Unoardusimv1.6 Full Help: Program Panes and Preferences
Unoardusimv1.6 Full Help: Program Panes and Preferences
6 Full Help
Table of Contents
Overview
Program Panes and Preferences
Code Pane
Preferences
Edit/View
Variables Pane
Lab Bench Pane
The Uno
I/O Devices
Serial Monitor (SERIAL)
Software Serial (SFTSER)
SD Disk Drive(SD_DRV)
Shift Register Slave (SRSLV)
Configurable SPI Slave (SPISLV)
Two-Wire I2C Slave (I2CSLV)
Stepper Motor (STEPR)
DC Motor (MOTOR)
Servo Motor (SERVO)
Digital Pulser (PULSER)
One-Shot (1SHOT)
Analog Function Generator (FUNCGEN)
Piezoelectric Speaker (PIEZO)
Push Button (PUSH)
Slide Switch Resistor (R=1K)
Coloured LED (LED)
Analog Slider
Menus
File menu commands:
Prompt
Find Next Function/Var
Find Previous Function/Var
Set Search Text
Find Next Text
Find Previous Text
Execute menu commands:
I/O Devices
Preferences
VarUpdates menu commands:
Serial Monitor
Restore All
Prompt
Pin Digital Waveforms
Pin Analog Waveform
Help menu commands:
Release Notes
Bug Fixes
V1.6 June 2016
V1.5.1 June 2016
V1.5 May 2016
V1.4.3 Apr. 2016
V1.4.2 Mar. 2016
V1.4.1 Jan. 2016
V1.4 Dec. 2015
V1.3 Oct. 2015
V1.2 Jun 2015
V1.1 Mar 2015
V1.0.2 Aug 2014
V1.0.1 June 2014
V1.0 -- first release May 2014
Changes/Improvements
V1.6 June 2016
V1.5.1 June 2016
V1.5 May 2016
V1.4.2 Mar 2016
V1.4 Dec 2015
V1.3 Oct 2015
Version 1.2 June 2015
V1.1 Mar 2015
V1.0.1 June 2014
V1.0 -- first release May 2014
Overview
UnoArduSim is a freeware real-time (see Modelling for Timing restrictions) simulator tool that I have developed for
the student and Arduino enthusiast. It is designed to allow you to experiment with, and to easily debug, Arduino
programs without the need for any actual hardware. It is targeted to the Arduino Uno board, and allows you to
choose from a set of virtual I/O devices, and to configure and connect these devices to your virtual Uno in the
LabBench Pane. -- you don't need to worry about wiring errors, broken/loose connections, or faulty devices messing
up your program development and testing.
UnoArduSim provides simple error messages for any parse or execution errors it encounters, and allows debugging
with Reset, Run, Run-To, Halt, and flexible Stepping in the Code Pane, with a simultaneous view of all global and
currently-active local variables, arrays, and objects in the Variables Pane. Run-time array-bounds checking is
provided, and ATmega RAM overflow will be detected (and the culprit program line highlighted!). Any electrical
conflicts with attached I/O devices are flagged and reported as they occur.
When an INO or PDE program file is opened, it is loaded into the program Code Pane. The program is then parsed,
and "compiled" into a tokenized executable which is then ready for simulated execution (unlike Arduino.exe, a
standalone binary executable is not created) Any parse error is detected and flagged by highlighting the line that failed
to parse, and reporting the error on the Status Bar at the very bottom of the UnoArduSim application window. An
Edit/View window can be opened to allow you to see and edit a syntax-highlighted version of your user program.
Errors during simulated execution (such as mis-matched baud rates) are reported on the Status bar, and via a pop-up
MessageBox.
UnoArduSim V1.6 is a substantially complete implementation of the Arduino Programming Language V1.6.6 as
documented at arduino.cc.'s Language Reference web page, and with additions as noted in the version's Download
page Release Notes. Although UnoArduSim does not support the full C++ implementation that Arduino.exe's
underlying GNU compiler does, it is likely that only the most advanced programmers would find that some C/C++
element they wish to use is missing (and of course there are always simple coding work-arounds for such missing
features). In general, I have supported only what I feel are the most useful C/C++ features for Arduino hobbyists and
students -- for example, enum's and #define's are supported, but function-pointers are not. Even though user-defined
objects (classes and structs) and (most) operator-overloads are supported, multiple-inheritance is not.
Because UnoArduSim is a high-level-language simulator, only C/C++ statements are supported, assembly language
statements are not. Similarly, because it is not a low-level machine simulation, ATmega328 registers are not
accessible to your program for either reading or writing, although register-allocation, passing and return are emulated
(it you choose that under the Options menu).
As of V1.6, UnoArduSim has built-in automatic support for a limited subset of the Arduino provided libraries, these
being: Stepper.h, SD.h, Servo.h, SoftwareSerial.h, SPI.h, Wire.h, and EEPROM.h (version 2). For any #include'd
user-created libraries, UnoArduSim will not search the usual Arduino installation directory structure to locate the
library; instead you need to copy the corresponding header (.h) and source (.cpp) file to the same directory as the
program file that your are working on (subject of course to the limitation that the contents of any #include'd file(s)
must be fully understandable to UnoArduSim's parser).
I developed UnoArduSIm in Microsoft Visual C++, and it is currently only available for Windows TM. Porting to Linux or
MacOS, is a project for the future.! UnoArduSim grew out of simulators I had developed over the years for courses I
taught at Queen's University, and it has been tested reasonably extensively, but there are bound to be a few bugs still
hiding in there. If you would like to report a bug, please describe it (briefly) in an email to [email protected] and
be sure to attach your full-bug-causing-program Arduino source code so I can replicate the bug and fix it. I will
not be replying to individual bug reports, and I have no guaranteed timelines for fixes in a subsequent release
(remember there are almost always workarounds!).
Cheers,
Stan Simmons, Ph.D, P.Eng.
Associate Professor (retired)
Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering
Queen's University
Kingston, Ontario, Canada
May 2016
Preferences
ConfigurePreferences allows users to set program
options and viewing preferences (that a user will
normally wish to adopt at he next session). These can
therefore be saved and loaded from a myArduPrefs.txt
file that resides in the same directory as the loaded Uno
program ( myArduPrefs.txt is auto-loaded if it exists)
This dialog allows a choice between two mono-spaced
fonts and three typeface sizes, as well as other
miscellaneous user prferences.
Edit/View
By double-clicking on any line in the Code Pane (or using the File menu), an Edit/View window is opened to allow
changes to your program file, with the Code Pane's currently selected line highlighted.
This window has full edit capability with dynamic syntax-highlighting (different highlight colours for C++ keywords,
comments, etc.), optional bold syntax highlighting, and automatic indent-level formatting (assuming you have selected
that using the ConfigurePreferences dialog). You can also conveniently select built-in function calls (or pre#define'd constants) to be added into your program from the provided ListBox (just double-click on the desired
ListBox item to add it to your program at the current caret position function-call variable types are just for information
and are stripped out (leaving dummy placeholders) when added to your program).
The window has Find (use ctrl-F) and Find/Replace capability (use ctrl-H). The Edit/View window has UnDo (ctrl-Z),
and ReDo (ctrl-Y) buttons, so you can sequentially undo/redo any changes you have made since. All changes made
on the same program line count as a single undo/redo, as do any Replace-All operations.
To discard all changes you made since you first opened the program for editing, click the Cancel button. To adopt the
current state, click the Adopt button and the program is automatically re-parsed (and downloaded if no errors are
found) and the new status appears in the main UnoArduSim window Status Bar.
A new Compile (ctrl-R) button (plus an associated Parse-Error message box as seen in the image above) has been
added to allow testing of edits without needing to first close the window. A new Save (ctrl-S) button has also been
added as a shortcut (equivalent to an Adopt plus a later separate Save from the main window).
On either Cancel or Adopt with no edits made, the Code Pane current line changes to become the last View/Edit
caret position, and you can use that feature to jump the Code Pane to a specific line (possibly to prepare to do a RunTo), You can also use ctrl-PgDn and ctrlPgUp to jump to the next (or previous) empty-line break in your program
this is useful for quickly navigating up or down to significant locations (like empty lines between functions). You can
also use ctrl-Home and ctrl-End to jump to the program start, and end, respectively.
Tab-level auto-indent-formatting is done when the window opens if you have left that set in the Configure
Preferences dialog. You can also add or delete tabs yourself to a group of pre-selected consecutive lines using rightarrow or left-arrow but autoformat must be off to avoid losing your own tab levels.
And to help you better keep track of your contexts and bracing, clicking on a '{' or '}' brace highlights all text
between that brace and its matching partner.
Variables Pane
The Variables pane is located just below the Code Pane. It shows the current values for every user-global and active
(in-scope) local variable/array/object in the loaded program. As your program execution moves between functions, the
contents change to reflect only those local variables accessible to the current function/scope, plus any userdeclared globals. Any variables declared as 'const' or as PROGMEM (allocated to flash memory) have values that
cannot change, and to save space these are therefore not displayed. Servo and SoftwareSerial object instances
contain no useful values so are also not displayed.
On program Load or Reset all un-initialized value-variables are reset to value 0, and all un-initialized pointers to
0x0000.
The Uno
This is a depiction of the Uno board and its onboard LEDs. When you load a new program into UnoArduSim, if it
successfully parses it undergoes a "simulated download" to the Uno that mimics the way an actual Uno board
behaves you will see the serial RX and TX LED's flashing (along with activity on pins 1 and 0 which are hard-wired
for serial communication with a host computer). This is immediately followed by a pin 13 LED flash that signifies board
reset and (and UnoArduSim automatic halt at) the beginning of your loaded program's execution. You can avoid this
display and associated loading lag by deselecting Show DownLoad from the ConfigurePreferences dialog.
The window allows you to visualize the digital logic levels on all 20 Uno pins ('1' on red for HIGH, '0' on blue for LOW,
and '?' on grey for an undefined indeterminate voltage), and programmed directions ('I' for INPUT, "O" for OUTPUT).
For pins that are being pulsed using PWM via analogWrite( ), or by Tone( ), or by Servo.write( ), the
colour changes to purple and the displayed symbol becomes '^'.
Note that Digital pins 0 and 1 are hard-wired through 1-kOhm resistors to the USB chip for serial
communication with a host computer.
ASIDE: Digital pins 0-13 appear as simulator pins 0-13, and analog pins 0-5 appear as A0-A5 . To access an analog
pin in your program, you can refer to the pin number by one of two equivalent sets of numbers: 14-19; or A0-A5 (A0A5 are built-in-in const variables having values 14-19). And only when using analogRead( ), a third option is made
available you can, for this one instruction, drop the 'A' prefix from the pin number and simply use 0-5.To access pins
14-19 in your program using digitalRead( ) or digitalWrite( ), you can simply refer to that pin number, or
you may instead use the A0-A5 aliases.
Clicking on any of the Uno's pins can be done to open (or add to) either a Pin Digital Waveforms window or a Pin
Analog Waveform window both display the past one-second's worth of activity on that pin, as described next.
Left-clicking on any Uno pin will open a Pin Digital Waveforms window that displays the past one-second's worth of
digital-level activity on that pin. You can click on other pins to add these to the Pin Digital Waveforms display (to a
maximum of 4 waveforms at any one time).
To ZOOM IN and ZOOM OUT (zoom is always centered on the ACTIVE cursor), use the mouse wheel, or
keyboard shortcuts CTRL-up_arrow and CTRL-down_arrow.
delete wave
activate
BLUE cursor
activate
RED cursor
sense rising
edges
click to page view left or right, or use keys Home, PgUp, PgDn, End
sense falling
edges
One of the displayed waveforms will be the active pin waveform, indicated by its "Pin number" button being shown as
depressed (for example Pin 6 is active in the above Pin Digital Waveforms screen capture). You can select a
waveform by clicking its Pin number button, and then select the edge-polarity of interest by clicking the appropriate
rising/falling edge-polarity selection button,
, or
, or by using the shortcut keys uparrow and downarrow.You can
then jump-position the active cursor (either blue or red cursor lines with their delta time shown) backward or forward to
the chosen-polarity digital edge of this active pin waveform by using the forward/backward-to-edge arrow buttons ( ,
and
,
depending on activated cursor), or the keyboard shortcuts leftarrow and rightarrow.
To activate a cursor, click its coloured activation button as shown above this also jump-scrolls the view to that
cursor's current location. Alternatively, you can quickly alternate activation between cursors (with their respectivelycentred views) using the shortcut TAB key.
You can jump-position the currently activated cursor by left-clicking anywhere in the on-screen waveform view
region. Alternatively, you can select either the red or blue cursor line by clicking right on top of it (to activate it), then
drag it to a new location, and release. When a desired cursor is currently somewhere off-screen, you can right-click
anywhere in the view to jump it to that new on-screen location. If both cursors are already on-screen, right-clicking
simply alternates between activated cursor.
Doing instead a right-click on any Uno pin opens a Pin Analog Waveform window that displays the past onesecond's worth of analog-level activity on that pin. Unlike the Pin Digital Waveforms window, you can only display
one pin's worth of analog activity at any one time.
You can jump-position blue or red cursor lines to the next rising or falling "slope point" by using the forward/backward
arrow buttons (
,
or
,
, again depending on activated cursor, or leftarrow or rightarrow) in concert with the
rising/falling slope selection buttons ,
(the "slope point" occurs where the analog voltage passes through the
ATmega pin's high-digital-logic-level threshold). Alternatively, you can again click-to-jump, or drag these cursor lines
similar to their behaviour in the Pin Digital Waveforms window
I/O Devices
A number of different devices surround the Uno on the perimeter of the Lab Bench Pane. "Small" I/O devices (of
which you are allowed up to 16 in total) reside along the left and right sides of the pane. "Large" I/O devices (of which
you are allowed up to 8 in total) have "active" elements and reside along the top and bottom of the pane. The desired
number of each type of available I/O device can be set using the Configure I/O Devices menu selection.
Each IO device has one or more pin attachments shown as a two-digit pin number (00, 01, 02, 10,11,12, 13 and
either A0-A5, or 14-19, after that) in a corresponding edit box.. For pin numbers 2 through 9 you can simply enter the
single digit the leading 0 will be automatically provided, but for pins 0 and 1 you must first enter the leading 0. Inputs
are normally on the left side of an I/O device, and outputs are normally on the right (space permitting). All I/O devices
will respond directly to pin levels and pin-level changes, so will respond to either library functions targeted to their
attached pins, or to programmed digitalWrite( )'s (for "bit-banged" operation)
.
You can connect multiple devices to the same ATmega pin as long as this does not create an electrical conflict. Such
a conflict can be created either by an Uno OUTPUT pin driving against a high-drive (low-impedance) connected device
(for example, driving against a FUNCGEN output, or a DCMOTOR encoder output), or by two connected devices
competing with each other (for example both a PULSER and a PUSH-button attached to the same pin). Any such
conflicts would be disastrous in a real hardware implementation and so are disallowed, and will be flagged to the user
via a pop-up message box)
The Configure IO Devices menu item can be used to open a dialog to allow the user to choose the type(s), and
numbers, of desired I/O devices. From this dialog you can also Save I/O devices to a text file, and/or Load I/O devices
from a previously saved (or edited) text file (including all pin connections, and clickable settings, and any typedin edit-box values)
Note that as of version 1.6, the values in the period, delay, and pulse-width Edit boxes in the relevant IO
devices can be suffixed with the letter 'S' (or 's') to indicate that they should be Scaled according to the
position of a global I/O Values-Scaler slider that appears on the Main window's toolbar. With that slider fully to
the right, the scale factor is 1.0 (unity), and with the slider fully to the left the scale factor is 0 (subject to minimum
values enforced by each particular I/O device). You can scale more than one edit box value simultaneously using this
slider. This feature allows you to drag the slider while Running to easily emulate changing pulse widths, periods and
delays for those attached I/O devices.
The remainder of this section provides descriptions for each type of device.
SD Disk Drive(SD_DRV)
This I/O device allows for library software-mediated (but not "bit-banged") file input and output operations on the Uno
SPI pins (you can choose which CS* pin you will use). Your program can simply #include <SD.h> line near the
top, and you can use <SD.h> functions OR directly call SdFile functions yourself.
A larger window displaying directories and files (and content) can be opened by doubleclicking on the SD_DRV device. All drive content is loaded from an SD sub-directory in the
loaded program's directory (if it exists) at SdVolume init(), and is mirrored to that same
SD sub-directory on file close(), remove(), and on makeDir() and rmDir().
A yellow LED flashes during SPI transfers, and DATA shows the last SD_DRV response
byte. All SPI signals are accurate and can be viewed in a WavePane.
By double-clicking on the device you can open a larger companion window that instead allows you to fill in a 32byte-maximum FIFO buffer (so as to emulate TWI devices with such functionality), and to view (up to a maximum of
32) bytes of the most recently received data (as a two-hex-digit display of 8 bytes per line). The number of lines in
these two edit boxes corresponds to the chosen TWI buffer size (which can be selected using the Config>Preferences menu dialog). This has been added as an option since the Arduino Wire.h library uses five such RAM
buffers in its implementation code, which is RAM memory expensive. By editing the Arduino installation Wire.h file to
change defined constant BUFFER_LENGTH (and also editing the companion utility/twi.h file to change
TWI_BUFFERLENGTH ) both to be instead either 16 or 8, a user could significantly reduce the RAM memory
overhead of the Uno in a targeted hardware implementation --. UnoArduSim therefore mirrors this real-world
possibility through a Preferences menu option.
DC Motor (MOTOR)
This I/O device emulates a 6-volt-supply 100:1 geared DC motor with an integrated driver controller driven by a pulsewidth-modulation signal (on its Pwm input), and a direction control signal (on its Dir input). The motor also has a wheel
encoder output which drives its Enc output pin. You can use analogWrite( ) to drive the Pwm pin with a 490 Hz
(on pins 3,9,10,11) or 980 Hz (on pins 5,6) PWM waveform of duty cycle between 0.0 and 1.0 (analogWrite values 0
to 255). Alternatively, DCMOTOR will also respond to your own digitalWrite( )-created bit-banged drive signals.
The motor is accurately modeled both mechanically and electrically. Accounting for motordriver transistor voltage drops and realistic no-load gear torque gives a full speed of
approximately 2 revs per second, and stall torque of just over 5 kg-cm (occurring at a steady
PWM duty cycle of 1.0), with a total motor-plus-load moment of inertia of 2.5 kg-cm. The motor
rotor winding has a modeled resistance of R=2 ohms, and an inductance of L=300 microHenries which creates an electrical time constant of 150 microseconds. Because of the
realistic modeling you will notice that very narrow PWM pulses do not get the motor to turn
both due to the finite current rise time, and the significant off-time after each narrow pulse.
These combine to cause insufficient rotor momentum to overcome the gearbox's spring-like
lashback under static-friction. The consequence is when using analogWrite( ), a duty cycle below about 0.125 will
not cause the motor to budge this agrees with what is observed when driving a real gear-motor from an Uno with, of
course, an appropriate (and required) motor driver module in between the motor and the Uno!.
The emulated motor encoder is a shaft-mounted optical-interruption sensor that produces a 50% duty cycle waveform
having 8 complete high-low periods per wheel revolution (so your program can sense wheel rotational changes to a
resolution of 22.5 degrees).
One-Shot (1SHOT)
This I/O device emulates a digital one-shot that can generate a pulse of chosen polarity and pulse-width on its Out pin,
occurring after a specified delay from a triggering edge received on its Trg (trigger) input pin. Once the specified
triggering edge is received, timing begins and then a new trigger pulse will not be recognized until the Out pulse has
been produced (and has completely finished).
One possible use of this device is to simulate ultrasound ranging sensors that generate a
range pulse in response to a triggering pulse. It can also be used wherever you wish to
generate a pin input signal synchronized (after your chosen delay) to a pin output signal created
by your program.
Pulse and Delay values are scalable from the main toolbar I/O Values Scaler slider control by
suffixing either one (or both) with the letter 'S (or 's').
Analog Function Generator (FUNCGEN)
This I/O device emulates a simple analog waveform generator which produces a periodic signal that can be applied to
any chosen Uno pin.
The period (in microseconds) can be set using the edit boxthe minimum allowed period is 100
microseconds. The waveform it creates can be chosen to be sinusoidal, triangular, or sawtooth
(to create a square wave, use a PULSER instead). At smaller periods, fewer samples per cycle
are used to model the produced waveform (only 4 samples per cycle at period=100 usecs).
The Period value is scalable from the main toolbar I/O Values Scaler slider control by suffixing it
with the letter 'S (or 's').
Analog Slider
A slider-controlled 0-5V potentiometer can be connected to any chosen Uno pin to produce a static
(or slowly changing) analog voltage level which would be read by analogRead( ) as a value
from 0 to 1023. Use the mouse to drag, or click to jump, the analog slider.
Menus
File menu commands:
Load INO or PDE Prog (ctrl-L)
Edit/View (ctrl-E)
Save
Save the edited program contents back to the original program file.
Save As
Previous
Exit
Exits UnoArduSim.
Click in either the Code Pane or the variables Pane to give it the
active focus for this menu's commands.
Jump to the next Function in the Code Pane (if it has the active
focus), or to the next variable in the Variables Pane (if instead it has
the active focus).
Jump to the previous Function in the Code Pane (if it has the active
focus), or to the previous variable in the Variables Pane (if instead it
has the active focus).
Jump to the next Text occurrence in the Code Pane (if it has the
active focus), or to the next Text occurrence in the Variables Pane (if
instead it has the active focus).
Jump to the previous Text occurence in the Code Pane (if it has the
active focus), or to the previous Text occurrence in the Variables
Pane (if instead it has the active focus).
Step Out Of
Run To
Run
Halt
Reset
Animate
Slow Motion
Register-Allocation Modelling
Error on Uninitialized
Opens a dialog to allow the user to choose the type(s), and numbers, of
desired I/O devices. From this dialog you can also Save I/O devices to a text
file, and/or Load I/O devices from a previously saved (or edited) text file
(including all pin cpnnections and clickable settings and typed-in values
Preferences
Opens a dialog to allow the user to set preferences including auto-indentformatting of source program, allowing Expert syntax, choice of font typeface,
opting for a larger font size, enforcing of array bounds, permitting of logical
operator keywords, showing program download, choice of Uno board version,
and TWI buffer length (for I2C devices).
Allow Reduction
Minimal Updates
HighLight Updates
Connect a Serial IO device to pins 0 and 1 (if none) and pull up a larger Serial
monitor TX/RX text window.
Restore All
Prompt
Bug Fixes
Change/Improvements
About
Modelling
Intro
The Uno and attached I/O devices are all modelled electrically, and you will be able to get a good idea at home of how
your programs will behave with the actual hardware.
.
Timing
UnoArduSim executes rapidly enough on a PC or tablet that it can (in the majority of cases) model program actions in
real-time, but only if your program incorporates at least some small delay() calls or other calls that will naturally
keep it sync'd to real time (see below).
To accomplish this, UnoArduSim makes use of a Windows callback timer function, which allows it to keep accurate
track of real-time. The execution of a number of program instructions is simulated during one timer slice, and
instructions that require longer execution (like calls to delay( ) ) may need to use multiple timer slices. Each iteration
of the callback timer function corrects system time using the system hardware clock so that program execution is
constantly adjusted to keep in lock-step with real-time. The only times execution rate must fall behind real-time is
when the user has tight loops with no added delay, or IO devices configured for operation with very-high IO device
frequencies (and/or baud rate) which would generate an excessive number of pin-level-change events and associated
processing overload. This overload is avoided by skipping some timer intervals to compensate, and this would slow
down program progression to below real-time.
In addition, programs with large arrays being displayed, or again having tight loops with no added delay can cause a
high function call frequency and generate a high Variables Pane display update load causing it to fall behind real-time
this can be circumvented by allowing update reduction s in the VarUpdates menu, or by selecting Minimal Updates
there when necessary.
Accurately modelling the sub-millisecond execution time for each program instruction or operation is not done only
very rough estimates for most have been adopted for simulation purposes. However, the timing of delay( ), and
delayMicroseconds( ) functions, and functions millis( ) and micros( ) are all perfectly accurate, and as
long as you use at least one of the delay functions in a loop somewhere in your program, or you use a function that
naturally ties itself to real-time operation (like print( ) which is tied to the chosen baud rate), then your program's
simulated performance will be very close to real-time (again, barring blatantly excessive high-frequency pin-levelchange events or excessive user-allowed Variables updates which could slow it down).
In order to see the effect of individual program instructions when running, it may be desirable to be able to slow things
down. A time-slowdown factor of 10 can be set by the user under the Options menu.
I/O Devices
These virtual devices receive real-time signaling of changes that occur on their input pins, and produce corresponding
outputs on their output pins which can then be sensed by the Uno -- they are therefore inherently synchronized to
program execution. Internal I/O device timing is set by the user (for example through baud rate selection or Clock
frequency), and simulator events are set up to track real-time internal operation.
Sounds
Each PIEZO device produces sound corresponding to the electrical level changes occurring on the attached pin,
regardless of the source of such changes. UnoArduSim starts and stops an associated sound buffer as execution is
started/halted to keep the sound buffer synchronized to program execution. Multiple PIEZO's are accommodated, and
the DirectSoundTM API is used to look after all sound mixing.
Pointers
Pointers to simple types, arrays, or objects are all supported. A pointer may be equated to an array of the same type
(e.g. iptr = intarray), but then there would be no subsequent arrays bounds checking on an expression like
iptr[index].
Functions can return pointers, or 'const' pointers, but any subsequent level of 'const' on the returned pointer is
ignored.
There is no support for function calls being made through user-declared function-pointers.
Classes and Structs
Although polymorphism, and inheritance (to any depth), is supported, classes and structs can only be defined to have
at most one base class (i.e. multiple- inheritance is not supported). Base-class constructor initialization calls (via
colon notation) in constructor declaration lines are supported, but not member-initializations using that same colon
notation. This means that objects that contain non-static 'const' or reference-type variables are not supported (those
are only possible with specified construction-time member-initializations)
Copy-assignment operator overloads are supported along with move-constructors and move-assignments, but userdefined object-'conversion' ("cast-like") functions are not supported.
Scope
There is no support for the 'using' keyword, or for namespaces, or for 'file' scope. All non-local declarations are by
implementation assumed to be global.
All typedef's, and all named struct's and class'es (i.e. that may be used for future declarations), must be declared
at global scope (local declarations of such items inside a function are not supported).
Const, Volatile, Static
The 'const' keyword, when used, must precede the variable name or function name or typedef name that is being
declared -- placing it after the name will cause a parse error. Only pointer-returning functions can have 'const' appear
in their declaration.
All UnoArduSim variables are 'volatile' by implementation, so the 'volatile' keyword is simply ignored in all
variable declarations. Functions are not allowed to be declared 'volatile', nor are function-call arguments.
The 'static' keyword is allowed for normal variables, and for object members and member-functions, but is explicitly
disallowed for object instances themselves (classes/structs), for non-member functions, and for all function arguments.'
Compiler Directives
#include's and regular #define's and are supported, but not macro #defines. The #pragma directive and
conditional inclusion directives (#ifdef, #ifndef, #if, #endif, #else and #elif) are not supported. The
#line, #error and predefined macros (like _LINE_, _FILE_, _DATE_, _TIME_) are also not supported.
Arduino-language elements
All native Arduino language elements are supported with the exception of the dubious "goto" instruction (the only
reasonable use for it I can think of would be as a jump to a bail-out and safe shutdown endless-loop in the event of an
error condition that your program cannot otherwise deal with)
C/C++-language elements
Bit-saving "bit-field qualifiers" for members in structure definitions are not supported.
Union's are not supported.
The oddball "comma operator" is not supported (so you cannot perform several expressions separated by commas
when only a single expression is normally expected, for example in while( ) and for( ; ; ) constructs).
Function Templates
User-defined functions that use the keyword "template" to allow it to accept arguments of "generic" type are not
supported.
Real-Time Emulation
As noted above, execution times of the many different individual possible Arduino program instructions are not
modelled accurately, so that in order to run at a real-time rate your program will need some sort of dominating delay(
) instruction (at least once per loop( ) ), or an instruction that is naturally synchronized to real-time pin-level
changes (such as, pulseIn( ), shiftIn( ), Serial.read( ), Serial.print( ), Serial.flush( ) etc.)
See Modelling above for more detail on limitations.
Release Notes
Bug Fixes
V1.6 June 2016
1) In V1.5 Edit/View's auto-TAB-indent-on-Enter (when entering a new line) feature had been lost.
2) Detection of pin conflicts with attached high-drive external IO devices has now been added on Serial pin 1, on SPI
pins SS, MOSI, and SCK, on I2C pins SCL and SDA (all when the corresponding begin() is called), and on any
declared SoftwareSerial txpin.
3) Complex member-expression function call arguments were not always recognized as valid function-parameter
matches.
4) ALL integer literals and expressions were sized too generously (to 'long') and therefore execution did not reflect the
actual overflows (to negative) that can occur in Arduino on add/multiply operations involving 'int' sized values.
5) Expressions involving a mix of signed and unsigned integer types were not always handled properly (the
signed value would be improperly seen as unsigned).
6) In pin-conflict cases, 'value =' error messages could show stale pin values even after a Reset from a previous
conflict that the user had already cleared.
V1.4.1 Jan. 2016
1) Calls to print(char) now print properly as ASCII characters (rather than numeric values).
2) Interrupt response is now enabled by default when attachInterrupt() is called, so there is no longer any need in
your setup() to call the enabling function interrupts().
3) Multiple #includes of user-files from within one file are now handled properly.
V1.4 Dec. 2015
1) A LONG-STANDING bug incorrectly flagged a DIVIDE-BY-ZERO condition when dividing by a fractional value less
than unity.
2) Fixed SoftwareSerial (which was inadvertently broken by an added class-member validation check in V1.3
releases).
3) End-of-line function calls with a missing semicolon were not caught, and caused the Parse to skip the next line.
4) A badly formatted IODevs text file gave an improper error message.
5) Parse Error highlighting of the incorrect (adjacent) line in multi-line expressions and statements has been fixed
6) Logical testing of pointers using the 'not' ( ! ) operator was inverted.
8) Typing into an I2CSlave 'Send' edit box would sometimes cause a crash due to sscanf bug.
9) Loading a new program having a new IODevs file in its directory could cause irrelevant pin conflicts with OLD pin
directions.
10)Escaped-Serial-character handling was improperly applied to received, rather than transmitted, character
sequences in the (larger) Serial Monitor buffers window.
11)while() and for() loops with completely empty bodies, such as "while(true);" or "for(int
k=1;k<=100;k++);" passed Parse (with a warning message) but failed at execution time..
V1.2 Jun 2015
1) The very simplest of user functions that made calls to either digitalRead() or to analogRead() or bit()
could have corrupted their (very first) declared local variable (if any) due to insufficient allocated function scratchpad
space (if only two scratchpad bytes got allocated at the very start of the function's stack) . Any numeric expression
at all inside a function is sufficient to cause a 4-byte scratchpad allocation, and so avoids this issue. This
unfortunate bug has been around since the original release V1.0.
2) Void functions with an early explicit return, and non-void functions with more than one return statement, would
see execution fall-through at the closing brace (if it was reached).
3) Return statements in un-braced if( ) contexts led to a faulty return-to-caller target.
4) Pulser and FuncGen pulsewidths/periods of 0 could cause a crash (0 is now disallowed).
5) 'else' continuations after an if() did not work following unbraced 'break', 'continue', or 'return's.
6) When multiple user enum's were declared, only constants defined in the very first enum did not generate faulty
"enum mismatch" Parse errors (the bug got introduced in V1.1).
7) A null identifier for the very last parameter of a function prototype caused a Parse error.
8) Run-To breakpoints set on complex lines were not always handled properly (and so could be missed).
9) HardwareSerial and SoftwareSerial used a private implementation TXPending buffer that did not get
cleaned out on Reset's (so leftover characters from last time could appear).
10) Parse failed to check for illegal bit-flipping of float's, and pointer arithmetic attempted with illegal operators.
V1.1 Mar 2015
1) Array indices that were byte or char sized variables caused incorrect array offsets (if an adjacent variable
contained a non-0 high-byte).
2) Logical testing of pointers tested the pointed-to value for non-zero rather than the pointer value itself.
3) Return statements embedded inside for() or while() loops were mishandled.
4) Aggregate-initialization lists for arrays of objects, or objects containing other objects/arrays, or completely empty
initialization lists, were not being handled properly.
5) Access of enum member values using an " enumname." prefix was not supported.
6) Declaration-line initialization of a char[ ] array with a quoted string literal was not working.
7) An array being passed to a function without prior initialization was improperly flagged with a "used but not initialized"
error.
Changes/Improvements
V1.6 June 2016
1) Added a new OneShot IO Device which generates a pulse after a chosen delay from a tigger signal edge of
selected polarity.
2) Added a new feature to make I/O device edit box values easily scalable during execution by dragging a global
I/O Values Scaler slider on the main toolbar (just type a single letter 's' or 'S' after a value to indicate scaling).
V1.5.1 June 2016
3) Support has been now been added for EEPROM library functions update(), put() and get(), and for
byte access via array notation, e.g. EEPROM[k].
4) Allow Auto (-) Collapse' has been added to the VarUpdates menu to allow explicit control over whether or not
expanded arrays/structs/objects will be auto-collapsed when execution is falling behind real-time.
5) A String variable's characters can now also be accessed via array notation, e.g. mystring[k].
V1.5 May 2016
1) View/Edit now has shortcut ctrl-E, and has a new button for Compile (ctrl-R), plus a builtin Parse-error box, to
allow testing of edits without needing to close the window.
2) View/Edit now now also supports Redo's, and has a new Save (ctrl-S) button (equivalent to Adopt plus a later
main-window Save), and now gives a choice of TAB size (a new preference that can be saved using the
Configure->Preferences dialog).
3) All writable edit boxes now follow the chosen Windows OS theme colours, and for contrast all READ-only
RECV edit boxes use white text on black background. View/Edit's background and syntax-highlight colours
now also adapt to the chosen theme.
4) UnoArduSim now allows a choice of typeface -- that choice, and typeface sizing, have been moved to the
Preferences Dialog (so can be saved in the myArduPrefs.txt file).
5) Arduino pre-defined binary literal values (like B01011011) are now allowed.
6) Escaped hex, octal, and 4-digit Unicode quoted character sequences can now be used as numeric literals.
7) After making an initial mouse-click on a PushButton IO device's push-pad, the user can then instead use a
key-press (any key) to depress the Pushbutton's contacts.
8) View/Edit now releases its temporary initial read-only state (and removes the highlighting of the initial selected
line) after a brief visual flash cue.
9) UnoArduSim now checks for multiple Stepper and Servo pin conflicts, i.e. faulty user program attempts to
attach to pins already attached to earlier Stepper/Servo variables.
10) A Parse error caused by a missing left-hand or right-hand side to an operator (missing a LHS or RHS
expression or variable) now generates a clear error message.
11) The unused String class 'flags' member variable has been removed to agree with Arduino V1.6.6. A
String object now occupies 6 bytes (plus its characters' heap allocation).
V1.4.2 Mar 2016
1) Forward-defined functions (i.e. those with no prototype declaration before their first call) now only generate
warnings (not parse errors) when the later function definition return-type mismatches the type inferred from
their first use.
2) Arrays having a dimension equal to 1 are no longer rejected (in order to agree with standard C++ rules)..
3) Edit boxes ae no longer set to black on white background they now adopt the palette set by the Windows OS
theme in use.
4) Serial, SoftSerial, SPI Slave, and I2C Slave expanded Monitor windows now adopt the background colour of
their parent IO Device.
V1.4 Dec 2015
1) Stepper.h library functionality and associated I/O devices have now been added..
2) All IO Device settings and values (in addition to its selected pins) are now also saved as part of the chosen
user IODevs text file for later reload.
3) LED I/O device colour can now be set as either red, yellow or green using an edit box on the device.
4) .Variable declaration initializers are now allowed to span multiple lines.
5) Array indices are now allowed to themselves be array elements.
6) The ConfigPreferences dialog now includes a checkbox to permit 'and','or','not' keywords to be used in
place of the C-standard &&, ||, and ! logical operators.
7) 'Show Program Download' has been moved to the ConfigPreferences dialog
V1.3 Oct 2015
1) PushButton's now have a push-like checkbox labeled "latch" to make them 'latching' (instead of 'momentary'),
that is, they will latch in the closed position (and change colour) when pressed until pressed again to release
them.
2) Full capability SPI Slave devices (SPISLV) have been added with node selection (MODE0, MODE1, MODE2,
or MODE3). Double-clicking opens a TX/RX buffers window where upcoming REPLY (TX) bytes may be
defined, and for viewing of past received (RX) bytes. The previous version's simple-shift-register slave device
has been renamed to become an 'SRSLV' device.
3) Bold typeface can now be chosen for the CodePane and Variables Pane (from the Options menu), and bold
highlighting of keywords and operators can now be toggled on/off in View/Edit.
4) UnoArduSim now allows bool as a synonym for boolean .
5) For clarity in error reporting, variable declarations are no longer allowed to span multiple lines (except for
arrays having initializer lists).
6) Syntax colourization speed in View/Edit has been improved (this will be noticeable with larger programs)
7) An optional 200 microsecond overhead (Options menu)has been added to each call of loop() this is to try
to avoid falling too far behind real-time in the case where the user program has no added delay() anywhere
(see Timing discussion under Modelling).
Version 1.2 June 2015
1) The SD library is now fully implemented and a (small) 8Mbyte SD Disk I/O device has been added (and
functionality tested against all Arduino sample SD programs).
2) Like Arduino, UnoArduSim will now automatically convert a function argument to its address when calling a
function expecting a pointer to be passed.
3) Parse error messages are now more appropriate when there are missing semicolons, and after unrecognized
declarations.
4) Stale Variables Pane line highlights now get removed on function call/return.
V1.1 Mar 2015
1) The main window can now be maximized/resized to make the Code Pane and Variables Pane wider (for
larger screens).
2) A Find menu (and toolbar icons) have been added to allow quicker navigation in the CodePane and Variables
Panes (PgUp and PgDown, or text-search with up-arrow, down-arrow).
3) The View/Edit window now allows ctrl-PgUp and ctrl-PgDn navigation jumps (to next empty-line), and has
augmented Find/Replace functionality.
4) A VarUpdates menu item has been created to allow the user to select a computation-saving approach under
heavy Variables Pane update loads.
5) Uno pins and attached LED's now reflect any changes made to I/O devices even when time is frozen (that is,
even when execution is halted).
6) Other user functions can now be called from inside a user interrupt function (in accordance with update to
Arduino 1.06).
7) A larger font can now be chosen from the Options menu.
V1.0.1 June 2014
Waveform windows now label analog pins as A0-A5 instead of 14-19.
V1.0 -- first release May 2014