Writing web app to program Arduino

Question

I want to write a web app allowing people to program Arduino remotely. There will be a live video stream of the Arduino with lolShield.

What's the best way to flash the Arduino within Python?

Answer 1

inotool is a commandline wrapper for the sketch environment and is written in python.

Or you could use exec() to run one of the commandline solutions in Command line Arduino compiling and downloading?

Answer 2

avrdude is the tool to program an Arduino over a serial interface. So basically you need a serial interface from your web server to the Arduino in question. Here are two approaches that may help you get there (I had tried the first one about 1.5 years ago, it worked like a breeze):

1. Xbee RF modules can transparently be operated in serial mode, perfect for this use case. The downside of this is that you need a local in-between machine that is connected to the internet and acts as the gateway to the Xbee/Zigbee network. Programming an Arduino over Xbee has been described in detail at ladyada.net.

2. If you need direct WiFi connectivity this should work the same way. XBee comes in two parts: 1) the adapter, which connects to the Arduino over a serial interface, 2) the actual RF module. So if you can get a WiFi module that sits on top of a XBee adapter, the same approach should work. I haven't tried this myself, but I guess combining the first approach with the following from homebrew-tech.com should work.

Answer 3

Inotool is a good option. In addition to that you can also try the following two options as well.

Arduino 1.5.x only

If you are using Arduino 1.5.x then you can use the arduino executable can accept commandline parameters.

Note that Arduino 1.5.x is still in beta, so you may face some issues.

Arduino 1.0.x

If you are using Arduino 1.0.x then you can use my makefile for Arduino which can be used to compile and upload Arduino (or plain AVR C) programs to Arduino from the commandline.