I can simplify and teach anything I understand, but I am having a really hard time understanding porting from Arduino to Particle.io. Could someone please clear up a few things:
A: Some Arduino include files are pre-installed on the particle IDE, so we just have to delete the include calls from the Arduino code.
Wire.h (I2C serial communication)
Servo.h
stdio.h
SPI.h (SPI serial communication)
are their any more include files we can add to this list that are pre-installed into the particle IDE?
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B: A few include files are pre-supported by the Particle.io IDE but you still have to call them.
#include "math.h"
replace #include "Arduino.h" and #include "application.h" with #include "Particle.h"
Does anyone know the complete list of includes that you can just call from the IDE?
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C: Some Arduino include files have supporting include files that just have to be fully written and included in your app, the following list occure more often than others
For A:
I’m not fully aware of all the headers commonly used on Arduinos, but any starting with avr/ should be removed too.
Also looking at application.h lists these
#include "spark_wiring.h"
#include "spark_wiring_cloud.h"
#include "spark_wiring_interrupts.h"
#include "spark_wiring_string.h"
#include "spark_wiring_power.h"
#include "spark_wiring_fuel.h"
#include "spark_wiring_print.h"
#include "spark_wiring_usartserial.h"
#include "spark_wiring_can.h"
#include "spark_wiring_usbserial.h"
#include "spark_wiring_usbmouse.h"
#include "spark_wiring_usbkeyboard.h"
#include "spark_wiring_spi.h"
#include "spark_wiring_i2c.h"
#include "spark_wiring_servo.h"
#include "spark_wiring_wifi.h"
#include "spark_wiring_network.h"
#include "spark_wiring_client.h"
#include "spark_wiring_startup.h"
#include "spark_wiring_timer.h"
#include "spark_wiring_tcpclient.h"
#include "spark_wiring_tcpserver.h"
#include "spark_wiring_udp.h"
#include "spark_wiring_time.h"
#include "spark_wiring_tone.h"
#include "spark_wiring_eeprom.h"
#include "spark_wiring_version.h"
#include "spark_wiring_watchdog.h"
#include "spark_wiring_thread.h"
#include "fast_pin.h"
#include "string_convert.h"
#include "debug_output_handler.h"
// this was being implicitly pulled in by some of the other headers
// adding here for backwards compatibility.
#include "system_task.h"
#include "system_user.h"
#include "stdio.h"
So any header relating to these (no matter how they are called in Arduino land) will be superfluous (or fail to build as not-found)
B: Any of the headers that come with the STM32/ARM Cortex M3 platform.
Originally application.h was the only one that existed but following the scheme set by "Arduino.h" and to avoid confusion as application.h could be anything, "Particle.h" was introduced and should be used for future projects.
Imagine this code
#if defined(ARDUINO)
#include "Arduino.h"
#elif defined(SPARK) // don't ask ;-)
#include "Particle.h" // makes more sense
#endif
BTW: The only active line in Particle.h is
#include "application.h"
What do you mean by that?
Is it the #include <.....> notation?
If so, it's not Arduino but standard C as the #include "....." is.
@rocksetta, let’s not forget that the trickiest part of porting is hardware differences (GPIO, timers, etc). The second one is data representation differences. For example INT on Arduino is 2 bytes whereas it is 4 bytes on STM32. So anything depending on data element sizes will fail. In this example Arduino INT is int16_t on STM32.
from your link it looks like the #include <…> format is for systems calls. I assume on the particle devices we are not making any system include calls, so all our includes will be in the #include “…” format.
System includes e.g. refers to everything that comes as the STM32/ARM Cortex framework and standard C libs like stdio.h, math.h, …
So, yes, we do!
But yes, if you use the double quotes it will work just fine, as the system headers paths will be scanned too - after the local project path.
That’s explaned quite clearly in the linked article.
When you find a library, and the default alphabetically first file in the library is a header .h or .cpp connected to the header file, then the “USE THIS EXAMPLE” button is not visible.
If there is a “USE THIS EXAMPLE” button and you immediately click it, then the IDE picks the first alphabetical file in the library, which may or may not be a working example. So probably a good idea to view the file you are interested in before clicking the “USE THIS EXAMPLE” button.
Also many example sketches use .cpp extensions instead of .ino extensions which confuses the issue a little bit.
Probably too complex for the IDE but it would be a nice feature if a little success checkmark was near the .ino file showing a successful compile like what they have on the Docker Hub site.
You already found out, but I just repeat what I’d already sent you in the PM
Not all libraries do come with sample sketches, although they should (the existance of an examples folder is required for contributions)
But even if there are samples you won’t always see the button.
This depends on which file you’ve selected in the list of lib files.
If it’s a file that directly belongs to the lib itself, you won’t see that button. If it’s one of the files that were stored in the examples folder of the GitHub repo for the lib, then the button appears.
I personally would prefere it if people would name their sample sketches .ino and only the lib files .h/.cpp - this would make it easier to find samples, especially in huge libraries with many files.
This may be a really silly question, but when I use the servo variable in my apps I do not have to include the particle.h file. Does that mean the particle.h file is always included in any of our apps?
So these two statements can be deleted from any .ino or include file ported from arduino?
#include "particle.h"
#include "application.h"
So these two files are really just for backwards compatibility if you wanted to port the code so it can work on both arduino and particle products using the following code.
If your project main file is an .INO file and you have not used #pragma SPARK_NO_PREPROCESSOR then the preprocessor will add that include for you.
Or if you include a header that in turn does include application.h or Particle.h that'll do too.
There is an implicit limit which depends on the maximum length of the full path for that file which depends on your OS and the location of your file.
AFAIK e.g. Windows chokes on paths longer than 255 characters.
But what exactly is the error message you get?
And how does the #include statement look like?
I have noticed several library .ino have this same problem where the .ino can not find the header file. See image from the library entry called webserver, second .ino called WEB_AJAXRGB_MOBILE.INO. Does not compile since it can’t find the header.
This is also by design.
The sample relys on its own library and some other libraries but does not contain these (to prevent redundancy and keep up with updates).
So in order to build the sample you have to import that required library too.
Another possible cause for this might be the wiring preprocessor getting tripped.
You can try adding an empty first line or removing the leading comment block.
If this also doesn’t help, #pragma SPARK_NO_PREPROCESSOR might help.
That is one strange library system. Has any one randomly gone through it and loaded libraries. When using “Use this Example” sometimes they compile, sometimes they don’t (the error; can’t find the include file), very strange. Load the same file up again and it works. (Even the Official libraries do this. Adding a blank first line sometimes helps.)
Anyway I managed to get my first include working, but once again a very strange compile system was needed. Don’t really want to publish it since it sounds like I then can’t delete it and this is just a test repo.
The repository is at
I guess anyone can try to contribute it then import it and “Use this Example”. When I try it. It does not compile.
a01-beginner.cpp:6:23: fatal error: myar/myar.h: No such file or directory
#line 2
So in the file a01-beginner.ino using the IDE I change the line
#include "myar/myar.h"
to
#include "myar.h"
and try again and I get the error
a01-beginner.cpp:6:18: fatal error: myar.h: No such file or directory #line 2
So I change it back to the original
#include "myar/myar.h"
and it compiles just fine!!!
I flash it to the photon and it works great. Blinks every second (2000 ms for a complete on off cycle). I assume I have screwed something up, but not really sure what.
