MariaMole Tutorial

MariaMole is an OpenSource IDE for Arduino. Like the original Arduino environment, MariaMole makes easy for users to create Arduino software. But, while the Arduino IDE is focused on making things the easiest possible for beginners, MariaMole brings some features that experienced users are used to find on professional IDEs. You can see more about it on its oficial webpage

 

This tutorial will help you with your first steps on MariaMole environment. Let's go.

 

1 - Download and install MariaMole

First of all: If you don't have MariaMole installed it, you can download it here

As this is the first time you're opening it, it has no previous configuration. So you'll need to define some things.

 

2 - Are you on Linux or Windows

If you're using MariaMole on Windows, you can skip direct to the next step

If you're on Linux, make sure you also have the Arduino software installed. Different from the Windows version, MariaMole on Linux needs the Arduino files. You can download it at www.arduino.cc

 

3 - Open MariaMole

That's the main window for MariaMolle:

Check what we have here:

  • At the top-left most, there's the main menu. Depending on your sistem or configurations, this can be seen as a button or as the old-style main menu layout
  • Under or at the right of the main menu, you can see the tool bar. The most important actions (Load, Save, Build, Upload, Terminal window, etc) are here. The rest is available at the main menu
  • At the left of the screen you can see the workspace tree. That's where you manage all your projects and files.
  • At the bottom, there's the messages area. You can see compiling output and messages, and also a build sumary
  • At the center of the windoe, ocuppying all the rest of it, lies the code editor area. Here you edit all your code. Whenever you double-click a file at the workspace tree, MariaMole will open it here. Here's also where your serial terminals will appear, if you activate them

 

4 - Create your workspace

Don't be scared by the fancy word "workspace". This is just a folder on your computer where you will store your projects. You can use a single workspace for all your projects, or group them in separated workspaces. It's up to you. If you want to share or backup a workspace, just copy this folder.

Workspaces are very useful for keeping your projects organized. You can group, in the same workspace, the projects that are related among each other. For example, you can use a workspace to work with several boards at the same time, each one running a different project.

To select a workspace, press the first button on the toolbar, and select the desired folder:

Note: A workspace allows you to work with several projects at the same time, but there's always a default project that will be compiled/uploaded whenever you press the build button. This is called the "default project". It apprears highlighted at the workspace tree. To select another project as the default project, simply right-click it at the workspace tree and select "Set as default project"

 

5 - Create a new project

"Projects" are the MariaMole equivalent to Arduino "sketches". But "project" is a common term around the software developers community, so that's why we use it.

You can create a new project from scratch, or you can import an Arduino sketch, or you can create a new project based on Arduino example. Let's do this last one.

 

Right-click the word "workspace", at the Workspace tree, to open its context-menu, and then select "create a new project". The following window shall open:

 

Once it appears, select the option "Import example" to show the list of examples. Then select the example at "arduino -> 01.Basics -> ReadAnalogVoltage" and press ">>"

MariaMole will, then, ask you for a project name. Let's keep the default name (ReadAnalogVoltage) at this time. Press finish to close the wizard.

 

Now a new Windows shall appear

This is the project properties window. Here you can select things like the type of your Arduino board, the serial port, the programming method and compiling options (Some of these may be not yet available at the current realese).

Set the options according to your hardware and press "Ok". If you want to change this later, you can press the third button at the toolbar to bring this window back

If you can't see your serial port listed here, there's a chance your USB cable is not correctly attached to your computer or to the Arduino, or the Arduino driver is not installed on your computer.

 

6 - Working with your project

Now your project is loaded and, since it's based on a well-tested Arduino example, it's also ready to be uploaded to your board.

Navigate, using the workspace tree, to the file "ReadAnalogVoltage.cpp" and double-click it. MariaMole will open it, and you'll be able to edit it

 

Now you can simply build and upload the project to your board. Since you have configured the settings of your board, programmer and serial port correctly, MariaMole will take care of everything for you.

 

7 - Building and uploading

On the toolbar there are two buttons related to that. The Build button and the Upload button. The Build button will compile and link your project, generating a file that contains the Arduino "firmware" you need to put on your board. The Upload button sends this file to your board. If this file is not ready or it's not updated, the Upload buttons also build the project before uploading it.

So, just hit the Upload button and you will see the building progress window:

 

Note that, before compiling your project, MariaMole will build the Arduino libraries for you. These are the basic libraries needed for all Arduino projects, and they depend on the type of your board. This is done only the first time your project is compiled. From now on, MariaMole will use these compiled libraries everytime you build your project. That's save a lot of time on your building process.

If the project has no errors, you'll see a build sumary at the left, with information about how much memory it uses on your board.

If you have any errors or warnings, they'll appear at the message area, at the bottom of the MariaMole window. Just double-click the error message to open the exactly point in the code the error was found

 

After building the project, and if there are no errors, the uploading process will start automatically. You can that MariaMole uses different colors at the progress bar: For building libraries, for building your project and for uploading it. If your board is corretly configured and everything is ok with your hardware and cables, the upload shall finish correctly in a few seconds

 

And that's it. You are now ready to create your own projects and files :-)