Software Installation

You can now use the 16u2 as normal Arduino USB board like a Leonardo/Micro/Teensy with the Arduino IDE. Therefore you need to get some software and install it properly. Arduino IDE 1.6 or higher is recommended.

1. CDC Driver installation (Windows 7/8 only):

You have to install new drivers since it will conflict with the official drivers due to new USB functions (it will use a different PID/VID).

The driver file is named HoodLoader2.inf. Right click the file and hit install. How to install unsigned drivers for Windows 8/8.1.

If you don't want to install the unsigned driver, as an alternative you can also install the Teensy driver which works for every USB Serial device. The Teensy driver recognizes any CDC USB device as Teensy USB-Serial (and not as HoodLoader2) if no other driver is installed. This might be useful if you plan to change the PID/VID for developing.

2. Installing board definitions

####a) Installation via Boards Manager See this Adafruit tutorial on how to install additional boards/cores. Instead of using their .json url use this one:

https://raw.githubusercontent.com/NicoHood/HoodLoader2/master/package_NicoHood_HoodLoader2_index.json

####b) Manual Installation To get the 16u2 board definitions for uploading, copy this HoodLoader2 folder into your sketchbook like this: sketchbook/hardware/HoodLoader2/ Remove the '-master' postfix.

3. Installing Arduino IDE 1.6.6 (or higher)

Arduino IDE 1.6.6 added support for the u2 Series. You can download it from here. Currently you need to download the hourly build to get 1.6.6.

You should now have installed the bootloader itself, drivers, HL2 board definitions and the newest IDE. Continue reading with the getting started page.