Welcome to RAD (Ruby Arduino Development)¶ ↑

RAD is a framework for programming the Arduino physcial computing platform using Ruby. RAD converts Ruby scripts written using a set of Rails-like conventions and helpers into C source code which can be compiled and run on the Arduino microcontroller. It also provides a set of Rake tasks for automating the compilation and upload process.

For a full introduction see rad.rubyforge.org

The main documentation is here: ArduinoSketch.

See also the Arduino Software reference: www.arduino.cc/en/Reference/HomePage

See the examples directory for lots of examples of RAD in action

The atduskgreg/rad wiki also contains a growing library of examples and hardware tutorials: github.com/atduskgreg/rad/wikis

To install the edge gem:

# Update to RubyGems 1.2.0 before proceeding!
$ gem sources -a http://gemcutter.org (you only have to do this once)
$ sudo gem install madrona-rad

A very old and feature poor (though slightly more ‘stable’ RAD) is available from RubyGems:

$ sudo gem install rad

Run the rad command to create a new project:

$ rad my_project

Write a sketch that will blink a single LED every 500ms:

class MyProject < ArduinoSketch
	output_pin 13, :as => led
	
	def loop
		blink led, 500
	end
end

Attach your Arduino and use rake to compile and upload your sketch:

$ rake make:upload

Installing RAD and the Arduino software on Linux can be a little more difficult than on OS X. Thankfully, the RAD command line tool can help. Run:

$ rad install arduino

And RAD will do its best to get the Arduino software installed on your system.

For OS X, Arduino should be installed in your applications directory -- install the intel or power pc drivers in /drivers

Cheers? Jeers? Wanna help out? Contact JD Barnhart: jd [at] jdbarnhart [dot] com