Arduino
This article describes how can your Lazarus/FPC application communicate with Arduino boards. This opens a whole new world of smart physical sensors and actuators for monitoring, control and data acquisition.
Serial communication
Here we show how to communicate with your board through serial communication channel.
Lazarus side serial application
There are many ways for serial communication in Lazarus and FPC.
Minimal Lazarus Synaser serial example
We will use Synaser library in this example. Create Lazarus application with one form and two buttons. Include Synaser unit and add Synapse package as a new requirement to your project. In OnClick event of both buttons put something like this:
procedure TForm1.Button1Click(Sender: TObject);
var
ser: TBlockSerial;
begin
ser := TBlockSerial.Create;
try
ser.Connect('COM1'); // write here Arduino COM port number (on linux it's something like '/dev/ttyUSB0')
Sleep(250);
ser.config(9600, 8, 'N', SB1, False, False);
ser.SendString('on'); // button 2 should have 'off' here
finally
ser.free;
end;
end;
Arduino side serial application
You can program your Arduino in several languages.
Minimal Arduino C sketch serial example
You can follow this nice step by step tutorial. In short, you need to add a led with proper resistor to your input pin 13, compile this sketch in your Arduino IDE, and download it to your board:
int led = 13; // Pin 13
void setup()
{
pinMode(led, OUTPUT); // Set pin 13 as digital out
// Start up serial connection
Serial.begin(9600); // baud rate
Serial.flush();
}
void loop()
{
String input = "";
// Read any serial input
while (Serial.available() > 0)
{
input += (char) Serial.read(); // Read in one char at a time
delay(5); // Delay for 5 ms so the next char has time to be received
}
if (input == "on")
{
digitalWrite(led, HIGH); // on
}
else if (input == "off")
{
digitalWrite(led, LOW); // off
}
}
Minimal Arduino mikroPascal serial example
mikroPascal for AVR can be used to develop Arduino programs. TBD.
Minimal Arduino E-Lab AvrCo serial example
E-Lab AvrCo Multitasking Pascal can be used to develop Arduino programs. TBD.
Minimal Arduino FPC serial example
Yes, your Arduino 8-bit AVR board can be programmed with FPC too. TBD.
Ethernet communication
Here we show how to communicate with your board through ethernet communication channel.
Lazarus side ethernet application
TBD
Arduino side ethernet application
TBD
Resources
Forum topic that started this article
Raspberry Pi Lazarus application talking to Arduino over serial