A good point - UnoArduSim sure can't simulate any oddball faults/bugs inside your specific external hardware I/O device, but by attaching the corresponding UnoArduSim 'fault-free' IO device you can tell you if your code is the problem. The limited set of these virtual IO devices and supported libraries (which could be expanded in a following release) will hopefully be sufficient for most users, and if your particular device is not supported yet, you can try temporarily commenting-out/replacing the section of code that accesses it so that you can still test the other parts of your program.
I would encourage people using the simulator to teach Arduino use to encourage a good design/ development skill along the road to coping with the fact that the simulator probably WON'T simulate every possible bit of external kit: 'Stuff' boils down to inputs and outputs. For a maybe-almost-too-simple example: Suppose I was using the simulator to develop software for a system to unlock my front door if I press the right buttons on a keypad.
In the final product, the Arduino will make an output high to make the door-lock-thingie unlock. FOR THE SIMULATION, I doubt that there is a door-lock-thingie 'device' in the simulator.
Can I program for Arduino without having a real board? The CodeBlocks Arduino development environment includes a free Arduino simulator, still under development but functional. Simuino simulates the Arduino Uno and Mega pins. Free simulation software for arduino hardware.
But there will be an LED. If I can 'do' the LED in the simulation, I've solved the Arduino and software problems for doing the door lock in the real world. There are also some electronics issues. But I can make a great start on the overall road to success with the simulator. Three cheers for this EXCELLENT initiative. I haven't played with it, but if it even ALMOST works, let's all get busy on.
Etc, and GET THE WORD OUT. If it even almost works, let's make getting it working even better worth the time of the people behind it. And no, I'm not one of them (^^). Download problem solved! See post of 22 Jan 15 On 22 Jan 15 I cut down the following, but left parts to highlight the dead end which I suspect remains, and to make the following point, which was originally a PS. There I go getting all excited, rushing in. (Again.) Before we all get behind THIS one, maybe we should explore the field a bit?
I had no idea (duh) that this wasn't the first. Several listed, with brief notes, at. But I STILL think we should be promoting the good ones! Modified comments on download from original post.
Download link had a dead end route waiting for you 6 Dec 2014. Linked to how Google's shared docs system operates, I suspect. (I had 'works'. Changed that.) The simulator's site doesn't have any comments up about the download issue. (Didn't early Dec 14, nor 22 Jan 15) If you go where the sites.google.com link in the announcement at the top takes you, from there, eventually, you get to a page with a link for downloading the program. If you examine the source for the page with the link for downloading the program, you will find your GMail email address in it!
(I hadn't entered it for ages. Must have logged into it for something else days ago.) I would guess that if you use the link, you are,. unwittingly., going to be sending your GMail email address to whoever put up the link you've been persuaded to click. Thank you Google.
I don't (knowingly) give out my GMail eddress. And won't be clicking on links like this one again, now that I have suspicions. The simulator may be genuine.
I imply nothing on that front. But I've learned something about how drive.google.com resource sharing works that I'm glad to know.
Note as you look at the sites.google.com page, that it is not a Queens University, Kingston, Ontario page. The Queens logo appears under the word 'Affiliations'. Hi Stan I am a BSc Mech Eng Undergrad at Oxford Brookes. My final year dissertation is on using and Arduino board to control a 12V 20A brushed motor. Naturally that doesn't mean find an Arduino shield, plug it into the Arduino and then the job's done.
It means 'produce an investigation worth reading'. Part of the dissertation has been the evaluation of Free/Open Source Arduino simulators. I downloaded this today and it is very good, well done. The Fritzing simulator has superior graphics, but it comes nowhere near yours on the practicality front. Thanks for the effort. Best regards Paul Lancaster. Downloaded 1/19/2015 installed on win7 64 bit system.
Works excellently!! Professor Simmons: I am retired computers and electronics technologies instructor and would like to link students to your simulator for a new online course I am preparing on Arduino and circuit prototyping in the maker vent. Would you have any objections to my putting a link to your program in the course along with credits to you? I have been considering another professional program but your program fits my requirements very well. Update: Hurrah! Download problem solved! See post of 22 Jan 15 Rest is modified verion of original post.
Tried download again. Still problems. (Original had details of what I'd tried. Including.) Tried to add yet another piece of software to my computer, as the download process seemed to 'need' that.
(The special 'zip extractor', or whatever it was called) Not necessary. (See post of 22 Jan 15) How do I like to 'publish' free things. Or access them? Try the 'download a.zip with the code and a compiled.exe file in it.' See if it gives you any hassle? (And let me know, if it does!) (It will give you a little Windows program, illustrating topics in Lazarus programming. (Lazarus: An open-source, multi-platform language similar to Delphi.).
Ok cool well im pretty certain i want to pursue making my own processing/VB/Arduino virtual platform any how. I mean if anything should be free source it should be things that make life easier for those that are pushing their mental boundaries throughout the world ie designing and innovating anything (which is broad enough i think) so yep thats why i posted something in this vein in the gigs and collaborations section to try and get something like this cooking anyway.
Thanks for posting the link ill take a look.
I did a little googling and it seems that Virtronics has the best Arduino Simulator, as well as some links to other simulators. Why use a simulator? Well, the answer to that seems obvious. I don't really need intense peripheral compatibility, I just want to test pins going HIGH/LOW from switches, I2C communication, etc; pretty simple things. My question is, has anyone used their simulator and can vouch for it?
What about any of the others (Emulino, ArduinoSim, Simuino)? It would just be nice to be able to find out if this program is useful before I potentially buy it (because the free version has garbage limitations), as well as know if it is even capable of doing what I need. My apologies, when dealing with multiple Arduinos and a lot of wiring where the computer is the only display, a simulator, or at least a better IDE than the basic Arduino IDE would be useful when dealing with lots of changes in the system, as well as being able to monitor what is going on.
If you know a capable IDE that is more programming oriented I would be open to suggestions. It just seems the Arduino IDE is not very useful for code that is 500+ lines in length.edit, also, print statements heavily slow down the speed at which the code moves, and when I need fast communication, I can't be waiting for print statements to evaluate (Just tested this and it blows). I've lost count of the number of development environments and emulators and simulators and debuggers that I've used over the years. The ability to get output from print statements makes it possible to debug almost anything, and is available in almost all development environments, so this is pretty much the lowest common denominator. With the right mindset and some patience, almost any problem can be found using this.
Where more sophisticated debugging tools are available such as simulators and emulators and source level interactive debuggers and so on these make it more convenient to do the things that you can do with print statements, but that's all. That convenience gets more important when you're dealing with large complex applications, but Arduino sketches are teeny tiny little things in software terms and hardly justify effort making debugging more convenient, especially since the compile/build/test process is so quick and easy.
Then again, for some types of problem simple trace statements actually are the easiest way to solve the problem, and even when emulators and debuggers and so on are available they would be the wrong tool for the job. I use the Arduino IDE not because it's good (it's pretty appalling) but because it's convenient, and good enough that it's not worth the bother of looking for an alternative. If I wanted an alternative, then Visual Studio and Eclipse would be the first ones that come to mind. Hi Cypherrage, thanks for agreeing with us that Simulator for Arduino is the #1 ranked Arduino Simulator. We saw this thread a while ago but Google Alert keeps sending emails about it. Here is another thread on the Element-14 website which has some about other Arduino Simulators With the Simulator, we have just released a new version v0.98G and have been asked about a roadmap.
The changes in the latest version are to add anew Tool - a Logic Analyzer which can show the state of the pins graphically. This is a first effort, doesn't have a time base yet, only works for digital pins 0 to 13 and has no scroll bars. It gets its feed from the trace text file which now shows the digital pins state. Another change is to add the Papilio hardware platform and sort out the digital pins - Papilio is an FPGA version of the Arduino which works with a modified Arduino IDe called the ZAP IDE. Another program is Virtual Breadboard but we haven't tested that out.
With the Free Version of the Simulator, there is an Unlock process which should allow for 8 days of unlimited use on any computer which doesn't have the Simulator installed. After that time, a 30 second incrementing timer will kick in. The Pro version costs $12 and last until Dec31 with a renewal option after that for another year. The Simulator is not perfect but we have implemented a semi-automatic error reporting process so we can fix any common errors. The number of errors is definitely decreasing. The limitations of the Simulator are shown in the webpage with pointers being the biggest limitation and classes are handled but that is not 100% perfect yet. Simple sketches will run fine but complicated sketches may or may not run.
Everyone is welcome to send in sketches which the Simulator cannot run and usually it only takes a few hours to find the cause. The Simulator is also supplied with a few hundred demo sketches for various users. The above mirrors my general attitude on the process. The uC environment has the same benefits that the PC brought to programming; that is, the iterative process. Not like in the days when the engineering department was charged for every batch run!
While a complete debugger environment has numerous advantages, many people getting into the uC maker movement would be lost with such tools. Many are trying to compile example sketches and the problem is their breadboard connections. Therefore the LED statement rings true, However, while I have 3 oscilloscopes around the bench, signal/pulse generators, multimeters, and such I often find that this little device I made is far more useful: Being an Arduino with a USB interface, it 'sees' exactly what another logic gate would see and it also brings out 8 digital channels and 6 analog channels to the PC.
A real poor man's logic analyzer. ALSO, I have found this sketch and PC software (all free) to be very useful and borderline entertaining: At this point, I do not personally think that most Arduino users will benefit from non-free tools.
And professional developers are likely using professional tools for AVR and programming outside the confines if Wiring. There is a tremendous benefit for the new programmer-maker to THINK their way through issues without throwing money and new toolsets toward the problem. I know this is an old topic but I came across it while googling and wanted to share something in case others found their way here looking for a virtual Arduino. Autodesk has made a free web based program called 123D Circuits and I find it awesome. You can hook up virtual components and bread boards to your virtual Arduino and write your sketch and test it. As you build you can also switch to schematic mode and you can even design your PCB boards and get them sent off for printing. I havent been using it long but I already love it.
I personally like the virtual method because I can save my designs then work on them at a later time for instance in my lunch break at work etc. I watched the video & read the intro. I suspect many forum members may object to this drag&drop method of writing code; arguments may be that it distracts from learning how to truly program or perhaps it completely sidesteps learning the basis of electronics.
I have not yet used this simulator, but I will try it. I do not see any major reason this should not be considered in the same space as tools such as SPICE. Spice did not disrupt the EE field and ius now fully entrenched in university's courses.
The above said, SPICE is mathematically based and the auto a programming is template based: apples & oranges comparison. The code generated is no better than the dude(tte) that wrote the template. However, as an active member here in the forum for helping newbies over silly problems and self-inflicted wounds, there is a common theme I hear from newbies. 'I want the code to.'
It is a desire for immediate gratification. Few newbies want to go the old way of learning from the bottom up; rather, they want to jump into the Arduino waters and if they are drowning, they expect a senior member to be their lifeguard. It is a scenario that does not scale as more newbies come online. Therefore, I think that being able to generate simple, workable Arduino code using drag&drop for common needs is really very significant and I do not see this technology overly disruptive to the ecosystem. Bravo Autodesk!
Hmm, interesting perspective, I hadn't even considered it as as a learning tool, I'm prety fluent in code and semi-capable of doing electronics. I mainly like the ability to plan my projects anywhere. I hadn't even noticed the code drag and drop, and your correct that the best way to learn that sort of thing is to write it your self. As a learning tool though there are only so many LED's some people are willing to blow while learning so can be useful to test out things to see what happens when you are just getting started.