Camp 2019

Environment Setup

The development environment should already be set up for you on the lab computers. Let us know if anything is not working properly.

This section gives you a step-by-step guide on how to set up your own development environment for the Python and Microcontroller sessions at home or on other computers.

Installing a Python Interpreter

  • There are alternative ways to install a Python interpreter. By by far the easiest option, for any operating system, is to install through Anaconda.

  • Anaconda is a Python distribution with many useful packages pre-installed. The only downside is that installing Anaconda requires more space than a pure Python installation.

  • Make sure you choose a Python 3.x version when downloading. Python 2.x versions largely still exist for backward compatibility reasons, most popular packages have already been ported to Python 3.x.

  • Anaconda comes with Spyder installed. You should be able to find it in Explorer on Windows or Linux, and with Spotlight on MacOS.

Installing Arduino-Python3

  1. Launch a shell on your computer, for example, Terminal on MacOS or Linux and PowerShell on Windows.

  2. Assuming you have Anaconda installed, you should be able to use pip directly. Enter pip install arduino-python3 into the shell prompt will install everything you need for the microcontroller session.

  3. If you have a Arduino board, you should also follow the instructions at How does Arduino-Python3 work? to configure your Arduino.