Pycom with Atom Setup

Owned by Jonathan Brewer
Last updated: Aug 06, 2018
1 min read

Adapted and simplified from Franck Albinet's exercises available here. First presented by NSRC at APRICOT 2018.

Installing Atom editor

Atom is an Integrated Development Environment (IDE), providing convenient features to edit Python code (among many others): syntax highlighting, completion, auto-indentation, integration with Git, bash, ...

We will use Atom to write Python code during the labs sessions.

To install it, download the installation file for your Operating System here: https://atom.io/


Installing Atom Pymakr plugin

The Python code written will not be executed in your local machine. Instead, you need to transfer it to your IoT device (in our case Pycom Lopy). To do so, Pycom developed a plugin named Pymakr that will facilitate the execution and syncing of Python to the device.

To install the plugin in Atom:

  1. Open Atom
  2. In top menu: Atom ► Preferences...
  3. And write pymkr in the input box under the Install tab (followed by Enter):



Using Atom - Important!

When you are using Atom, you must only have one project open at a time. When you change exercises, choose "File:Close Window" before opening more files. 

Troubleshooting

Windows 7 drivers

On most platforms, once the Atom Pymakr package installed, you will be in a position to communicate with Pycom devices via the USB port without any issue.

In the case of Windows 7, you will need to install an additional driver. The procedure is documented in Pycom documentation at the following url: https://docs.pycom.io/chapter/pytrackpysense/installation/drivers.html

Alternatively, you can find as well the required driver here ../software/windows/pycom.inf