The autocomplete feature is a welcome addition in Arduino IDE 2.0. This addresses a major drawback of Arduino IDE when compared to other IDEs, like Eclipse of VS Code.In order to use the auto-complete feature, you first need to select your board (this feature doesn't work till the board is selected). Once that is done, the suggestions should start popping up as soon as your start typing characters, as per the documentation.However, in some cases, like on my machine, this doesn't always happen. In such cases, you can click Ctrl + Space for the suggestions to appear. Perhaps that is ... Read More

In Arduino IDE 2.0, the Serial Monitor does not open in a popup window. Rather, it opens in a new tab at the bottom, besides the Output tab.The Serial Monitor can be accessed by Tools → Serial Monitor, or using the keyboard shortcut (Ctrl + Shift + M)The following figure highlights the various parts of the Serial Monitor.Note that because the IDE 2.0 is in the beta mode right now, the Serial Port may not be detected immediately. In some cases, you may need to restart the IDE for it to be detected.Similarly, the Upload button may not work sometimes. ... Read More

The major new features in Arduino IDE 2.0 as compared to the previous versions are −Addition of Autocomplete featureThis was one of the main features putting Arduino at a disadvantage. Several other IDEs came with the autocomplete feature, which made writing code much faster. With the introduction of this feature, Arduino IDE will hopefully cover some lost groundAddition of Debugging ToolThough not yet supported by every board and platform, the introduction of this tool is a step in the right direction. It helps you introduce breakpoints and watch variables at runtime, helping the process of debugging.Serial Monitor is no longer ... Read More

Arduino IDE 2.0 is currently available in the beta version. It can be downloaded from the following link: https://www.arduino.cc/en/softwareOnce the .exe file is downloaded, follow the installation steps. Accept the License Agreement, select access, and then select the installation location and click Install.Once the installation is done, open the IDE.Open the dropdown at the top and click 'Select Other Board and Port'Next, select your board and port in the popup that opens up. If you select Arduino boards for the first time, you may see this message −Click Yes, and your IDE 2.0 is ready to work with your Arduino ... Read More

If you've done sufficient Arduino programming, you'd have seen that there are two ways of defining constants.#defineOne way is to use #define, like#define const_name 3constThe other way is to use the const keyword, likeconst int var_name = 3; Difference between #define and const#define is like a placeholder. The Arduino compiler replaces all mentions of this constant with its value at the compile time. This means that the values defined using #define don't take up any program space.Variables defined using const, on the other hand, are just normal variables, whose values can't be changed. They take up program memory space, and ... Read More

Just like in C and C++, you need to qualify a variable with the volatile keyword if it can be modified within an interrupt routine.When you qualify a variable as volatile, this is what happens behind the scenes −The compiler gets instructed that the variable should be loaded into the RAM and not the storage register (where program variables are generally stored/manipulated)This ensures that any changes to the variable outside of the loop() (for example in the interrupt service routine), get immediately reflected in the loop()If you have a variable larger than a byte in size (int or long), then ... Read More

A static variable is a special kind of variable; it is allocated memory 'statically'. Its lifetime is the entire run of the program. It is specific to a function, i.e., only the function that defined it can access it. However, it doesn't get destroyed after the function call ends. It preserves its value between successive function calls. It is created and initialized the first time a function is called. In the next function call, it is not created again. It just exists.ExampleTake a look at the following example.void setup() {    Serial.begin(9600);    Serial.println(); } void loop() {    staticFunctionDemo(); ... Read More

When going through Arduino codes, you may come across some numbers which are followed by either a U or an L or both (or in small caps, u and l). These are formatters, which force integer constants to be of a specific format. U forces an integer constant to be of the unsigned data format, while L forces the integer constant to be of the long data format.These formatters can be used when defining variables, as well as using some integer values directly in a formula.Exampleint a = 33u; # define b 33ul int c = a*1000L;All of the above ... Read More

The same operators that are used for comparing integers like , >=, 'A'.ExampleTake a look at the following example.void setup() {    Serial.begin(9600);    Serial.println();    String s1 = "Hello";    String s2 = "hello";    String s3 = "100";    String s4 = "90";    if (s1 > s2) {       Serial.println("s1 is greater than s2");    } else if(s2 > s1) {       Serial.println("s2 is greater than s1");    }    if (s3 > s4) {       Serial.println("s3 is greater than s4");    } else if(s4 > s3) {     ... Read More

The getBytes() function helps copy the content of a String to a byte array. The syntax is −string1.getBytes(buf, len)where, string1 is the string whose content you want to copy to a byte array, buf is the byte array, andlen is the length of content to be copied.ExampleThe following example illustrates how to use this function −byte buf[10]; void setup() {    Serial.begin(9600);    Serial.println();    String s1 = "Hello World";    s1.getBytes(buf, 5);    for (int i = 0; i < 10; i++) {       Serial.println(buf[i]);    } } void loop() { }OutputThe Serial Monitor output is shown ... Read More