Install Arduino support on Windows

The Arduino system has been designed to be accessible to people at all skill levels, and Keyboardio is built on top of the Arduino platform because we share that goal. There are many ways to set up your system to work with the Keyboardio firmware, the most typical is to use the Arduino Integrated Development Environment (IDE); an application that gives some visual context to the code you want to send to your Arduino device. This is the easiest process for folks who are new to Arduino, or to programming generally. If you follow the instructions below step by step you should be fine. :-)

Note: This tutorial has been written using Windows 10.

Prerequisite: Install USB Driver (Win 7, 8, & 8.1)

For Windows 7, 8, and 8.1, please follow the instructions on the Installing USB Driver on Windows page before proceeding with the instructions on this page.

Step One: Set up the Arduino IDE

1. Download the Arduino IDE installation package from https://www.arduino.cc/en/Main/Software

As of this writing, the latest version is v1.8.8, which you can download from this URL:

https://www.arduino.cc/download_handler.php?f=/arduino-1.8.8-windows.exe

Note: Some users have had difficulties with the Windows store version of the Arduino IDE. Please use the downloadable installation package.

2. Open the installation package and follow the prompts to install the Arduino IDE.

Step Two: Add keyboard support to the IDE

1. Open the Arduino IDE. It will open an empty "sketch" window.

2. Open the "File" menu and click on "Preferences"

3. At the bottom of the "Settings" tab is a box labeled 'Additional Board Manager URLs'. Paste this into the box:

   https://raw.githubusercontent.com/keyboardio/boardsmanager/master/package_keyboardio_index.json
   

   then click 'OK' to close the dialog

4. Go into the 'Tools' menu, click on 'Board' and then click on 'Boards Manager'

5. Enter 'Keyboardio' into the search box. You will see an entry that says "keyboardio by Keyboardio" click on it to select it, and then click 'Install'. Once the install completes, click "Close".

6. Open the 'Tools' menu again, click on 'Board' and then click on 'Keyboardio Model 01'. You may have to scroll through a long list of other boards to get there.

7. Open the 'Tools' menu again, scroll down to "Port > ". Select your keyboard. (It may already be selected.) If there is only one option such as "COM3" try it, it's almost certainly the correct port.

Next step: Install the latest firmware on your keyboard