Using the Source Code

Essential Topic for learning Bottango.

Big idea

Build and upload Bottango firmware from source when you need more control over the firmware code or can’t use the desktop app to upload.

In order to set up your microcontroller with Bottango using the driver source code, you will need the following:

• An Arduino compatible microcontroller, and a USB cable.
• The Arduino IDE installed on your computer (https://www.arduino.cc/en/software). This documentation uses the newer Arduino IDE v2.
• The BottangoArduinoDriver.ino Arduino sketch and associated files.

Obtaining the Source Code

When you download the .zip archive containing the installer for the desktop app, there’s also a “BottangoArduinoDriver” folder.

Important Windows Note

On Windows, you MUST first extract the files in the downloaded .zip archive. If you only double click on the .zip and then open the .ino file, you will get an error.

You must right click on the .zip file, and select “Extract All.” From there, you open up the .ino file from the extracted contents.

If you see an error like “Error “srcBottangoCore.h No such file or directory” while trying to upload, you are attempting to run the .ino file from inside the .zip, rather than extracting the contents first.

Flashing the Firmware

1. After extracting the .zip contents, open up the BottangoArduinoDriver.ino file in the BottangoArduinoDriver folder, to open the source code in the Arduino IDE.

   

   If the only tab you see is “BottangoArduinoDriver.ino” and you don’t see the other tabs like “BottangoArduinoCallbacks.cpp” etc. see the Windows note above.

2. Connect your Arduino compatible microcontroller to your computer via USB

3. Select your board and port from the top left “Select Board” dropdown.

   

   Not sure what to pick? The choices will be different on Windows vs macOS/Linux. On Windows, the port will likely be “COM” followed by a number. On macOS/Linux the name may have something like “usbmodem” in it.

   If you aren’t sure, or there’s multiple possible choices, an easy test is to unplug the board and take note of what options are in the list. Then plug it back in, the new entry in the list that wasn’t there when unplugged is probably the port to choose.

4. Click the “Upload” button, which is the circle with an arrow pointing to the right in the top right of the window.

5. Wait for it to finish. If you get no errors, you should have the microcontroller set up to work with Bottango. If you run into issues, try troubleshooting by learning to upload a basic blink sketch for your microcontroller. There’s countless tutorials on how to use the Arduino IDE across the internet. Once you get a blink sketch uploading, you should be able to apply those lessons to uploading the provided Bottango firmware.