Troubleshooting

Common Errors

If  you’ve  started  using  Arduino  at  home,  you  may  have  run  into  some  errors,  I  know  I  do  from  time  to  time.    We  
don’t  want  those  errors  to  keep  you  from  trying  more,  so  I’m  going  to  give  you  some  pointers  on  typical  errors  
that  may  come  up  and  how  to  fix  them.    When  you  get  an  error,  the  most  important  thing  is  to  read  the  error  
message  in  orange.      

Problem  Uploading  to  board  

This  typically  means  that  you  haven’t  selected  the  right  port  or  possibly  are  not  connected  to  the  Arduino  with  
your   USB   cable.     First,   be   sure   that   the   USB   cable   is   completely   plugged   in   to   both   the   Arduino   and   the  
computer.     Next,   check   the   port   by   going   to   Tools,   Port,   and   selecting   the   Com#   that   says   (Arduino   Uno)   next   to  
it.     If   there   are   2   that   say   Arduino   Uno,   select   the   larger   one.     If   none   say   Arduino   Uno,   you   may   need   to  
disconnect  the  USB  cable  and  try  another  port  or  restart  the  Arduino  program  or  even  your  computer.      

 
Authored  By:  Vanessa  Myers     1/21/2016  
  

Expected  ‘;’  before  ‘delay’  

 
This   means   that   you   missed   something.     And   it   even   highlights   the   problem   area   for   you.     It   highlighted  
delay(2000);  but  the  error  message  says  that  it  expected  a  ;  before  the  delay.    If  you  look  at  the  line  above  it,  
you’ll  notice  that  it  does  not  have  a  semicolon  at  the  end  of  the  line,  and  that  is  why  you  are  getting  an  error.    If  
you  missed  semicolons  on  multiple  lines  you  may  get  this  error  message  multiple  times.  

Expected  declaration  before  ‘}’  token  

 
In  this  case,  there  are  two  closed  brackets  at  the  end  of  the  code.    You  can  have  only  one  closed  bracket  at  the  
end  of  the  setup  and  another  at  the  end  of  your  loop.  

Authored  By:  Vanessa  Myers     1/21/2016  

‘______’  was  not  declared  in  this  scope  

 
This  tells  me  that  mysrevo  was  not  declared.    If  you  look  closely,  I  spelled  myservo  wrong.    Check  your  spelling  in  
the  highlighted  line  if  you  get  this  error.  

‘myservo’  was  not  declared  in  this  scope  

 
In  this  case,  myservo  is  spelled  correctly,  but  I  am  missing  an  important  line  of  code  in  the  beginning.    I  told  
Arduino  that  I  was  going  to  use  a  servo,  but  I  never  gave  that  servo  a  name.    By  including  Servo  myservo  after  
#include  <Servo.h>  I  have  successfully  named  my  servo  myservo.  

Authored  By:  Vanessa  Myers     1/21/2016  

Redefinition  of  ‘void  setup()’  

When  you  first  open  a  new  sketch,  it  provides  you  with  a  bare  bones  example  of  including  a  setup  and  a  loop.    
We  typically  erase  this  and  start  over,  but  you  could  leave  it  and  then  type  your  code  in  the  right  places.    You  can  
only  have  one  void  setup  and  one  void  loop  in  your  code,  so  you’ll  need  to  delete  the  first  setup  and  loop.  

Authored  By:  Vanessa  Myers     1/21/2016