How to programmatically upload an Arduino sketch generated by node.js (electron) or from browser?

Question

We are trying to make an app that generates an Arduino sketch (.ino) using Google's Blockly and node.js, and uploads it to Arduino.

Even after searching a lot, I am unable to find how to build and upload the generated code to the board. Is there any tool or API available for node.js to do the same?

Or could I call some binary for this function. Please help.

• aaa: The tool for uploading to an Arduino is "avrdude", it's a command line application that Arduino uses in the background. I'm quote dure you can invoke/run it from nodejs
• KIIV: There is also arduino-builder.exe command line tool in Arduino IDE (since 1.6.6) so you can build and upload sketch programmatically.
• Edgar Bonet: Or you can install Sudar Muthu's Arduino Makefile (package arduino-mk on Debian-bases OSes), then just require("child_process").exec("make upload", callback);.

Answer 1

There are two things you need to do:

1. Compile the sketch into a .HEX file
2. Upload the sketch to the board

The first part can be done with arduino-builder which is part of the IDE since 1.6.6, or you can use one of various Makefile projects on a platform that supports make, or you can manually script it yourself calling the correct avr-gcc and avr-g++ commands. You can check the output of the IDE for what those are.

The second part is done, usually, using avrdude - again see the output of the IDE for the correct command format.

• Siddhesh: Thanks a lot.. Also can I package only the required files/folders from the Arduino IDE into my software (without any license issues)?