Installing Arduino and Uploading your files

Explosive Education
Apr 17, 2019
2 min read

The software for the Laser tag units has been somewhat modified to make the best use of the available RAM.

The main modification is that the Serial buffer (the block that stores data sent to and from the unit) has been reduced from 256 to 16 and in some cases 8 bytes.

For the software to work, the SRAM shown at the bottom for the screen when compiling must be no higher than around 26%

Arduino will run happily in its own folder wherever you place it on the computer.

Step 1,

Download Arduino for your computer.

These versions have the correct libraries in place for you

Windows

Choose from Arduino 1.0.5 for older machines DOWNLOAD HERE

or Arduino 1.8.1 for newer machines DOWNLOAD HERE

Linux

for Linux users, please watch this space

Step 2

Unzip the folder somewhere sensible.

Step 3

open the folder and double click Arduino.exe

go to TOOLS>>>>BOARD and choose NANO.

On the Arduino screen go to tools>>>>port and see what ports are available.

Step 4,

Plug in your tag unit and install drivers if needed.

If you are lucky (or running Linux) the drivers will install automatically. If not, then you will need to install the correct drivers for your Nano board.

most drivers are located in your Arduino folder under drivers.

Follow your computers instructions for installing drivers.