It lacks a debugger, a tool that allows you to insert breakpoints into your code and then observe the state of key variables when these points are reached.And, because it’s so popular, you’ll find an abundance of information to assist you on the web and on YouTube (and, of course, here on the DroneBot Workshop!).īut for all of its glory, the Arduino IDE does have many shortcomings. By adding additional Boards Managers you can use it for more than just Arduino boards. It’s very easy to use, especially for beginners, and it comes with a great assortment of sample sketches to get you going. It’s a fundamental piece of software that runs on Linux, Windows, or Mac OSX and it allows us to program our little microcontroller wonders to do just about anything. When we begin working with the Arduino one of the first steps is to install the Arduino IDE (Integrated Development Environment). I’ll show you how to set it up and how to use it with the Arduino Uno, ESP32, and Seeeduino XIAO.

It’s a bit of a learning curve, but well worth it, as PlatformIO has many advantages over using the Arduino IDE.

Visual studio arduino