Getting Started ​

In this guide, you will find instructions on how to start programming software for microcontrollers in AssemblyScript and Rust by using WARDuino.

📦️ Prerequisites ​

• node and npm
• arduino toolchain: see our guide

✨ Installation ​

To start writing programs for WARDuino in your favorite language you need to install the WARDuino language library.

npm install 'https://gitpkg.now.sh/TOPLLab/WARDuino-libs/glue/assemblyscript?main'

cargo install warduino

The language library provides access to the primitives of WARDuino directly from AssemblyScript or Rust. Once you have written your program and compiled it to WebAssembly, you need to install WARDuino and the toolchains of the platform you are targeting.

cd $HOME/Arduino/libraries/
git clone --recurse-submodules --branch v0.5.1 git@github.com:TOPLLab/WARDuino.git

WARDuino currently supports both the Arduino and ESP-IDF toolchains. To use Arduino, you need to install the arduino-cli. For ESP-IDF you need to install the full toolchain, instructions can be found on the official website.

🎉 Your First Project ​

To get started quickly, you can use the AssemblyScript template.

git clone git@github.com:TOPLLab/as-warduino-template.git
cd as-warduino-template
npm i

Now you can compile the example program.

npm run build

Now you can flash your program.

cd ~/Arduino/libraries/WARDuino/

📸 Flashing using Arduino ​

After setting up the Arduino toolchain, you can upload your programs with the Makefile in the platforms/Arduino folder of the WARDuino virtual machine. You can supply all the arguments through the command-line, or write all of them in a .config file in the same directory as the Makefile.

PORT   = /dev/ttyUSB0
FQBN   = esp32:esp32:esp32wrover
PAUSED = true
BINARY = /path/to/test.wasm

Starting from the root of the WARDuino repository, run the following commands:

cd platforms/Arduino
make compile
make flash

Command-line arguments always overwrite commands in the .config file.

📸 Flashing using ESP-IDF ​

Before you can compile and flash with ESP-IDF, you must install and enable the toolchain. You also need to disable the watchdog timer:

1. Go to the root folder of the WARDuino repo
2. Run idf.py menuconfig
3. Under Component config → ESP System Settings disable the following options:
   • Interrupt watchdog
   • Initialize Task Watchdog Timer on startup
4. Save and quit the menu

To flash with the ESP-IDF toolchain perform the following steps starting from the project root folder. Make sure the ESP-IDF tools are enabled, or they will not work.

mkdir build
cd build
cmake .. -D BUILD_ESP=ON
make flash

Or simply run idf.py flash.

🛠️ Arduino Toolchain Setup ​

In order to setup the Arduino toolchain for WARDuino, you need to first install the arduino-cli. You will also need python3 with the pyserial package.

Second, create the config file:

arduino-cli config init

If you need additional boards, such as the esp32 boards, you can add them in the generated config file.

To find the location of your config file you can run:

arduino-cli config dump --verbose

Add the ESP32 board manager URL to the config file:

board_manager:
  additional_urls:
      - https://espressif.github.io/arduino-esp32/package_esp32_index.json

Then, update the index and install the ESP32 platform.

arduino-cli core update-index
arduino-cli core install esp32:esp32

Thirdly, make sure you install the PubSubClient and Adafruit NeoPixel library, which are used by some primitives.

arduino-cli lib install "PubSubClient" # for MQTT
arduino-cli lib install "Adafruit NeoPixel"

If you haven't done so already, clone (or symlink) the WARDuino repository to ~/Arduino/libraries/WARDuino to make it available to Arduino. (see #installation)