Graphical programing language for Arduino

Question

I am looking for a graphical programming language for a project of mine, where I am using an Arduino.

It HAS to meet the following conditions:

• It supports uploaing sketches to ATmega328 (Arduino Uno/Nano)
• New functions can be defined inside the programming enviroment (I am trying to use a motor connected to an H-bridge with a single command block)
• The program can run on Windows 7
• Libraries can be used inside the code
• C++ can also be used to write the code inside the same program
• Sketches can be uploaded via Bluetooth 4.0

It would be nice if it met the following condition:

• The programming enviroment is easy to use
• The graphical programming language is somewhat similar to Scratch
• The program can be understood by 10-14 year olds with no programming experience

• GBG: There is a Scratch extension for Arduino. I have not used it and I do not know if it satisfies all of your criteria. playground.arduino.cc/Interfacing/Scratch

Answer 1

The most full featured Scratch-like environment for Arduino, to my knowledge that is close to your listed criteria is http://www.mblock.cc/

It's currently in beta development for enabling bluetooth uploads and supports a range of "extension" plugins. I believe you can also add functionality by writing your own extensions if you have sufficient programming knowledge.

The software has more features if you use their mblock hardware, while offering a reduced set of commands for other boards such as the Uno.

Supported Boards

Arduino code with scratch

I'm sure you can add library's to your code but at the expense of the scratch-like interface. A children's visual design tool being able to provide graphical API to libraries written by an open source community is quite a coding challenge. You can get a feel for this by trying to use any reverse engineering C++ to UML diagram tools.

I recommend perhaps using one of these scratch tools to build simple firmware as a learning tool with the idea of progressing to an actual programming language soon after.

In any case I hope you find what you're looking for among these options for your project.

• http://www.mblock.cc/
• http://s4a.cat/
• http://blog.minibloq.org/p/documentation.html
• http://blog.ardublock.com/engetting-started-ardublockzhardublock/
• https://www.visuino.com/

Answer 2

Give Visuino a look, they are making noise lately: https://www.visuino.com/

• user29519: Can you add extensions to it or define functions?