Skip to main content

Hello, Meadow Project Lab

Meadow Project Lab Getting Started Guide

This guide shows you how to set up your Meadow Project Lab board from unboxing all the way to deploying your fist Meadow app from either Visual Studio 2022 or Visual Studio Code.

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 - 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  meadow-ccm          [C#],F#,VB.NET  Meadow/Console
Meadow Desktop App       meadow-desktop      [C#]            Meadow/Console
Meadow F7 Feather App    meadow-feather      [C#],F#,VB.NET  Meadow/Console
Meadow Jetson Nano App   meadow-jetson-nano  [C#]            Meadow/Console
Meadow Library           meadow-library      [C#],F#,VB.NET  Meadow/Library
Meadow Project Lab App   meadow-project-lab  [C#]            Meadow/Console
Meadow Raspberry Pi App  meadow-rpi          [C#]            Meadow/Console
Meadow reTerminal App    meadow-reterminal   [C#]            Meadow/Console
Meadow StartKit App      meadow-startkit     [C#]            Meadow/App/StartKit

Step 5 - Deploy latest version of Meadow.OS​

Use the Meadow.CLI to deploy Meadow.OS to your board to ensure it’s running with the latest version available.

Step 6 - 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 Project Lab App (Wilderness Labs):

Create new Meadow Application

Once the new project is loaded, right-click on the toolbar area and select the Meadow Device List item.

Display Meadow Devices Toolbar

This is your device selector to deploy applications to Meadow devices.

Step 7 - Deploy your application​

Connect your board if disconnected, and in the Meadow devices drop down it should list its corresponding COM port. Once selected, click on the play Debug button to start transferring the application to your board.

Display Meadow Devices Toolbar

caution

When deploying a project for the first time, the transfer will take several minutes, since it's transferring all the necessary libraries to run the application. Once the app is running for the first time, deployment will be faster as it will transfer only the files that have been changed.

Once all the files are transferred to your device, the app will start in debug mode and you should see Project Lab's screen turn on and show sensor readings every few seconds and pushing the buttons updates the states shown on the screen.

Project Lab app running

Step 8 - Check out additional samples​

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

Meadow.Project.Samples GitHub Repository