": The system cannot find the file specified (under Windows, COM port value may vary)