Using the Arduino IDE, go to File > New. This will create a new window with a new sketch. A sketch is a file with your code in it. Sometimes you’ll hear it called “source code”.

Reviewing Our Code

In that new window, you should see the following code:

void setup() {
  // put your setup code here, to run once:
}
void loop() {
  // put your main code here, to run repeatedly:
}

Whenever you write code, you’re going to put a lot of it inside of braces, which look like { and }. That is to split up different lines of code that occur at different times. You’ll learn more specifics about what those different times are later on. All you need to worry about is that you have some code that will be put into the setup()section and the loop() section. These are called functions, but we don’t need to know much about them right now. All we need to know is that whatever code that’s inside of the setup() function will be run once whenever the Arduboy turns on and whatever code is inside the loop() function will be run later on.

Comments

The next thing I want to bring to your attention are the comments. These are lines of code that are completely ignored. They’re great for adding in notes so that you can read your code easier. I’m going to use them a lot, so I thought we should start with them.

It’s very typical to use comments to explain the purpose of functions, variables, and at the beginning of your code to explain the purpose of your program/game.

Let’s go ahead and add some comments to the top of the program! At the top, add a few new lines of text that starts with two slashes, then your name, date, and the title of this program.

Your code should now look like this:

//Jonathan Holmes (crait)
//October 18th, 2016
//Printing Text
void setup() {
  // put your setup code here, to run once:
}
void loop() {
  // put your main code here, to run repeatedly:
}

Those lines of text should turn grey.

Getting Arduboy-Specific Instructions

Okay, that was simple enough, but we need to start adding in our instructions, now. To add in a lot of Arduboy-specific instructions, we need to import the Arduboy Library into our code. Make a new line of code after your comments and add #include <Arduboy.h> . This line of code says that you want to grab a lot of instructions from the Arduboy.h file. There’s nothing more about that that you need to know.

Make a new line after that, and add Arduboy arduboy; . Don’t worry about this too much. Like I said, this is part of getting Arduboy-Specific instructions.

Our code should look like this:

//Jonathan Holmes (crait)
//October 18th, 2016
//Printing Text

#include <Arduboy.h>
Arduboy arduboy;

void setup() {
  // put your setup code here, to run once:

}

void loop() {
  // put your main code here, to run repeatedly:

}

The setup() Function

Sweet! I’m glad you got this far. Add the following lines of code inside of the braces of the setup() function:

 arduboy.begin();
  arduboy.clear();
  arduboy.print("Hello");
  arduboy.display();

Notice that each line of code ends in a semi-colon ; . This is because all instructions in C++ need to end in one. Otherwise, the computer will think it’s something else that I’ll explain later.

Next, notice that all of these lines of code include arduboy. at the beginning. This is because our instructions are stored inside of the arduboy library.

Last thing I want you to look at is the parenthesis, ( and ) . All functions have these. Some include things inside of them and some do not.

The arduboy.begin(); function pretty much tells the Arduboy to turn on properly. Once that is done, the next instruction is followed.

arduboy.clear(); tells the Arduboy to erase everything on the screen.

arduboy.print("Hello"); tells the Arduboy to write some text to the screen. Notice that we actually have something inside of the ( and ) this time. To tell the Arduboy what we want to print, we need to it inside of the parenthesis. Any time you’re working with text, you have to put quotation marks around the text, so we gotta do that, too. You can actually put whatever you want inside of those quotations. Maybe play around with it and put your own name into it. 

Last, we have to tell the Arduboy to actually refresh the screen and show you what you just printed to it. That’s what the arduboy.display(); does.

You’re done!

That’s it! You’ve programmed your first program for the Arduboy! This is what the finished code should look like:

//Jonathan Holmes (crait)
//October 18th, 2016
//Printing Text

#include <Arduboy.h>
Arduboy arduboy;

void setup() {
  // put your setup code here, to run once:
  arduboy.begin();
  arduboy.clear();
  arduboy.print("Holmes is cool!");
  arduboy.display();
}

void loop() {
  // put your main code here, to run repeatedly:

}

Installing

Like we did in the previous tutorial, connect your Arduboy with a USB data cable, select the correct port and board, then click the  button to transfer it to your Arduboy!

What’s Next?

Next, let’s learn about storing data and loops! Click here to go to that tutorial! 

Credits

This tutorial is copied and abridged from the original by Jonathan Holmes.

I wrote this tutorial in order to give back to the programming community that taught me to get into it about 10 years ago. If you’d like to follow me on Twitter, please do so at http://www.twitter.com/crait19 . I’d greatly appreciate that.