Firmata

Setting up Arduino

Clone Arduino library to your machine:

 git clone http://github.com/firmata/arduino ~/Documents/Arduino/libraries/Firmata

Select Examples -> Firmata -> StandardFirmata from the menu and hit the Upload button.

Setting up Ubuntu box

For Ubuntu 14.04 first add Python 3.5 repository:

 sudo add-apt-repository ppa:fkrull/deadsnakes
 sudo apt-get update
 sudo apt-get install python3.5

Ubuntu 15.10 already has Python 3.5 available, simply install it:

 sudo apt-get install python3.5

Ubuntu 16.04 will ship Python 3.5 by default so need to install additional packages.

Install PyMata for Python 3.5:

 git clone https://github.com/MrYsLab/pymata-aio
 cd pymata-aio
 sudo python3.5 setup.py install

Create test.py with following code:

 from pymata_aio.pymata3 import PyMata3
 from pymata_aio.constants import Constants
 
 # instantiate the pymata_core API
 board = PyMata3()
 
 # set the pin mode
 board.set_pin_mode(13, Constants.PWM)
 
 for j in range(0, 10):
     for i in range(0, 255):
         board.analog_write(13, i)
     for i in range(255, 0, -1):
         board.analog_write(13, i)
 
 # reset the board and exit
 board.shutdown()

Plug the Arduino to your machine via USB cable and run the code:

 python3.5 test.py