Windows Toolchain (Arduino IDE)
The avr-gcc software for use on a Windows system is part of the Arduino IDE that can be downloaded from the Arduino web site. We don’t use the IDE to program the Arduino, but instead just make use of avr-gcc software that is included with it.
Important: The information below assumes you are at least moderately familiar with using the Windows Command Prompt program and its command line interface, and with basic Unix-type commands for moving around the file system and doing simple operations. If you are not familiar with using the command line interface we suggest you take a look at this web page for a short tutorial on the subject.
Step 1: Install the Arduino IDE
Download the Arduino IDE software from https://www.arduino.cc/en/software. On the download page select “Windows Win 10 and newer, 64 bits”
Install the package using the default settings.
Important: Note what folder you are installing it to. Our instructions are written assuming it is installed to C:\Users\<username>\AppData\Local\.... .this should be its default and you should keep it there. But if you choose to install it somewhere else (such as C:\Program Files (x86) or something), note that and you may need to use that location in our instructions below.
Step 2: Launch the Arduino IDE
Launch the application, which will trigger the download of the Arduino compiler. If Windows Firewall alerts, you about accessing Microsoft Discovery or Arduino App, click Accept
If you see Device installation dialog boxes like the ones below or other dialog boxes appear, Accept the installations.
Step 3: Edit the PATH Variable
You will now add the following to your path (Environment variables). To do so, from your Windows button or search, just start typing “environment” and you should see an app be suggested called Edit the System Environment Variables. Click on that option to bring up a window that looks like this.
Click “Environment Variables” and go to the bottom “System variables” area.
Find the variable in the system area called: path and edit it. Then add the following rows to it (making sure to change the “myusername” to whatever username your Windows configuration has for you).
C:\Users\myusername\AppData\Local\Arduino15\packages\arduino\tools\avr-gcc\7.3.0-atmel3.6.1-arduino7\bin\
C:\Users\myusername\AppData\Local\Arduino15\packages\arduino\tools\avr-gcc\7.3.0-atmel3.6.1-arduino7\avr\bin\
C:\Users\myusername\AppData\Local\Arduino15\packages\arduino\tools\avrdude\6.3.0-arduino17\bin\
C:\Users\myusername\AppData\Local\Arduino15\packages\arduino\tools\avrdude\6.3.0-arduino17\etc\
The result should look something like this:
Step 4: Add the “Make” and Other Utilities
Download the zip file containing the make and other utilities from this link into your Downloads folder (or some other location).
Use Windows Explorer to navigate to your Downloads folder, find ee109-cmds.zip, right-click and choose Extract All and choose OK or select the affirmative in any dialog box that appears.
You should now have an ee109-cmds subfolder in the Downloads area with the needed utilities.
Copy the utilties to your Arduino compiler folder by following one of the 2 options outlined below.
Option 1: In Explorer, go into that folder and select all the utility files in that subfolder and hit Ctrl-C or choose Copy from the context menu so that we can copy them to another location. Then navigate to your C:\Users\myusername\AppData\Local\Arduino15\packages\arduino\tools\avr-gcc\7.3.0-atmel3.6.1-arduino7\bin folder in Explorer and PASTE the utilities into that folder (so that you have copied all those utilities to this new location.
Option 2: Open a command prompt and cd to the 1ee109-cmds1 subfolder location (i.e. cd C:\Users\myusername\Downloads\ee109-cmds)
Then copy the utilities to the directory above that you added to your PATH. (Note that the command below is one LONG command).
copy *.* C:\Users\myusername\AppData\Local\Arduino15\packages\arduino\tools\avr-gcc\7.3.0-atmel3.6.1-arduino7\bin
Step 4: Test Installation
Check that the software that downloads the programs to the Arduino has been
installed by typing the command avrdude -?. If the program is working it
should print out a bunch of stuff and at the end give the version number of the
program. Probably something like “avrdude version 5.10”.
Done!
At this point the installation of the AVR toolchain is complete. You should now be ready to run the avr-gcc development software to program a microcontroller.
If you were doing this as part of EE109’s Lab 0 (Installing the Arduino Toolchain), please return to the previous web page and continue with the installation of the rest of the development software.
