Here’s How Python And Other Programming Languages Can Be Used with Arduino

There are three officially supported languages for programming your Arduino microcontroller. First up, is the default Arduino programming language — which is a limited version of the C/C++ languages. To use it, you’ll need to download the regular IDE software that’s available for a variety of operating systems — namely 64-bit versions of Windows 10 (or newer), Linux, and macOS 10.15 (or newer), at the time of writing. You can also just use the C/C++ languages themselves in the IDE, but with a few caveats. The Arduino IDE is also accessible via web browsers, using the Arduino Web Editor or Cloud Editor on the Arduino Create platform. There are also plenty of libraries users can import to augment the range of functions available.

Next, we’ve got the MicroPython programming language, for which support was introduced a couple of years ago. The language, based on Python 3, was created by Damien George specifically as a lightweight version meant for microcontrollers – capable of running on 256 kb of code space and 16 kb of RAM. To program an Arduino board using MicroPython, you’ll require a separate IDE called the Arduino Lab for MicroPython, and it’s available for 64-bit versions of Windows, Linux, and macOS. Only a certain number of Arduino microcontrollers currently have MicroPython support, and you can find all the details you need on the documentation page. There’s also a specialized MicroPython-based firmware and IDE called OpenMV for Arduino machine vision and learning applications.

To program the software architecture of the Arduino board’s control program, such as Portenta Machine Control and Arduino Opta, you will need to use IEC-61131-3 languages. This can be done via the Arduino PLC IDE, which is available for 64-bit Windows 10 only.