Guide Contents | Introduction | How To: Windows, Mac OS X, Linux; Arduino Mini, Arduino BT, LilyPad Arduino; Xbee shield | Troubleshooting | Board | Environment
ToolbarVerify/Compile ![]() Checks your code for errors. Stop ![]() Stops the serial monitor, or unhighlight other buttons. New ![]() Creates a new sketch. Open ![]() Presents a menu of all the sketches in your sketchbook. Note: due to a bug in Java, this menu doesn't scroll; if you need to open a sketch late in the list, use the File | Sketchbook menu instead. Save ![]() Saves your sketch. Upload to I/O Board ![]() Uploads your code to the Arduino I/O board. Make sure to save or verify your sketch before uploading it. Serial Monitor ![]() Displays serial data being sent from the Arduino board (USB or serial board). To send data to the board, enter text and click on the "send" button or press enter. Choose the baud rate from the drop-down that matches the rate passed to Serial.begin in your sketch. Note that on Mac or Linux, the Arduino board will reset (rerun your sketch from the beginning) when you connect with the serial monitor. You can also talk to the board from Processing, Flash, MaxMSP, etc (see the interfacing page for details). |
MenusSketchVerify/Compile Checks your sketch for errors. Import Library Uses a library in your sketch. Works by adding #includes to the top of your code. This makes extra functionality available to your sketch, but increases its size. To stop using a library, delete the appropriate #includes from the top of your sketch. For more details, see the page on libraries. ToolsAuto Format This formats your code nicely: i.e. indents it so that opening and closing curly braces line up, and that the statements instead curly braces are indented more. Microcontroller (MCU) This menu lets you choose which microcontroller you're using; it should match the name (up to the dash) of the chip on your Arduino board (e.g. if your chip says "ATMEGA168-20PU", you would choose "atmega168"). New Arduino boards use the ATmega168, but some older ones have ATmega8s. Serial Port This menu contains all the serial devices (real or virtual) on your machine. It should automatically refresh every time you open the top-level tools menu. Before uploading your sketch, you need to select the item from this menu that represents your Arduino board. On the Mac, this is probably something like /dev/tty.usbserial-1B1 (for a USB board), or /dev/tty.USA19QW1b1P1.1 (for a serial board connected with a Keyspan USB-to-Serial adapter). On Windows, it's probably COM1 or COM2 (for a serial board) or COM4, COM5, COM7, or higher (for a USB board) - to find out, you look for USB serial device in the ports section of the Windows Device Manager. Burn Diecimila Bootloader This burns the Arduino Diecimila ATmega168 bootloader to your Arduino board using an AVRISP mkII. Only available if you have ATmega168 selected in the Microcontroller submenu. For more details see the bootloader page. Burn Mini/NG Bootloader This burns the Arduino Mini/NG bootloader to your Arduino board using an AVRISP mkII. Only available if you have ATmega168 selected in the Microcontroller submenu. For more details see the bootloader page. Burn Bootloader This burns the ATmega8 bootloader to your Arduino board using an AVRISP and the serial port you've selected in the Serial Port submenu. Only available if you have ATmega8 selected in the Microcontroller submenu. For more details see the bootloader page. Burn Bootloader (parallel) Windows and Linux only. Burns the bootloader to your Arduino board, using a parallel programmer. This only works with the atmega8 (not the atmega168). |
Some preferences can be set in the preferences dialog (found under the Arduino menu on the Mac, or File on Windows and Linux). The rest can be found in the preferences.txt file.