LED Blinking Program Using Node js and Arduino.

Node.js is a very powerful JavaScript-based framework built on Google Chrome’s JavaScript V8 Engine. It is used to develop I/O intensive web applications like video streaming sites, single-page applications, and other web applications. Node.js is open source, completely free, and used by thousands of developers around the world.

Node isn’t a program that you simply launch like Word or Photoshop: you won’t find it pinned to the taskbar or in your list of Apps. To use Node you must type command-line instructions, so you need to be comfortable with (or at least know how to start) a command-line tool like the Windows Command Prompt, PowerShell, Cygwin, or the Git shell (which is installed along with Github for Windows).

Table of Contents

Components Required

1 x Arduino Uno board
1 x LED

Software Required

Johnny-Five :- Johnny-Five is the JavaScript Robotics & IoT Platform. Released by Bocoup in 2012, Johnny-Five is maintained by a community of passionate software developers and hardware engineers. More than 75 developers have made contributions towards building a robust, extensible and compatible ecosystem. We will achieve this with the Johnny-Five library for Node.js to program our robot. Johnny-Five uses a protocol called Firmata to communicate with the micro-controller over the USB .

Step 1 – Setting up Firmata to Arduino Board

Before going to start programming with NodeBots, First we need to load Firmata onto Arduino board.

Download Arduino IDE from it’s official website
Connect Arduino board via USB cable
Launch Arduino IDE and find the Firmata sketch using the Menu -> File -> Examples -> Firmata -> StandardFirmata
Select your Arduino board type using Tools -> Board
Select the port (Comm Port) for the board using Tools -> Serial Port
Upload the “StandardFirmata” program by selecting File -> Upload

Step 2 – Node.js Installation Overview

Installing Node and NPM is pretty straightforward using the installer package available from the Node.js® web site.

Step by step guide line

Download the Windows installer from the Nodes.js® web site.
Run the installer (the .msi file you downloaded in the previous step.)
Follow the prompts in the installer (Accept the license agreement, click the NEXT button a bunch of times and accept the default installation settings).

Restart your computer. You won’t be able to run Node.js® until you restart your computer.

Step 3 – Johnny-five Installation Overview

Open Command Prompt.
Run the following command in CMD

npm install johnny-five

Wait for installation complition.

Step 4 – Code Segment

Open editor (Notepad, Notepad++, Edit Plus) and write below program

var led_pin=13;
var johnny_five=require("johnny-five"); 
var arduino_board=new johnny_five.Board(); 
arduino_board.on("ready", function() {  
   console.log("Program is Ready!");  
   var led = new johnny_five.Led(led_pin);  
   led.blink(1000);  
});