Plugin ignores custom boards.txt

[Drachenkaetzchen]

I have my own board definition in ~/Arduino/hardware/arduino/avr/boards.txt, however, the plugin silently ignores the file. Also, I can't find any place to configure it.

[jantje]

What do yuo mean with "the plugin silently ignores the file."?

[Drachenkaetzchen]

It doesn't show up in the boards.txt dropdown when I create a new project.

[jantje]

Can you please elaborate a bit. It is very unclear to me what you are trying to do and what not works.
As far as I know Arduino delivers a boards.txt in the location you mentioned.
This file is being processed and is shown in the dropdown.
That is if you are using V2 of the plugin.

[Drachenkaetzchen]

I have an own designed arduino board ( Picture at http://log.raumzeitlabor.de/post/50490597306/mehr-lichtsteuerung ). The board definition resides in /home/felicitus/Arduino/hardware/arduino/avr/boards.txt. When I open the Arduino IDE, the Arduino IDE parses that file and I can choose my custom arduino board. The dropdown doesn't show that boards.txt file, only the standard boards.txt as supplied by the arduino IDE (which reside in /usr/share/arduino/hardware/arduino/avr/boards.txt and /usr/share/arduino/hardware/arduino/sam/boards.txt ).

[jantje]

copy /home/felicitus/Arduino/hardware/arduino/ to /usr/share/arduino/hardware/felicitus and it should work

[Drachenkaetzchen]

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On 12/02/2013 09:27 PM, jantje wrote:

copy /home/felicitus/Arduino/hardware/arduino/ to
/usr/share/arduino/hardware/felicitus and it should work

I don't wish to have custom files in system directories, as they are
most likely to vanish on any update. That's why the Arduino IDE parses
the ~/Arduino directory.
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[jantje]

I would not be surprised the Arduino core team did something like that but .....
It is not specified in their specification https://github.com/arduino/Arduino/wiki/Arduino-IDE-1.5---3rd-party-Hardware-specification
If you don't want to copy the folder I see following options:

1. create a link
2. update the plugin.
   jantje

[Drachenkaetzchen]

Actually they do:

"This specification allows a 3rd party vendor/maintainer to add support for new boards inside the Arduino IDE by providing a file to unzip into the hardware folder of Arduino's sketchbook folder."

The sketchbook folder is named "Arduino" in the 1.5 series.

[jantje]

I never read it that way but you are right.
I need to think about how I will handle this from the gui point of view.
Jantje

[Drachenkaetzchen]

I think the user should be able to define his sketchbook path - by default it should be $HOME/Arduino (at least for V2 of the plugin). Or even better, use sketchbook.path from $HOME/.arduino15/preferences.txt, as the user may re-configure his sketchbook location.

(I wish that arduino had something like arduino --get-configuration, which would spit out the current configuration settings, but that doesn't seem to be the case currently)

[jantje]

Been thinking about this.
I'll add a list of "hardware folders" to the configuration of the plugin. I'll see wether I can add the "arduino defaults there automatically.

[brodykenrick]

Why are you thinking of having a separate config item for hardware (in addition to the current one for personal libraries)?

As both are subdirectories of the sketchbook folder it seems to me that is the configuration item that we'd want (and most quickly understandable to the new user).

On Dec 6, 2013, at 1:41 AM, jantje [email protected] wrote:

Been thinking about this.
I'll add a list of "hardware folders" to the configuration of the plugin. I'll see wether I can add the "arduino defaults there automatically.

—
Reply to this email directly or view it on GitHub.

[jantje]

I'm pointing my personal libraries to a folder which is under version control. In a project in the workspace where I'm doing my development so that the libraries are also under version control.
Forcing to have the hardware folder at the same location (so also in the workspace) is from that point of view not a good idea.
That is why I came up with a list of "hardware folders". The benefits I see are:

1. The plugin can automatically add ~arduino/hardware
2. The plugin can automatically add personal libraries/../hardware (if existing)
3. A hardware developer can add his version controlled hardware folder
   Best regards
   Jantje

[brodykenrick]

ok, makes sense.

I use a symlink to my source controlled sketchbook replacing the sketchbook directory (on linux) so my unit of control is the sketchbook (rather than just the libs). I think you mainly develop on windows so symlinks aren't quite as friendly to use.

I am thinking of the newcomer when I wonder about specifying the sketchbook instead of the personal hardware/libraries (mind you newcomers aren't too likely to have modified hardware) -- however if we add some info in the dialog saying "you should know if you need this" and that it is a subdirectory of sketchbook then that should be fine (after all you haven't had too many complaints about the personal libraries stuff I am sure).

A downside of specifying the sketchbook is that a newcomer might expect that all their sketches would be available in Eclpse. Breaking apart the libs & h/w can be seen as a safe option on user expectations too then.

[jantje]

"A downside of specifying the sketchbook is that a newcomer might expect that all their sketches would be available in Eclipse. "
This is exactly why I do not want sketchbook.
And I did get some people asking about the personal library stuff.
The hardware folders on the other hand could be empty. So probably less questions asked :-)

[jantje]

I implemented this for now with a list of 1 items ;-)
Didn't know how to easily have the ui and storage for a list of folders.
I also added defaults for the library and hardware.
If the folders do not exist they will be created.
I tested with my teensy setup but I needed to change the platform.txt and boards.txt file.
Jantje

[scargill]

I have a similar issue to this - but I'm not running Linux. On my Windows PC I have some extra board definitions in users/peter/documents/arduino/hardware

Arduino IDE sees these and adds them to the list of hardware supported - one of them is a custom board I use all the time.

The Eclipse IDE does not see these boards at all. What to do?

[jantje]

I guess you have changed your sketchbook folder in the arduino preferences from users/peter/Arduino to users/peter/documents/arduino.
If you undo this and move the folder it should work in arduino IDE and the Eclipse IDE

[scargill]

Well, that didn't work too well. I moved my files from users/peter/documents/arduino to users/peter/arduino and not only did the hardware not show up in Eclipse but it would not longer show up in Arduino despite changing the working directory. I put the directory back into users/peter/documents/arduino - and the Arduino now showed the extra boards again - but Eclipses still does not show any additional boards.

[bobc]

Did anyone manage to get this to work?