User manual
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3.3 BACKGROUND-INFORMATION FOR THE
ARDUINO SOFTWARE
Arduino Software belongs to the Open Source-category and is uni-
versally available to all, including the source codes for the program-
ming platform.
The Arduino programming platform has been equipped with a text-
editor, a message window and a text-console. The programming
platform may directly contact the AAR for communication and allows
us to easily transfer programs into the processor.
Programs, which have been written in Arduino-language, are named
„sketches”. A normal text-editor is used for developing and editing
these programs. The “sketch”-les will be stored at your PC’s hard
disc. Sketches are identiable by their le-extension „.ino“.
Saving-actions the sketch-les are reported in the message-window,
which also includes detected errors in the source-code. The right-
sided bottom of the window displays the currently active Arduino-
Board and the serial interface .
The basic Arduino-concept supplies us with libraries lled with extra
functionaility. A library denes a number of predened functions,
which for recurrent programming sections may be reused at no ex-
tra cost for development.
Basically an Arduino-program may be structured in three sections:
• structure,
• denitions (for variables respectively constants) and
• functions.
An Arduino-structure consists of a setup and a loop-function. The
setup is used to initialize variables, pin-denitions („Pin-Modes“) and
libraries-denitions.
The „Loop“-function will be repeated in an endless loop, which al-
lows the program to react permanently ad lib, until the system is
switched off.
The program uses „variable“-denitions to store and handle a pro-
gram’s modiable data whereas constants are used to dene xed
values such as pin-denitions for input- or output-functionality and
to dene xed voltage levels at pin-connections.