Activity C1 — Get Started with Arduino

Level 1 — Upload a sketch onto an Arduino

What are we doing in this level, sir?

I’m going to show you how to put a program onto an Arduino. We call an Arduino program a “Sketch”.

There are 3 things to do:

Start the Arduino IDE program.
Put a sketch into the Arduino IDE.
Upload the sketch.

Start the Arduino IDE

There are two ways to do this.

One way is to click the “Windows” button at the bottom left of your screen, and find Arduino in the list.

Another way is to type arduino into the search box at the bottom left of your screen, and find the Arduino app in the list.”

When you’ve started the Arduino IDE, you’ll see the window shown here.

Put a sketch into the Arduino IDE

Give your sketch a filename.

Click the File menu, then click Save As….

Now choose This PC on the left hand side of the window, and then double-click Documents.

This PC selected in the Save As... dialog

Double-click the Arduino folder.

Now name your file C1-upload and click the Save button.

Go back to your Arduino window and select the whole sketch.

You can do this quickly by typing Control-A.

Press the Delete or Backspace keys to delete the sketch.

Now copy and paste the sketch below.

Select and copy the sketch you see below. You can copy by typing Control-C.

void setup() {
    pinMode(12, OUTPUT);    // set up pin 12 as an output.
}

void loop() {
    digitalWrite(12, HIGH);
    delay(200);
    digitalWrite(12, LOW);
    delay(800);
}

Click the Arduino window and type Control-V to paste the sketch that you just copied.

Upload the program

Get an Arduino that has the ThinkerShield attached.

Now you need to connect your Arduino board to the computer. Use the blue USB cable. Check that the power light is on.

Tell the Arduino IDE which “port” to use to talk to the Arduino.

But Sir, I don’t have COM3 like you do.

That’s OK. Just choose the port that has (Arduino Uno) after it.

Click the upload button at the top left of the Arduino IDE.

The Arduino IDE will build the sketch, and the upload it to the Arduino.

The upload never finishes — it’s lagging.

Then it’s time to:

Unplug the Arduino
Close the Arduino IDE
Plug the Arduino back in
Start the Arduino program.

Now check the port number and try to upload again.

Claim your achievement

There’s a light flashing on the Arduino!

Congratulations. You have uploaded a sketch to the Arduino.

Make sure that I see your Arduino IDE and blinking Arduino, so that I knows you got it to work.
Also put your saved Arduino sketch into the Google Drive folder you made in activity T1.
- Make sure the sketch is named C1-upload.
- Here are instructions about how to do this.
Fill out an activity claim slip. Use the code C1 and level 1

Author: Jared Henley

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Last built: 2025-05-08 11:00:57.956827

Last modified: 2025-05-08 10:54:43.176508