Talking to Arduino from Scala

Question

Is there a standard way to control an Arduino from Scala? If not I am interested in hacking one together, but am unsure of where I should start. The Firmata library seemed like the way to go but there is no Java or Scala interface. SPDE supports Processing pretty well, but I see no Arduino functionality there. I also have a few snippets of Java<->Arduino example code scoured from the Arduino playground and other sources, but nothing comprehensive.

If anyone knows of a Scala or straight Java (I can just wrap it in Scala) way to do this, or has suggestions on rolling my own interface, I would like to hear about it.

Thanks.

score 3 · Accepted Answer · answered Apr 18 '11 at 10:43

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Any programming language can be used to communicate between the serial ports of the PC and arduino,as long as the programs running on both sides can make make sense of the data exchanged.RxTX is a java library for serial port communication.Hope this helps.

answered Apr 18 '11 at 10:43

itisravi

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I see ... so in addition to using RXTX as the communications layer I need to come up with a protocol that both sides can adhere to. Thanks for clarifying that. I'm still hoping this is a problem somebody has already solved... – airboss Apr 18 '11 at 15:58
yup,a simple start would be to send a single byte from the PC.Depending on the value of the byte received,the arduino can do stuff (say toggle a GPIO line).Like you said, you can then go on to define a complete protocol packet with necessary header,data and check-sum etc. – itisravi Apr 18 '11 at 16:12

score 3 · Answer 2 · answered Apr 18 '11 at 22:53

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You might want to check out apache MINA, which provides some nice wrapping around the RXTX libraries and offers an API that's friendly to idiomatic Scala.

I've already had some success with this approach in driving an X10 controller for home automation.

answered Apr 18 '11 at 22:53

Kevin Wright

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Talking to Arduino from Scala

2 Answers2