Materials

The following materials were procured for this project:

Arduino UNO Rev3 board: Link to Product
USB-A to USB-B cable: Link to Product
LED bulbs: Link to Product
RGB LED bulb: Link to Product
Resistors in the following varieties:
- 220 OHM
- 1,000 OHM
- 10,0000 OHM
- 100,000 OHM
Breadboard jumper wires: Link to Product
Mini Breadboard: Link to Product
3 position dip switch: Link to Product
OLED display: Link to Product
Passive buzzer: Link to Product
Customizable 4x4 keypad: Link to Product
Rotary Encoder: Link to Product
7 segment LED display: Link to Product

Installation

Prerequisites

VS Code needs to be installed on your system.
VS Code requires that the standard Arduino IDE is installed, as it uses some of the libraries included in the IDE.
Arduino code is built on C++, and you will need to install the C/C++ compliler VS code extension to complile your sketches.
Install the Arduino Extension for VS Code.

Ardiuno CLI Installation

Depending on your system, istallation options vary. Follow the Link to Arduino CLI installation to complete the necessary steps for your system.

Getting Started

Before you start

arduino-cli has many commands, each of which has its own dedicated help text. These can be shown with the help command like this:

arduino-cli help core

Create a configuration file

run the following command: arduino-cli config init
inspect the contents of arduino-cli-yaml to see the available configuration options with their default values. For more information on the config file, see the configuration documentation

Create a sketch file

arduino programs are run in files called sketches.
To create a new sketch named MyFirstSketch in the current directory, run the following command: arduino-cli sketch new MyFirstSketch
sketch files end in .ino, so in this case our sketch file is called MyFirstSketch.ino
the boilerplate code for a sketch will look like this:

void setup(){ 
}

void loop() {

}

the setup function is where you declare what your input and ouputs will be, or if you are utilizing the internal LED on the arduino board.
the loop function is where you write the code to be executed on a loop, normally with delay timeouts. Various methods and approaches to this will be gone into in the .md files for individual sketches.

Connect the board to your PC

first, update the local cache of available platforms and libraries by running the following command: arduino-cli core update-index
After connecting your board to your PC using the USB-A to USB-B cable, check whether the board is recognized by running the following command: arduino-cli board list . The output should be something along the following lines:

$ arduino-cli board list
Port         Type              Board Name              FQBN                 Core
/dev/ttyACM1 Serial Port (USB) Arduino/Genuino MKR1000 arduino:samd:mkr1000 arduino:samd

If you see an Unknown board listed, you will need to identify the platform core and correct FQBN string.
List all the supported boards and their FQBN strings with the following command: arduino-cli board listall mkr

Install the core for your board

to install the arduino:samd platform core, run the following command: arduino-cli core install arduino:samd
verify that the installation was a success with the following command: arduino-cli core list . The output should be something similar to the following:

$ arduino-cli core list
ID              Installed       Latest  Name
arduino:samd    1.6.19          1.6.19  Arduino SAMD Boards (32-bits ARM Cortex-M0+)

Compile and upload the sketch

to compile the sketch, run the compile command, passing the proper FQBN string. arduino-cli compile --fqbn arduino:samd:mkr1000 MyFirstSketch
if the sketch does not compile correctly, errors can be viewed in the terminal.
to upload the sketch, run the following command, using the serial port your board is connected to: arduino-cli upload -p /dev/ttyACMO --fqbn arduino:samd:mkr1000 MyFirstSketch . If all works according to plan, this should execute code is contained within the loop function of your sketch file.

NOTE: For a more user friendly experience, you can work in the Arduino IDE directly, where there is UI for compiling and uploading sketches. Unfortunately, VS code does not integrate with the IDE and CLI is necessary on this platform.

Link the Arduino IDE

Electrical Engineering Resources

Electricity Basics playlist on Youtube from The Engineering Mindset.

BenFrancka/arduino-playground