Install Arduino IDE

The first thing you will need to do is to download the latest release of the Arduino IDE. You will need to be using version 2.0 or higher for this guide.

 

Install the arduino_core_ch32 Board Support Package

After you have downloaded and installed the latest version of Arduino IDE, you will need to start the IDE and navigate to the Preferences menu. You can access it from the File menu in Windows or Linux, or the Arduino menu on OS X.

A dialog will pop up just like the one shown below.

We will be adding a URL to the new Additional Boards Manager URLs option. The list of URLs is comma separated, and you will only have to add each URL once. New Adafruit boards and updates to existing boards will automatically be picked up by the Board Manager each time it is opened. The URLs point to index files that the Board Manager uses to build the list of available & installed boards.

To find the most up to date list of URLs you can add, you can visit the list of third party board URLs on the Arduino IDE wiki. We will only need to add one URL to the IDE in this example, but you can add multiple URLs by separating them with commas. Copy and paste the link below into the Additional Boards Manager URLs option in the Arduino IDE preferences.

https://raw.githubusercontent.com/robinjanssens/WCH32V_board_manager_files/main/package_ch32v_index.json

https://raw.githubusercontent.com/robinjanssens/WCH32V_board_manager_files/main/package_ch32v_index.json

If you have multiple boards you want to support, say ESP8266 and Adafruit, have both URLs in the text box separated by a comma (,)

Once done click OK to save the new preference settings.

Installation Prerequisites

Before you install the board support package via the Arduino IDE, make sure to check the toolchain prerequisites for your operating system in the board support package repository. It's very important that you follow the steps listed in the README before installing the board support package in the Arduino IDE.

Install with the Board Manager

The next step is to actually install the Board Support Package (BSP). Go to the Tools → Board → Boards Manager submenu. A dialog should come up with various BSPs. Search for ch32.

Select the 1.0.5-alpha version, click the Install button and wait for it to finish. Once it is finished, you can close the dialog. This takes care of installing all of the backend dependencies and toolchain for the WCH chips.

Code Upload options

Select the correct options in Tools . Under Board, CH32 MCU EVT Boards, select the CH32V20X

Under Board Select, select the LANA TNY option

Under Upload method, select WCH-ISP