The purpose of this tutorial is provide a quick overview of the options you

have when your developing firmware for the Photon. The online Build IDE is

easy, but it’s not for everyone – that shouldn’t stop anyone from getting a

chance to use this powerful, cost-effective WiFi development platform.

This tutorial is split into a few sections. Navigate using the menu on the

right, or click below to skip straight to the section you’re most interested in:

• Particle Build – A beginner friendly, browser-based, online IDE

hosted on Particle.io.

• Particle Dev – An offline editor that allows you to locally store your

source code, but still requires Internet connectivity for compiling and

flashing code to your Photon.

• ARM GCC and DFU Bootloading – The heart of the Photon is an

STM32 ARM microcontroller, so if you already have an ARM IDE set

up, the Photon’s open-source firmware will make it easy to port to the

Photon. Plus, because the Photon has a built-in USB bootloader,

loading the code can take place entirely offline too!

Particle Build (Online)

The Particle Build IDE is an always-online, browser-based portal where

your Photon code can be edited, saved, and shared. This cloud-based IDE

handles code compilation and flashes the built binaries to your Photon

over-the-air. You don’t even need your Photon next to you to update its

program!

To load the Build IDE head over to build.particle.io.

OPEN THE BUILD IDE!

If it’s your first time working with Build you may have to create an account,

otherwise log in to one you’ve already created.

Tour of the Build IDE

The majority of the Build IDE’s window is taken up by your code view – as it

should be. To navigate around the Build IDE there are buttons on the left

side of the window. Hover over any button to get a brief overview of what it

does – you’ll quickly become familiar with all of these icons.

•

– Flash: Remotely upload your application code to the selected

device.

•

– Verify: Compile your code and check for errors. Any

compilation errors will be listed under the code.

•

– Save: Save early. Save often! This’ll save your app, which

you’ll be able to find under the Code view.

•

– Code: This button will list of all of your saved apps. From

there you can click one to load it.

Page 2 of 13