Firmata is a protocol for communicating with microcontrollers from software on a computer (or smartphone/tablet, etc). The protocol can be implemented in firmware on any microcontroller architecture as well as software on any computer software package (see list of client libraries below).

Firmata is based on the midi message format in that commands bytes are 8 bits and data bytes are 7 bits. For example the midi Channel Pressure (Command: 0xD0) message is 2 bytes long, in Firmata the Command 0xD0 is used to enable reporting for a digital port (collection of 8 pins). Both the midi and Firmata versions are 2 bytes long, but the meaning is obviously different. In Firmata, the number of bytes in a message must conform with the corresponding midi message. Midi System Exclusive (Sysex) messages however, can be any length and are therefore used most prominently throughout the Firmata protocol.

This repository contains documentation of the Firmata protocol. The core of the protocol is described in the protocol.md file file. Feature-specific documentation is described in individual markdown files (i2c.md, stepper.md, servos.md, etc). Files appended with '-proposal' are proposals for new features that have not yet been finalized.

The Firmata protocol could theoretically be implemented for any microcontroller platform. Currently however, the most complete implementation is for Arduino (including Arduino-compatible microcontrollers). Here are the known Firmata microcontroller platform implementations:

• Firmata for Arduino
• Firmata for Spark.io

Please note: I'm sure there are other implementations. If you know of others, please submit a pull request to update this readme file, or open an issue providing the link to be added to this document.

There are several client libraries. These are libraries that implement the Firmata protocol in order to communicate (from a computer, smartphone or tablet for example) with Firmata firmware running on a microcontroller platform. The following is a list of Firmata client library implementations:

• procesing
  • [https://github.com/firmata/processing]
  • [http://funnel.cc]
• python
  • [https://github.com/firmata/pyduino]
  • [https://github.com/lupeke/python-firmata]
  • [https://github.com/tino/pyFirmata]
  • [https://github.com/MrYsLab/PyMata]
• perl
  • [https://github.com/ntruchsess/perl-firmata]
  • [https://github.com/rcaputo/rx-firmata]
• ruby
  • [https://github.com/hardbap/firmata]
  • [https://github.com/PlasticLizard/rufinol]
  • [http://funnel.cc]
• clojure
  • [https://github.com/nakkaya/clodiuno]
  • [https://github.com/peterschwarz/clj-firmata]
• javascript
  • [https://github.com/jgautier/firmata]
  • [http://breakoutjs.com]
  • [https://github.com/rwldrn/johnny-five]
• java
  • [https://github.com/4ntoine/Firmata]
  • [https://github.com/shigeodayo/Javarduino]
  • [https://github.com/kurbatov/firmata4j]
• .NET
  • [https://github.com/SolidSoils/Arduino]
  • [http://www.imagitronics.org/projects/firmatanet/]
• Flash/AS3
  • [http://funnel.cc]
  • [http://code.google.com/p/as3glue/]
• PHP
  • [https://bitbucket.org/ThomasWeinert/carica-firmata]
  • [https://github.com/oasynnoum/phpmake_firmata]
• Haskell
  • [http://hackage.haskell.org/package/hArduino]
• iOS
  • [https://github.com/jacobrosenthal/iosfirmata]
• Dart
  • [https://github.com/nfrancois/firmata]

Each client library may not support the most recent version of the Firmata protocol and all features described in this reposity.

To submit a proposal for a new feature, create a markdown file for your proposal and append "-proposal" to the filename. Submit a pull request to add the proposal.

To make a change to an existing protocol, submit a pull request with your proposed changes. Be sure to provide any rational in the pull request description.

Some hints for drafting a new proposal:

• If your proposal is sysex-based (it likely will be), try to limit the COMMAND byte (2nd byte in the sysex message) to a single value. Use sub-commands (3rd byte) as necessary if you have more than one message. See the stepper.md file for an example. Note the use of 0x72 for the COMMAND and how each section has a unique subcommand (0x00 = config, 0x01 = step).
• The range of values of the COMMAND is any avaliable byte in the range of 0x10 - 0x7F. See the Sysex Message Format section of the protocol.md document for the currently used COMMAND values (you may not use any of these values).
• It's okay to have optional values in a sysex message as long as those values are all at the end of the message. See the bytes 10 - 13 of the Stepper step message in stepper.md
• Try to keep your sysex messages as short as possible.
• Pack bits if necessary. See the Response message for Report encoder's position in encoder.md for an example (also note how this was documented following the respons message... please include similar documentation if you use bit packing in your proposal).
• If your proposal uses any of the available non-sysex midi messages, the number of bytes in the message must correspond to the number of bytes in the midi message. The meaning however does not need to be the same. However if the midi message is part of a range of values (such as Note Off (0x80)) then the Firmata message must also be a range (such as a range of pins).