Connecting Arduino to PC serial port

Contents

1. Hardware setup
2. Software setup
3. Start the program
4. References

Hardware setup

1. In this tutorial, you will learn, how to connect your Arduino to Windows OS with a Serial port. For this you will need an Arduino hardware and a standard USB cable.
2. Get the latest version from the official website of Arduino.
3. Download the installer or the zip file, and setup the IDE to your system.
4. Connect the Arduino board to your computer via a USB cable. The Arduino automatically draw power from either the USB connection to the computer or an external power supply. Connect the Arduino board to your computer using the USB cable. The green power LED (labelled PWR) should go on.

Software setup

1. Plug in your board and wait for Windows to begin it's driver installation process. After a few moments, the process will fail, despite its best efforts
2. Click on the Start Menu, and open up the Control Panel.
3. While in the Control Panel, navigate to System and Security. Next, click on System. Once the System window is up, open the Device Manager.
4. Look under Ports (COM & LPT). You should see an open port named "Arduino UNO (COMxx)"
5. Right click on the "Arduino UNO (COmxx)" port and choose the "Update Driver Software" option.
6. Next, choose the "Browse my computer for Driver software" option.
7. Finally, navigate to and select the driver file named "arduino.inf", located in the "Drivers" folder of the Arduino Software download (not the "FTDI USB Drivers" sub-directory). If you are using an old version of the IDE (1.0.3 or older), choose the Uno's driver file named "Arduino UNO.inf"
8. Windows will finish up the driver installation from there.

Start the program

1. Start the Arduino application from your desktop
2. Open the blink example sketch from File>Examples<1.Basics>Blink
3. Select your board in the tools>board button dependin on your board
4. Select your serial port (Usually COM3 or higher)
5. Upload the sketch and start the program

If the upload is successful you will see a Done uploading message and after a few seconds the led in the PIN 13 starts to blink.

References

• http://arduino.cc/en/guide/windows
• http://arduino.cc/en/reference/serial
• http://www.instructables.com/id/How-to-connect-Arduino-to-a-PC-through-the-serial-/?ALLSTEPS
• Arduino Hello World program

More information

• Connect Arduino to the Mobile Network
• Connecting Arduinos together
• Connecting Arduino to Rasberry Pi
• Connecting Arduino to the Internet - How to add a webserver, HTTP client, etc
• Connecting Arduino to Android via USB cable
• Connecting Arduino to PC serial port
• Connecting Arduino to Windows and Linux through an USB cable
• Connecting Arduino to GSM GPS shield
• Connecting Arduino to GPRS/GSM Quadband Module (SIM900)