Hello, Meadow.Windows + FT232H

Visual Studio 2022

Step 1 - Install .NET Runtime

Download and install the latest version of the .NET runtime.

Step 2 - Install Visual Studio

Download and Install Visual Studio 2022 for either Windows or macOS to prepare your development machine. Community edition will work fine.

Step 3 - Add Meadow Visual Studio Extension

Open Visual Studio’s Extensions Manager and install the VS 2022 Tools for Meadow Extension.

Step 4 - Create your first Meadow application

In Visual Studio, open the Create a new project window. When you search for Meadow, you will see a list of project templates, click on Meadow.Windows + FT232H App (Wilderness Labs):

This project creates a Meadow.Windows app that has a Windows Forms (WinForms) window showing a Hello World text using MicroLayout and a RGB LED connected to a FT232H IO Expander, will blink and change colors simultaneously.

Step 5 - Run a Meadow Application

Right-click the new project and select Set as Startup project

And as for the FT232H with the RGB LED, you should see something like this:

Step 6 - Check out additional samples

You can check more samples in our Meadow.Desktop.Samples GitHub repo.

Visual Studio Code

Step 1 - Install .NET Runtime

Download and install the latest version of the .NET runtime.

Step 2 - Install Visual Studio Code

Download and Install Visual Studio Code to prepare your development machine.

Step 3 - Install Meadow Project Templates

Open a console window and enter the following command to install a list of Meadow project templates:

dotnet new install WildernessLabs.Meadow.Template

When installed, you’ll see a list of templates available:

The following template packages will be installed:
   WildernessLabs.Meadow.Template

Success: WildernessLabs.Meadow.Template installed the following templates:
Template Name                  Short Name         Language        Tags
-----------------------------  -----------------  --------------  --------------
Meadow Core-Compute App        CoreComputeModule  [C#],F#,VB.NET  Meadow/Console
Meadow F7 Feather App          F7Feather          [C#],F#,VB.NET  Meadow/Console
Meadow Library                 Library            [C#],F#,VB.NET  Meadow/Library
Meadow Project Lab App         ProjectLab         [C#]            Meadow/Console
Meadow.Desktop App             Desktop            [C#]            Meadow/Console
Meadow.Linux Jetson Nano App   JetsonNano         [C#]            Meadow/Console
Meadow.Linux Raspberry Pi App  RaspberryPi        [C#]            Meadow/Console
Meadow.Linux reTerminal App    reTerminal         [C#]            Meadow/Console

Step 4 - Create your first Meadow application

Lets verify everything is set up by deploying your first Meadow application.

Open VSCode in a new Terminal within enter the following command to create a new Meadow.Windows project:

dotnet new WinFormsHardware --name WinFormsHardwareDemo

This Meadow.Windows application controls an RGB LED connected to a FT232H IO Expander that you can connect to your machine via USB-C, and opens a 320x240 pixel WinForms window saying Hello, World using MicroLayout.

Step 5 - Run a Meadow Application

With no code changes, let's run this app on your machine.

In VSCode, open a terminal inside the project folder, build the project with the command:

dotnet build

And finally to run the Meadow application, use the command:

dotnet run

At that point, you should see the application’s output in the console and the RGB LED cycling through different colors:

And a WinForm window should show up in the center of the screen saying Hello, World, like below:

Step 6 - Check out additional samples

You can check more samples in our Meadow.Desktop.Samples GitHub repo.