The open-Source-Software needed to program the Arduino microcontroller can be found on the Arduino official website. The Arduino IDE can be download in the software tab of the website. There you can choose between Windows, Mac OS X and Linux operating systems. This tutorial will follow the Windows installation.

Step 1: Download the Arduino IDE

Go here and download the IDE. You can choose to just download or the contribute and download the software. I highly recommend you contribute even a little to help accelerate the development of the IDE and circuit board itself.

Step 2: Installing the Software

Execute the .exe file, accept the License Agreement, choose to install the USB driver and associate the .ino files. Start Menu shortcut and Desktop shortcut are voluntarily. Choose a destination folder and click Install.

Step 3: Select the Board

After the installation process is done, start the software. Each piece of code you write is called a sketch associated with the date it was written on. Now there are two different settings that must be made every time you program an Arduino or similar. First choose the board type under Tools->Board.

Step 4: Select the COM

After this, you must select the communication channel, COM. This can be done under Tools->Port. The Port will be visible as soon as the Arduino Board is connected to the PC via a USB-A USB-B cable.