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 Guided Learning Paths
 Basics  Intermediate

Table of Contents  Advanced

The Arduino Platform api best-practices community

Arduino Hardware databases data-science devops
Arduino So!ware django docker flask front-end
“Hello, World!” With Arduino gamedev gui machine-learning
Uploading the Blink Example Sketch projects python testing tools
Connecting External Components web-dev web-scraping
Using a Breadboard
“Hello, World!” With Arduino and Python
Uploading the Firmata Sketch
Reading Digital Inputs
Reading Analog Inputs
Using Analog Outputs
Using a Sensor to Trigger a Notification
Conclusion
Further Reading

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The Arduino Platform
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Python team. Watch it together with the written tutorial to deepen your → “Hello, World!” With Arduino
understanding: Arduino With Python: How to Get Started and Python
Conclusion
Further Reading
Microcontrollers have been around for a long time, and they’re used in everything
from complex machinery to common household appliances. However, working
with them has traditionally been reserved for those with formal technical Mark as Completed 
training, such as technicians and electrical engineers. The emergence of Arduino
has made electronic application design much more accessible to all developers.  
In this tutorial, you’ll discover how to use Arduino with Python to develop your
own electronic projects.  Tweet  Share  Email

You’ll cover the basics of Arduino with Python and learn how to:
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Set up electronic circuits Arduino With Python: How to Get

Set up the Firmata protocol on Arduino Started

Write basic applications for Arduino in Python

Control analog and digital inputs and outputs
Integrate Arduino sensors and switches with higher-level apps
Trigger notifications on your PC and send emails using Arduino

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developers that shows you the roadmap and the mindset you’ll need to
take your Python skills to the next level.

The Arduino Platform

Arduino is an open-source platform composed of hardware and so!ware that
allows for the rapid development of interactive electronics projects. The
emergence of Arduino drew the attention of professionals from many di"erent
industries, contributing to the start of the Maker Movement.

With the growing popularity of the Maker Movement and the concept of the
Internet of Things, Arduino has become one of the main platforms for electronic
prototyping and the development of MVPs.

Arduino uses its own programming language, which is similar to C++ . However,
it’s possible to use Arduino with Python or another high-level programming
language. In fact, platforms like Arduino work well with Python, especially for
applications that require integration with sensors and other physical devices.

All in all, Arduino and Python can facilitate an e"ective learning environment that
encourages developers to get into electronics design. If you already know the
basics of Python, then you’ll be able to get started with Arduino by using Python
to control it.

The Arduino platform includes both hardware and so!ware products. In this
tutorial, you’ll use Arduino hardware and Python so!ware to learn about basic
circuits, as well as digital and analog inputs and outputs.

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Arduino Hardware
To run the examples, you’ll need to assemble the circuits by hooking up
electronic components. You can generally find these items at electronic
component stores or in good Arduino starter kits. You’ll need:

1. An Arduino Uno or other compatible board

2. A standard LED of any color
3. A push button
4. A 10 KOhm potentiometer
5. A 470 Ohm resistor
6. A 10 KOhm resistor
7. A breadboard
8. Jumper wires of various colors and sizes

Let’s take a closer look at a few of these components.

Component 1 is an Arduino Uno or other compatible board. Arduino is a project

that includes many boards and modules for di"erent purposes, and Arduino Uno
is the most basic among these. It’s also the most used and most documented
board of the whole Arduino family, so it’s a great choice for developers who are
just getting started with electronics.

Note: Arduino is an open hardware platform, so there are many other

vendors who sell compatible boards that could be used to run the examples
you see here. In this tutorial, you’ll learn how to use the Arduino Uno.

Components 5 and 6 are resistors. Most resistors are identified by colored stripes
according to a color code. In general, the first three colors represent the value of
a resistor, while the fourth color represents its tolerance. For a 470 Ohm resistor,
the first three colors are yellow, violet, and brown. For a 10 KOhm resistor, the
first three colors are brown, black, and orange.

Component 7 is a breadboard, which you use to hook up all the other

components and assemble the circuits. While a breadboard is not required, it’s
recommended that you get one if you intend to begin working with Arduino.

Arduino So!ware
In addition to these hardware components, you’ll need to install some so!ware.
The platform includes the Arduino IDE, an Integrated Development Environment
for programming Arduino devices, among other online tools.

Arduino was designed to allow you to program the boards with little di"iculty. In
general, you’ll follow these steps:

1. Connect the board to your PC

2. Install and open the Arduino IDE
3. Configure the board settings
4. Write the code
5. Press a button on the IDE to upload the program to the board

To install the Arduino IDE on your computer, download the appropriate version
for your operating system from the Arduino website. Check the documentation
for installation instructions:

If you’re using Windows, then use the Windows installer to ensure you
download the necessary drivers for using Arduino on Windows. Check the
Arduino documentation for more details.
If you’re using Linux, then you may have to add your user to some groups
in order to use the serial port to program Arduino. This process is described
in the Arduino install guide for Linux.
If you’re using macOS, then you can install Arduino IDE by following the
Arduino install guide for OS X.

Note: You’ll be using the Arduino IDE in this tutorial, but Arduino also
provides a web editor that will let you program Arduino boards using the
browser.

Now that you’ve installed the Arduino IDE and gathered all the necessary
components, you’re ready to get started with Arduino! Next, you’ll upload a
“Hello, World!” program to your board.

“Hello, World!” With Arduino

The Arduino IDE comes with several example sketches you can use to learn the
basics of Arduino. A sketch is the term you use for a program that you can upload
to a board. Since the Arduino Uno doesn’t have an attached display, you’ll need a
way to see the physical output from your program. You’ll use the Blink example
sketch to make a built-in LED on the Arduino board blink.

Uploading the Blink Example Sketch

To get started, connect the Arduino board to your PC using a USB cable and start
the Arduino IDE. To open the Blink example sketch, access the File menu and
select Examples, then 01.Basics and, finally, Blink:

The Blink example code will be loaded into a new IDE window. But before you can
upload the sketch to the board, you’ll need to configure the IDE by selecting your
board and its connected port.

To configure the board, access the Tools menu and then Board. For Arduino Uno,
you should select Arduino/Genuino Uno:

A!er you select the board, you have to set the appropriate port. Access the Tools
menu again, and this time select Port:

The names of the ports may be di"erent, depending on your operating system. In
Windows, the ports will be named COM4, COM5, or something similar. In macOS or
Linux, you may see something like /dev/ttyACM0 or /dev/ttyUSB0. If you have
any problems setting the port, then take a look at the Arduino Troubleshooting
Page.

A!er you’ve configured the board and port, you’re all set to upload the sketch to
your Arduino. To do that, you just have to press the Upload button in the IDE
toolbar:

When you press Upload, the IDE compiles the sketch and uploads it to your board.
If you want to check for errors, then you can press Verify before Upload, which will
only compile your sketch.

The USB cable provides a serial connection to both upload the program and
power the Arduino board. During the upload, you’ll see LEDs flashing on the
board. A!er a few seconds, the uploaded program will run, and you’ll see an LED
light blink once every second:

A!er the upload is finished, the USB cable will continue to power the Arduino
board. The program is stored in flash memory on the Arduino microcontroller.
You can also use a battery or other external power supply to run the application
without a USB cable.

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Connecting External Components

In the previous section, you used an LED that was already present on the Arduino
board. However, in most practical projects you’ll need to connect external
components to the board. To make these connections, Arduino has several pins
of di"erent types:

Although these connections are commonly called pins, you can see that they’re
not exactly physical pins. Rather, the pins are holes in a socket to which you can
connect jumper wires. In the figure above, you can see di"erent groups of pins:

Orange rectangle: These are 13 digital pins that you can use as inputs or
outputs. They’re only meant to work with digital signals, which have 2
di"erent levels:
1. Level 0: represented by the voltage 0V
2. Level 1: represented by the voltage 5V
Green rectangle: These are 6 analog pins that you can use as analog
inputs. They’re meant to work with an arbitrary voltage between 0V and 5V.
Blue rectangle: These are 5 power pins. They’re mainly used for powering
external components.

To get started using external components, you’ll connect an external LED to run
the Blink example sketch. The built-in LED is connected to digital pin #13. So,
let’s connect an external LED to that pin and check if it blinks. (A standard LED is
one of the components you saw listed earlier.)

Before you connect anything to the Arduino board, it’s good practice to
disconnect it from the computer. With the USB cable unplugged, you’ll be able to
connect the LED to your board:

Note that the figure shows the board with the digital pins now facing you.

Using a Breadboard
Electronic circuit projects usually involve testing several ideas, with you adding
new components and making adjustments as you go. However, it can be tricky to
connect components directly, especially if the circuit is large.

To facilitate prototyping, you can use a breadboard to connect the components.

This is a device with several holes that are connected in a particular way so that
you can easily connect components using jumper wires:

You can see which holes are interconnected by looking at the colored lines. You’ll
use the holes on the sides of the breadboard to power the circuit:

Connect one hole on the red line to the power source.

Connect one hole on the blue line to the ground.

Then, you can easily connect components to the power source or the ground by
simply using the other holes on the red and blue lines. The holes in the middle of
the breadboard are connected as indicated by the colors. You’ll use these to make
connections between the components of the circuit. These two internal sections
are separated by a small depression, over which you can connect integrated
circuits (ICs).

You can use a breadboard to assemble the circuit used in the Blink example
sketch:

For this circuit, it’s important to note that the LED must be connected according
to its polarity or it won’t work. The positive terminal of the LED is called the
anode and is generally the longer one. The negative terminal is called the
cathode and is shorter. If you’re using a recovered component, then you can also
identify the terminals by looking for a flat side on the LED itself. This will indicate
the position of the negative terminal.

When you connect an LED to an Arduino pin, you’ll always need a resistor to limit
its current and avoid burning out the LED prematurely. Here, you use a 470 Ohm
resistor to do this. You can follow the connections and check that the circuit is the
same:

The resistor is connected to digital pin 13 on the Arduino board.

The LED anode is connected to the other terminal of the resistor.
The LED cathode is connected to the ground (GND) via the blue line of holes.

For a more detailed explanation, check out How to Use a Breadboard.

A!er you finish the connection, plug the Arduino back into the PC and re-run the
Blink sketch:

As both LEDs are connected to digital pin 13, they blink together when the sketch
is running.

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“Hello, World!” With Arduino and Python

In the previous section, you uploaded the Blink sketch to your Arduino board.
Arduino sketches are written in a language similar to C++ and are compiled and
recorded on the flash memory of the microcontroller when you press Upload.
While you can use another language to directly program the Arduino
microcontroller, it’s not a trivial task!

However, there are some approaches you can take to use Arduino with Python or
other languages. One idea is to run the main program on a PC and use the serial
connection to communicate with Arduino through the USB cable. The sketch
would be responsible for reading the inputs, sending the information to the PC,
and getting updates from the PC to update the Arduino outputs.

To control Arduino from the PC, you’d have to design a protocol for the
communication between the PC and Arduino. For example, you could consider a
protocol with messages like the following:

VALUE OF PIN 13 IS HIGH: used to tell the PC about the status of digital
input pins
SET PIN 11 LOW: used to tell Arduino to set the states of the output pins

With the protocol defined, you could write an Arduino sketch to send messages to
the PC and update the states of the pins according to the protocol. On the PC, you
could write a program to control the Arduino through a serial connection, based
on the protocol you’ve designed. For this, you can use whatever language and
libraries you prefer, such as Python and the PySerial library.

Fortunately, there are standard protocols to do all this! Firmata is one of them.
This protocol establishes a serial communication format that allows you to read
digital and analog inputs, as well as send information to digital and analog
outputs.

The Arduino IDE includes ready-made sketches that will drive Arduino through
Python with the Firmata protocol. On the PC side, there are implementations of
the protocol in several languages, including Python. To get started with Firmata,
let’s use it to implement a “Hello, World!” program.

Uploading the Firmata Sketch

Before you write your Python program to drive Arduino, you have to upload the
Firmata sketch so that you can use that protocol to control the board. The sketch
is available in the Arduino IDE’s built-in examples. To open it, access the File
menu, then Examples, followed by Firmata, and finally StandardFirmata:

The sketch will be loaded into a new IDE window. To upload it to the Arduino, you
can follow the same steps you did before:

1. Plug the USB cable into the PC.

 2. Select the appropriate board and port on the IDE.
3. Press Upload.

A!er the upload is finished, you won’t notice any activity on the Arduino. To
control it, you still need a program that can communicate with the board through
the serial connection. To work with the Firmata protocol in Python, you’ll need
the pyFirmata package, which you can install with pip:

Shell

$ pip install pyfirmata

A!er the installation finishes, you can run an equivalent Blink application using
Python and Firmata:

Python

1 import pyfirmata
2 import time
3
4 board = pyfirmata.Arduino('/dev/ttyACM0')
5
6 while True:
7 board.digital[13].write(1)
8 time.sleep(1)
9 board.digital[13].write(0)
10 time.sleep(1)

Here’s how this program works. You import pyfirmata and use it to establish a
serial connection with the Arduino board, which is represented by the board
object in line 4. You also configure the port in this line by passing an argument to
pyfirmata.Arduino(). You can use the Arduino IDE to find the port.

board.digital is a list whose elements represent the digital pins of the Arduino.
These elements have the methods read() and write(), which will read and write
the state of the pins. Like most embedded device programs, this program mainly
consists of an infinite loop:

In line 7, digital pin 13 is turned on, which turns the LED on for one second.
In line 9, this pin is turned o", which turns the LED o" for one second.

Now that you know the basics of how to control an Arduino with Python, let’s go
through some applications to interact with its inputs and outputs.

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Reading Digital Inputs

Digital inputs can have only two possible values. In a circuit, each of these values
is represented by a di"erent voltage. The table below shows the digital input
representation for a standard Arduino Uno board:

Value Level Voltage

0 Low 0V

1 High 5V

To control the LED, you’ll use a push button to send digital input values to the
Arduino. The button should send 0V to the board when it’s released and 5V to the
board when it’s pressed. The figure below shows how to connect the button to
the Arduino board:

You may notice that the LED is connected to the Arduino on digital pin 13, just like
before. Digital pin 10 is used as a digital input. To connect the push button, you
have to use the 10 KOhm resistor, which acts as a pull down in this circuit. A pull
down resistor ensures that the digital input gets 0V when the button is released.

When you release the button, you open the connection between the two wires on
the button. Since there’s no current flowing through the resistor, pin 10 just
connects to the ground (GND). The digital input gets 0V, which represents the 0
(or low) state. When you press the button, you apply 5V to both the resistor and
the digital input. A current flows through the resistor and the digital input gets 5V,
which represents the 1 (or high) state.

You can use a breadboard to assemble the above circuit as well:

Now that you’ve assembled the circuit, you have to run a program on the PC to
control it using Firmata. This program will turn on the LED, based on the state of
the push button:

Python

1 import pyfirmata
2 import time
3
4 board = pyfirmata.Arduino('/dev/ttyACM0')
5
6 it = pyfirmata.util.Iterator(board)
7 it.start()
8
9 board.digital[10].mode = pyfirmata.INPUT
10
11 while True:
12 sw = board.digital[10].read()
13 if sw is True:
14 board.digital[13].write(1)
15 else:
16 board.digital[13].write(0)
17 time.sleep(0.1)

Let’s walk through this program:

Lines 1 and 2 import pyfirmata and time.

Line 4 uses pyfirmata.Arduino() to set the connection with the Arduino
board.
Line 6 assigns an iterator that will be used to read the status of the inputs of
the circuit.
Line 7 starts the iterator, which keeps a loop running in parallel with your
main code. The loop executes board.iterate() to update the input values
obtained from the Arduino board.
Line 9 sets pin 10 as a digital input with pyfirmata.INPUT. This is necessary
since the default configuration is to use digital pins as outputs.
Line 11 starts an infinite while loop. This loop reads the status of the input
pin, stores it in sw, and uses this value to turn the LED on or o" by changing
the value of pin 13.
Line 17 waits 0.1 seconds between iterations of the while loop. This isn’t
strictly necessary, but it’s a nice trick to avoid overloading the CPU, which
reaches 100% load when there isn’t a wait command in the loop.

pyfirmata also o"ers a more compact syntax to work with input and output pins.
This may be a good option for when you’re working with several pins. You can
rewrite the previous program to have more compact syntax:

Python

1 import pyfirmata
2 import time
3
4 board = pyfirmata.Arduino('/dev/ttyACM0')
5
6 it = pyfirmata.util.Iterator(board)
7 it.start()
8
9 digital_input = board.get_pin('d:10:i')
10 led = board.get_pin('d:13:o')
11
12 while True:
13 sw = digital_input.read()
14 if sw is True:
15 led.write(1)
16 else:
17 led.write(0)
18 time.sleep(0.1)

In this version, you use board.get_pin() to create two objects. digital_input

represents the digital input state, and led represents the LED state. When you run
this method, you have to pass a string argument composed of three elements
separated by colons:

1. The type of the pin (a for analog or d for digital)

2. The number of the pin
3. The mode of the pin (i for input or o for output)

Since digital_input is a digital input using pin 10, you pass the argument
'd:10:i'. The LED state is set to a digital output using pin 13, so the led
argument is 'd:13:o'.

When you use board.get_pin(), there’s no need to explicitly set up pin 10 as an

input like you did before with pyfirmata.INPUT. A!er the pins are set, you can
access the status of a digital input pin using read(), and set the status of a digital
output pin with write().

Digital inputs are widely used in electronics projects. Several sensors provide
digital signals, like presence or door sensors, that can be used as inputs to your
circuits. However, there are some cases where you’ll need to measure analog
values, such as distance or physical quantities. In the next section, you’ll see how
to read analog inputs using Arduino with Python.

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Reading Analog Inputs

In contrast to digital inputs, which can only be on or o", analog inputs are used
to read values in some range. On the Arduino Uno, the voltage to an analog input
ranges from 0V to 5V. Appropriate sensors are used to measure physical
quantities, such as distances. These sensors are responsible for encoding these
physical quantities in the proper voltage range so they can be read by the
Arduino.

To read an analog voltage, the Arduino uses an analog-to-digital converter

(ADC), which converts the input voltage to a digital number with a fixed number
of bits. This determines the resolution of the conversion. The Arduino Uno uses a
10-bit ADC and can determine 1024 di"erent voltage levels.

The voltage range for an analog input is encoded to numbers ranging from 0 to
1023. When 0V is applied, the Arduino encodes it to the number 0. When 5V is
applied, the encoded number is 1023. All intermediate voltage values are
proportionally encoded.

A potentiometer is a variable resistor that you can use to set the voltage applied
to an Arduino analog input. You’ll connect it to an analog input to control the
frequency of a blinking LED:

In this circuit, the LED is set up just as before. The end terminals of the
potentiometer are connected to ground (GND) and 5V pins. This way, the central
terminal (the cursor) can have any voltage in the 0V to 5V range depending on its
position, which is connected to the Arduino on analog pin A0.

Using a breadboard, you can assemble this circuit as follows:

Before you control the LED, you can use the circuit to check the di"erent values
the Arduino reads, based on the position of the potentiometer. To do this, run the
following program on your PC:

Python

1 import pyfirmata
2 import time
3
4 board = pyfirmata.Arduino('/dev/ttyACM0')
5 it = pyfirmata.util.Iterator(board)
6 it.start()
7
8 analog_input = board.get_pin('a:0:i')
9
10 while True:
11 analog_value = analog_input.read()
12 print(analog_value)
13 time.sleep(0.1)

In line 8, you set up analog_input as the analog A0 input pin with the argument
'a:0:i'. Inside the infinite while loop, you read this value, store it in
analog_value, and display the output to the console with print(). When you
move the potentiometer while the program runs, you should output similar to
this:

Shell

0.0
0.0293
0.1056
0.1838
0.2717
0.3705
0.4428
0.5064
0.5797
0.6315
0.6764
0.7243
0.7859
0.8446
0.9042
0.9677
1.0
1.0

The printed values change, ranging from 0 when the position of the
potentiometer is on one end to 1 when it’s on the other end. Note that these are
float values, which may require conversion depending on the application.

To change the frequency of the blinking LED, you can use the analog_value to
control how long the LED will be kept on or o":

Python

1 import pyfirmata
2 import time
3
4 board = pyfirmata.Arduino('/dev/ttyACM0')
5 it = pyfirmata.util.Iterator(board)
6 it.start()
7
8 analog_input = board.get_pin('a:0:i')
9 led = board.get_pin('d:13:o')
10
11 while True:
12 analog_value = analog_input.read()
13 if analog_value is not None:
14 delay = analog_value + 0.01
15 led.write(1)
16 time.sleep(delay)
17 led.write(0)
18 time.sleep(delay)
19 else:
20 time.sleep(0.1)

Here, you calculate delay as analog_value + 0.01 to avoid having delay equal
to zero. Otherwise, it’s common to get an analog_value of None during the first
few iterations. To avoid getting an error when running the program, you use a
conditional in line 13 to test whether analog_value is None. Then you control the
period of the blinking LED.

Try running the program and changing the position of the potentiometer. You’ll
notice the frequency of the blinking LED changes:

By now, you’ve seen how to use digital inputs, digital outputs, and analog inputs
on your circuits. In the next section, you’ll see how to use analog outputs.

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Using Analog Outputs

In some cases, it’s necessary to have an analog output to drive a device that
requires an analog signal. Arduino doesn’t include a real analog output, one
where the voltage could be set to any value in a certain range. However, Arduino
does include several Pulse Width Modulation (PWM) outputs.

PWM is a modulation technique in which a digital output is used to generate a

signal with variable power. To do this, it uses a digital signal of constant
frequency, in which the duty cycle is changed according to the desired power.
The duty cycle represents the fraction of the period in which the signal is set to
high.

Not all Arduino digital pins can be used as PWM outputs. The ones that can be are
identified by a tilde (~):

Several devices are designed to be driven by PWM signals, including some

motors. It’s even possible to obtain a real analog signal from the PWM signal if
you use analog filters. In the previous example, you used a digital output to turn
an LED light on or o". In this section, you’ll use PWM to control the brightness of
an LED, according to the value of an analog input given by a potentiometer.

When a PWM signal is applied to an LED, its brightness varies according to the
duty cycle of the PWM signal. You’re going to use the following circuit:

This circuit is identical to the one used in the previous section to test the analog
input, except for one di"erence. Since it’s not possible to use PWM with pin 13,
the digital output pin used for the LED is pin 11.

You can use a breadboard to assemble the circuit as follows:

With the circuit assembled, you can control the LED using PWM with the following
program:

Python

1 import pyfirmata
2 import time
3
4 board = pyfirmata.Arduino('/dev/ttyACM0')
5
6 it = pyfirmata.util.Iterator(board)
7 it.start()
8
9 analog_input = board.get_pin('a:0:i')
10 led = board.get_pin('d:11:p')
11
12 while True:
13 analog_value = analog_input.read()
14 if analog_value is not None:
15 led.write(analog_value)
16 time.sleep(0.1)

There are a few di"erences from the programs you’ve used previously:

1. In line 10, you set led to PWM mode by passing the argument 'd:11:p'.
2. In line 15, you call led.write() with analog_value as an argument. This is
a value between 0 and 1, read from the analog input.

Here you can see the LED behavior when the potentiometer is moved:

To show the changes in the duty cycle, an oscilloscope is plugged into pin 11.
When the potentiometer is in its zero position, you can see the LED is turned o",
as pin 11 has 0V on its output. As you turn the potentiometer, the LED gets
brighter as the PWM duty cycle increases. When you turn the potentiometer all
the way, the duty cycle reaches 100%. The LED is turned on continuously at
maximum brightness.

With this example, you’ve covered the basics of using an Arduino and its digital
and analog inputs and outputs. In the next section, you’ll see an application for
using Arduino with Python to drive events on the PC.

Using a Sensor to Trigger a Notification

Firmata is a nice way to get started with Arduino with Python, but the need for a
PC or other device to run the application can be costly, and this approach may
not be practical in some cases. However, when it’s necessary to collect data and
send it to a PC using external sensors, Arduino and Firmata make a good
combination.

In this section, you’ll use a push button connected to your Arduino to mimic a
digital sensor and trigger a notification on your machine. For a more practical
application, you can think of the push button as a door sensor that will trigger an
alarm notification, for example.

To display the notification on the PC, you’re going to use Tkinter, the standard
Python GUI toolkit. This will show a message box when you press the button. For
an in-depth intro to Tkinter, check out Python GUI Programming With Tkinter.

You’ll need to assemble the same circuit that you used in the digital input
example:

A!er you assemble the circuit, use the following program to trigger the
notifications:

Python

1 import pyfirmata
2 import time
3 import tkinter
4 from tkinter import messagebox
5
6 root = tkinter.Tk()
7 root.withdraw()
8
9 board = pyfirmata.Arduino('/dev/ttyACM0')
10
11 it = pyfirmata.util.Iterator(board)
12 it.start()
13
14 digital_input = board.get_pin('d:10:i')
15 led = board.get_pin('d:13:o')
16
 17 while True:
18 sw = digital_input.read()
19 if sw is True:
20 led.write(1)
21 messagebox.showinfo("Notification", "Button was pressed")
22 root.update()
23 led.write(0)
24 time.sleep(0.1)

This program is similar to the one used in the digital input example, with a few
changes:

Lines 3 and 4 import libraries needed to set up Tkinter.

Line 6 creates Tkinter’s main window.
Line 7 tells Tkinter not to show the main window on the screen. For this
example, you only need to see the message box.
Line 17 starts the while loop:
1. When you press the button, the LED will turn on and
messagebox.showinfo() displays a message box.

2. The loop pauses until the user presses OK. This way, the LED remains
on as long as the message is on the screen.
3. A!er the user presses OK, root.update() clears the message box from
the screen and the LED is turned o".

To extend the notification example, you could even use the push button to send
an email when pressed:

Python

1 import pyfirmata
2 import time
3 import smtplib
4 import ssl
5
6 def send_email():
7 port = 465 # For SSL
8 smtp_server = "smtp.gmail.com"
9 sender_email = "<your email address>"
10 receiver_email = "<destination email address>"
11 password = "<password>"
12 message = """Subject: Arduino Notification\n The switch was turned on."""
13
14 context = ssl.create_default_context()
15 with smtplib.SMTP_SSL(smtp_server, port, context=context) as server
16 print("Sending email")
17 server.login(sender_email, password)
18 server.sendmail(sender_email, receiver_email, message)
19
20 board = pyfirmata.Arduino('/dev/ttyACM0')
21
22 it = pyfirmata.util.Iterator(board)
23 it.start()
24
25 digital_input = board.get_pin('d:10:i')
26
27 while True:
28 sw = digital_input.read()
29 if sw is True:
30 send_email()
31 time.sleep(0.1)

You can learn more about send_email() in Sending Emails With Python. Here,
you configure the function with email server credentials, which will be used to
send the email.

Note: If you use a Gmail account to send the emails, then you need to
enable the Allow less secure apps option. For more information on how to
do this, check out Sending Emails With Python.

With these example applications, you’ve seen how to use Firmata to interact with
more complex Python applications. Firmata lets you use any sensor attached to
the Arduino to obtain data for your application. Then you can process the data
and make decisions within the main application. You can even use Firmata to
send data to Arduino outputs, controlling switches or PWM devices.

If you’re interested in using Firmata to interact with more complex applications,

then try out some of these projects:

A temperature monitor to alert you when the temperature gets too high or
low
An analog light sensor that can sense when a light bulb is burned out
A water sensor that can automatically turn on the sprinklers when the
ground is too dry

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Conclusion
Microcontroller platforms are on the rise, thanks to the growing popularity of the
Maker Movement and the Internet of Things. Platforms like Arduino are receiving
a lot of attention in particular, as they allow developers just like you to use their
skills and dive into electronic projects.

You learned how to:

Develop applications with Arduino and Python

Use the Firmata protocol
Control analog and digital inputs and outputs
Integrate sensors with higher-level Python applications

You also saw how Firmata may be a very interesting alternative for projects that
demand a PC and depend on sensor data. Plus, it’s an easy way to get started
with Arduino if you already know Python!

Further Reading
Now that you know the basics of controlling Arduino with Python, you can start
working on more complex applications. There are several tutorials that can help
you develop integrated projects. Here are a few ideas:

REST APIs: These are widely used to integrate di"erent applications. You
could use REST with Arduino to build APIs that get information from sensors
and send commands to actuators. To learn about REST APIs, check out
Python REST APIs With Flask, Connexion, and SQLAlchemy.

Alternate GUIs: In this tutorial, you used Tkinter to build a graphical

application. However, there are other graphical libraries for desktop
applications. To see an alternative, check out How to Build a Python GUI
Application With wxPython.

Threading: The infinite while loop that you used in this tutorial is a very
common feature of Arduino applications. However, using a thread to run the
main loop will allow you to execute other tasks concurrently. To learn how
to use threads, check out An Intro to Threading in Python.

Face Detection: It’s common for IoT apps to integrate machine learning and
computer vision algorithms. With these, you could build an alarm that
triggers a notification when it detects faces on a camera, for example. To
learn more about facial recognition systems, check out Traditional Face
Detection With Python.

Lastly, there are other ways of using Python in microcontrollers besides Firmata
and Arduino:

pySerial: Arduino Uno cannot run Python directly, but you could design
your own Arduino sketch and use pySerial to establish a serial connection.
Then you can control Arduino with Python using your own protocol.

MicroPython: If you’re interested in running Python directly on a

microcontroller, then check out the MicroPython project. It provides an
e"icient implementation of Python to be executed on some
microcontrollers such as the ESP8266 and ESP32.

SBCs: Another option is to use a single board computer (SBC) such as a

Raspberry Pi to run Python. SBCs are complete, Arduino-sized computers
that can run a Linux-based operating system, allowing you to use vanilla
Python. As most SBCs provide General-purpose input and output pins, you
can use it to replace an Arduino on most applications.

Mark as Completed   

 Watch Now This tutorial has a related video course created by the Real
Python team. Watch it together with the written tutorial to deepen your
understanding: Arduino With Python: How to Get Started

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About Renato Candido

Researcher in digital signal processing,

telecommunications and machine learning. {free, libre,
open source} {so!ware, hardware, culture, science}
enthusiast.

» More about Renato

Each tutorial at Real Python is created by a team of developers so that it

meets our high quality standards. The team members who worked on this
tutorial are:

Aldren Geir Arne Jaya

Jon Joanna

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