Programming with the Arduino-IDE

Since the Arduino development environment has been available for a long time and offers an easy entry into text-based programming of microcontrollers, it enjoys great popularity worldwide. For those who want to program the Calliope mini 3, the "board extension" has now been updated. This allows sketches to be transferred to the Calliope mini. Just download and install!

Download Arduino IDE

Prepare Board Management

To program the Calliope mini with the Arduino IDE, an extension is required.
Add the following URL under Arduino IDE - Preferences as an "Additional Board Manager URL":
https://sandeepmistry.github.io/arduino-nRF5/package_nRF5_boards_index.json

The language can be selected under Preferences.

Add Board Package

1. Open Board Management under Tools-Board.
2. By entering "Calliope" in the search, the extension "Nordic Semiconductor nRF5 Boards" appears.
3. Install the extension. This can take up to a minute.

Add Library

1. Open the Library Manager under Tools-Libraries manage.
2. By entering "Calliope" in the search, the library "Calliope Arduino Library" appears.
3. Install the library.

Note: When prompted to install library dependencies, choose "install all".

Connect Calliope mini

If the Calliope mini V3 is connected to your computer via USB, a direct sketch upload is possible.

1. Go to "Select Board"
2. Open the selection with "Select a different board and port..."
3. Select Calliope mini V3 as the board.

The Calliope mini V3 appears as the selected hardware in your window, and you can now program it directly.

Example Programs

Via File-Examples-Calliope Arduino Library the program "miniV3example" can be loaded.

The example program for the Calliope mini lights up the 3 RGB LEDs, displays various symbols on the LED matrix, responds to button presses with changed RGB LEDs, and activates the motors. Additionally, information is sent via the serial interface and the measured volume is displayed as a number between 0 and 10.