Getting Started with Netduino. Learn IoT using .NET C#

Going further to explain Getting Started with Netduino. Learn IoT using .NET C#. This article give you complete information about Netduino it doesn’t matter you already know Netduino or you are totally new to this. So lets start from very basic.

Table of Contents

What is Netduino?

Netduino is an open source hardware platform that runs applications built with the .NET MicroFramework. Applications can be built on Windows (with Visual Studio), or on Mac OS (with Xamarin Studio). Netduino can be used to build nearly any Connected Thing you can dream up. It’s similar in concept to the Arduino platform, but is generally more powerful and instead of writing applications in C/C++ or Wiring (essentially, C++ without header files), applications are written in C#, which brings powerful, high-level language constructs to the toolbox such as threading, event handling, automatic garbage collection, and more.

10 Amazing Features of Netduino :-

Netduino is based on the Cortex-M Micro Processor running on .NET Micro Framework v4.3.
For development, Windows user will use Visual Studio and Mac user will use Xamarin Studio.
Netduino board is packed with IO; including 22 General Purpose Input/output (GPIO) ports, 6 of which support hardware Pulse Width Modulation (PWM) generation, 4 UARTs (serial communication), I2C, and SPI (Serial Peripheral Interface Bus).
Netduino allowing programmers to work in C# using Microsoft Visual Studio.
Step-by-step debugging can be very useful to trace errors.
It’s fully interrupt based and has multi-threading.
Using the .Net framework it is quick to write a test program to just try stuff out before writing the proper code.
There‘re a very friendly community with a lot of people willing to help out.
Do not forget that the NetMF framework is from Microsoft, which is awesomeness. Everyone loves Microsoft!

Netduino Installation for Windows OS

7 Steps Netduino Installation for Mac OS

Download and install the latest Visual Studio for Mac or Xamarin Studio
Launch Xamarin Studio and install the NETMF plug-in
Open the Visual Studio menu and select Extensions. Note, for Xamarin Studio users, the menu item is called Add-ins
Select the Gallery Tab
In the search box, type MicroFramework
Click install and follow the directions
Restart Visual Studio/Xamarin Studio.

8 Steps Build First Application In Netduino and Visual Studio

Open Visual Studio and go to menu File – New – Project.
According to your convenience choose Visual C# or Visual Basic and select Micro Framework from Template section and then select Console Application.
In Name section, write program name like “LED_Blink_App” or other.
Select preferred save location by using Browse Button.
Right-click on the References folder in the Solution Explorer and add:(Follow video to know how to add references).
Microsoft.Spot.Hardware
SecretLabs.NETMF.Hardware
SecretLabs.NETMF.Harware.Netduino

Netduino Mac OS Xamarin Studio

Launch Xamarin Studio and create a new solution of type C# > MicroFramework > MicroFramework Console Application and name it whatever you want:

Double-click on the References folder in the Solution Pad and add :
Microsoft.Spot.Hardware
SecretLabs.NETMF.Hardware
SecretLabs.NETMF.Harware.Netduino

Netduino Onboard LED Blinking Code Segment

using System;
using System.Net;
using System.Net.Sockets;
using System.Threading;
using Microsoft.SPOT;
using Microsoft.SPOT.Hardware;
using SecretLabs.NETMF.Hardware;
using SecretLabs.NETMF.Hardware.Netduino;

namespace LED_Blink
{
    public class Program
    {
        public static void Main()
        {
            OutputPort onboardLED = new OutputPort(Pins.ONBOARD_LED, true);

            while (true)
            {
                onboardLED.Write(false);
                Thread.Sleep(500);
                onboardLED.Write(true);
                Thread.Sleep(500);
            }
        }
    }
}

Netduino Deployment Visual Studio

Make sure your Netduino is plugged in.
Right-click on the Project Properties item in the Solution Explorer, select .NET Micro Framework on the left, and the under Deployment choose USB and in the Device drop down, choose your Netduino device: