Using the Desktop App

Essential Topic for learning Bottango.

Big idea

Use the Bottango desktop app to upload Bottango firmware directly to supported hardware. Supported hardware for uploading in app includes:

• Arduino Uno R3 / Nano
• Arduino Mega
• Bottango released hardware

If you’re using an Arduino Uno R3, Arduino Nano, or Arduino Mega, you can use the options in the Bottango app itself to install the stock Bottango firmware, no need to use the source code. As well, if you have purchased a kit or hardware from Bottango, you should update the firmware on your hardware using the Bottango app.

For any other microcontroller, included in the .zip archive that contains the installer for the Bottango application is an open-source Arduino framework C++ codebase that makes up the Bottango firmware. You’ll use the Arduino IDE or a tool like that to upload from the source.

Uploading In App

1. Attempt to open the port for your Arduino as instructed in the Connecting to a Hardware Driver crash course page. If Bottango can open the port to the hardware driver, but either does not detect the Bottango firmware, or the Bottango firmware is out of date, you will be given the option to upload the firmware:
2. Clicking upload will let you select the board type, and then attempt to upload or update the firmware. When uploading, you can also enable an option to include the library and enable support for the Adafruit 16 channel PCA servo driver. Only enable this option if you are using that specific hardware in your build.

Note

If you’re using Bottango-provided hardware drivers as part of our animatronic kits, you should always upload the Bottango firmware via the app, as it is specially configured out of the box to work best with your kit.

After a failed upload, before you try again, you should unplug and then re-plug the driver.

If this does not work, or you don’t see the board type you’re trying to use, don’t despair! You can always fall back to installing from the source code via the Arduino IDE.

Updating

Often, when you install a new version of Bottango, you will need to update the firmware on your devices before you can connect to them again. You will follow the same steps to update as you did to install the firmware initially.