Graphical programing language for Arduino

Question

I am looking for a graphical programming language for a project of mine, where I am using an Arduino.

It HAS to meet the following conditions:

• It supports uploaing sketches to ATmega328 (Arduino Uno/Nano)
• New functions can be defined inside the programming enviroment (I am trying to use a motor connected to an H-bridge with a single command block)
• The program can run on Windows 7
• Libraries can be used inside the code
• C++ can also be used to write the code inside the same program
• Sketches can be uploaded via Bluetooth 4.0

It would be nice if it met the following condition:

• The programming enviroment is easy to use
• The graphical programming language is somewhat similar to Scratch
• The program can be understood by 10-14 year olds with no programming experience

Answer 1

The most full featured Scratch-like environment for Arduino, to my knowledge that is close to your listed criteria is http://www.mblock.cc/

It's currently in beta development for enabling bluetooth uploads and supports a range of "extension" plugins. I believe you can also add functionality by writing your own extensions if you have sufficient programming knowledge.

The software has more features if you use their mblock hardware, while offering a reduced set of commands for other boards such as the Uno.

I'm sure you can add library's to your code but at the expense of the scratch-like interface. A children's visual design tool being able to provide graphical API to libraries written by an open source community is quite a coding challenge. You can get a feel for this by trying to use any reverse engineering C++ to UML diagram tools.

I recommend perhaps using one of these scratch tools to build simple firmware as a learning tool with the idea of progressing to an actual programming language soon after.

In any case I hope you find what you're looking for among these options for your project.

• http://www.mblock.cc/
• http://s4a.cat/
• http://blog.minibloq.org/p/documentation.html
• http://blog.ardublock.com/engetting-started-ardublockzhardublock/
• https://www.visuino.com/

Answer 2

Give Visuino a look, they are making noise lately: https://www.visuino.com/