Intro Programming
Programming is frustrating, but when your software works, it’s magical!. Your software will tell your processor how to read and save data from your sensor and transmit it using your radio.
Khan Academy has an amazing, simple, programming course. You can pause course videos, tweak code that their talking about, and see how it changes animations in the browser. At a minimum, complete the following sections of Khan Academy’s Introduction to JS: Drawing & Animation Course. Each section takes around 15 mins.
- Intro to Programming
- Variables
- Text and Strings
- Functions
- Logic and IF Statements
- Debugging Programs
- Looping
- Arrays
Khan Academy and Arduino teach different languages, but they're similar enough to give you a great start. If you already have programming experience, skip to the next step.
Intro to Arduino
Your processor is Arduino compatible, so you can prepare to program your processor by programming an Arduino. You can buy a cheap Arduino and other supplies from the Electrical Engineering Shop in room 416 of the Clyde Building. To be ready to write your flight software you should complete at least the following Arduino tutorials:
- Adafruit Arduino Lesson 0: Getting Started
- Adafruit Arduino Lesson 1: Blink
- Adafruit Arduino Lesson 6: Digital Inputs
- Ladyada Arduino Lesson 4: Serial Monitor
Using the Libraries
Libraries are great resources when you are designing software. Libraries are collections of code that other people have already written for you. They will save you a lot of time and prevent you from having to deal with all of the nitty gritty details.
You can use the following tutorials to help you install the needed libraries: https://www.arduino.cc/en/guide/libraries, https://learn.sparkfun.com/tutorials/installing-an-arduino-library/all
To understand the specific libraries you will want to look at the examples provided by the libraries and hook-up guides. They will give an example of what functions the libraries have and what they can do.