Is there a Scratch-like Arduino IDE?

Question

I believe that the answer is no, but I wanted to check before I put effort into rectifying it (and no, no promises!)

Is there anything like Scratch that one can use to program an Arduino?

(Scratch is a graphical coding environment that makes learning to program fun, and is certainly suitable for elementary students. It is put out by the Lifelong Kindergarten Group at MIT).

score 12 · Accepted Answer · edited May 13 '11 at 12:47

12

It's in the works. A friend of mine, Ed Baafi, is working on a Scratch-like interface for Arduino. I believe he may be presenting something in Cambridge (MA) at the science festival this April.

Using a python shell script we (by we I mean Ed) were able to interface one of my USB+XBee interfaces with the my ZB1 (arduino compatible board + XBee). Text typed into an entry box was displayed on an LCD.

His site is http://www.modk.it

edited May 13 '11 at 12:47

Daniel Grillo

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answered Mar 24 '10 at 17:11

jluciani

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Wow! I'm going to have to look into that some more. – Clinton Blackmore Mar 24 '10 at 17:49
There also mention of Dave Mellis doing some work with Scratch for Arduino -- See http://web.media.mit.edu/~mellis/ – jluciani Mar 26 '10 at 16:24
It should be noted that the project Ed Baafi is working on is Modkit. (Another answer has more details). – Clinton Blackmore Oct 15 '10 at 14:42

score 5 · Answer 2 · answered Mar 31 '10 at 18:23

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There is a program called Catenary that allows Scratch programs to talk to an Arduino board.

There are more details and a user guide found here: http://scratchconnections.wik.is/User:Chalkmarrow/Catenary

answered Mar 31 '10 at 18:23

That's interesting. Interesting indeed. – Clinton Blackmore Mar 31 '10 at 19:16
Scratch will communicate with other programs via sockets! That's amazing! – Clinton Blackmore Mar 31 '10 at 21:36
It is easier to use Catenary with Build Your Own Blocks. See http://robotclub.ab.ca/blog/27/code-blocks-electronic-bricks-and-lego-beams – Clinton Blackmore May 27 '10 at 20:11

score 3 · Answer 3 · answered Mar 24 '10 at 17:09

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This has been discussed at some length (for AVRs) here:

http://www.avrfreaks.net/index.php?name=PNphpBB2&file=viewtopic&p=484219

answered Mar 24 '10 at 17:09

Toby Jaffey

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score 3 · Answer 4 · answered Oct 15 '10 at 12:08

Modkit

Modkit is an in-browser graphical programming environment for little devices called embedded systems. Modkit can currently program Arduino and Arduino compatible hardware using simple graphical blocks similar to and heavily inspired by the Scratch programming environment developed by the Lifelong Kindergarten Group at the MIT Media Lab.

Modkit
Screenshot 1
Screenshot 2

score 2 · Answer 5 · answered Jul 22 '18 at 12:37

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In Tinkercad there is a circuit function where you can place the arduino and all the other necessary components and program the virtual arduino using a scratch like interface. You can then copy the code on to the Arduino IDE.

answered Jul 22 '18 at 12:37

F.Ahmed

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Interesting. Not a bad selection of components either: the usual common IO devices, standard passive components, transistors, relays, comparators, timers, logic gates ... no schematic view, unfortunately, which would have been nice, but I guess given the target market that's probably a bit too much to expect. :) – Jules Jul 22 '18 at 17:49

score 1 · Answer 6 · answered Mar 31 '10 at 21:39

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Cypress PSoC chips are programmed with a visual dataflow style IDE.

answered Mar 31 '10 at 21:39

terrace

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Interesting. Unfortunately, it does not look like something I can leverage for my purposes. – Clinton Blackmore Mar 31 '10 at 23:12

avra · Answer 7 · 2020-04-19T17:31:33.777

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Scratch for Arduino (S4A) http://s4a.cat/ is one of them

edited Apr 19 '20 at 17:31

answered Nov 30 '10 at 22:15

avra

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score 0 · Answer 8 · answered Oct 20 '11 at 15:07

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Just learned about another simplified programming environment for the Arduino: Minibloq.

answered Oct 20 '11 at 15:07

Clinton Blackmore

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Is there a Scratch-like Arduino IDE?

8 Answers8