Arduino configuration classes

The arduino_helpers.context module provides several helper classes, which extract board and build configuration information from an Arduino installation directory.

>>> from pprint import pprint
>>> from arduino_helpers.context import ArduinoContext, Board, Uploader
>>> # In Ubuntu, the Arduino IDE is installed in `/usr/share/arduino`.
>>> context = ArduinoContext('/usr/share/arduino/')

There are several methods to query various information, parsed from the Arduino IDE configuration files. For example:

>>> context.
context.arduino_home_path              context.get_libraries_dir_by_family
context.get_arduino_dir_root           context.get_platform_config_by_family
context.get_board_data_by_family       context.get_tools_dir_by_family
context.get_board_names_by_family      context.get_tools_dir_root
context.get_bootloaders_dir_by_family  context.get_variants_dir_by_family
context.get_compiler_dir_by_family     context.pre_15
context.get_cores_dir_by_family        context.runtime_config
context.get_firmwares_dir_by_family

Now, let's print the list of available avr-based Arduino boards (in Arduino versions <1.5, avr is the only board family):

>>> pprint(context.get_board_names_by_family()['avr'])
['mini',
 'pro',
 'lilypad',
 'lilypad328',
 'pro328',
 'nano',
 'atmega8',
 'robotMotor',
 'pro5v',
 'fio',
 'mega2560',
 'atmega168',
 'pro5v328',
 'atmega328',
 'bt328',
 'bt',
 'nano328',
 'esplora',
 'diecimila',
 'mega',
 'LilyPadUSB',
 'mini328',
 'micro',
 'robotControl',
 'ethernet',
 'leonardo',
 'uno']

Given an Arduino IDE context, we can create a board context, which provides an API to query configuration details corresponding to a particular board. For example, let's query the configuration of the uno board:

>>> board = Board(context, 'uno')
>>> board.family
'avr'
>>> board.mcu
'atmega328p'

Given our board context, we can create an uploader context, which provides an API to query the uploader configuration for our board. For example:

>>> uploader = Uploader(board)
>>> uploader.speed
115200
>>> uploader.conf_path
path('/usr/share/arduino/hardware/tools/avrdude.conf')
>>> uploader.protocol
'arduino'
>>> uploader.maximum_size
32256

The uploader context provides a flags attribute, which returns a dictionary containing the appropriate avrdude configuration flags for uploading.

>>> pprint(uploader.flags.items())
[('-C', path('/usr/share/arduino/hardware/tools/avrdude.conf')),
 ('-c', 'arduino'),
 ('-p', 'atmega328p'),
 ('-b', 115200)]

The flags can be used with the upload_tool and tools_dir to find the avrdude path to form a command.

>>> uploader.upload_tool
'avrdude'
>>> uploader.tools_dir
path('/usr/share/arduino/hardware/tools/avr')

Note that we can reference any board included in the Arduino IDE configuration files. For example, let's look-up the configuration for the mega2560 board:

>>> board = Board(context, 'mega2560')
>>> board.mcu
'atmega2560'
>>> uploader = Uploader(board)
>>> pprint(uploader.flags.items())
[('-C', path('/usr/share/arduino/hardware/tools/avrdude.conf')),
 ('-c', 'wiring'),
 ('-p', 'atmega2560'),
 ('-b', 115200)]

Note that the uploader flags now reflect the correct options for the mega2560.

Board configurations

The arduino_helpers.hardware.boards module provides functions for extracting board configurations from an Arduino installation directory.

Example usage:

>>> from arduino_helpers.hardware.boards import get_board_data_by_family
>>> board_configs_by_family = get_board_data_by_family('~/local/opt/arduino-1.5.4')
>>> board_configs_by_family.keys()
['avr', 'sam']
>>> board_configs_by_family['avr'].keys()[:5]
['mini', 'nano', 'mega', 'micro', 'LilyPadUSB']
>>> board_configs_by_family['avr']['uno'].keys()
['name', 'vid', 'pid', 'upload', 'build', 'bootloader']
>>> board_configs_by_family['avr']['uno']['name']
'Arduino Uno'
>>> board_configs_by_family['avr']['uno']['bootloader']
{'extended_fuses': '0x05', 'high_fuses': '0xDE', 'low_fuses': '0xFF',
 'lock_bits': '0x0F', 'tool': 'avrdude',
 'file': 'optiboot/optiboot_atmega328.hex', 'unlock_bits': '0x3F'}
>>> board_configs_by_family['avr']['uno']['build']
{'core': 'arduino', 'mcu': 'atmega328p', 'f_cpu': '16000000L',
 'board': 'AVR_UNO', 'variant': 'standard'}

Compatiblity

The arduino_helpers.hardware.boards module is confirmed compatible with Arduino versions 1.0 and 1.5, but should also work with older Arduino versions.

Credits

Copyright Christian Fobel 2013.