.NET nanoFramework Visual Studio Extension

The .NET nanoFramework Visual Studio extension provides the required tools to allow C# developers to code, deploy to .NET nanoFramework target boards and debug applications running on the target.

What is .NET nanoFramework?

.NET nanoFramework is an open-source platform that enables the writing of managed code applications for constrained embedded devices like IoT sensors, wearables, academic proof of concept, robotics, hobbyist/makers creations or even complex industrial equipment.

Developers can harness a powerful and familiar Microsoft Visual Studio IDE and their .NET C# knowledge to quickly write code without having to worry about the low-level hardware intricacies of a microcontroller. Desktop .NET developers will feel at home and are able to use their skills in embedded systems, enlarging the pool of qualified embedded developers.

It includes a reduced version of the .NET Common Language Runtime (CLR) and features a subset of the .NET base class libraries along with the more common APIs of the Universal Windows Platform allowing code reuse from desktop applications, IoT Core and thousands of code examples and open source projects. Using Microsoft Visual Studio, a developer can deploy and debug the code directly on the real hardware.

Supported platforms

We currently have support for ARM Cortex-M cores and ESP32 providing reference targets for several STM32 Nucleo and Discovery boards, ESP32 DevKit C and Netduino 3.

Starting a new project

A debugging session in progress

You can find out more in the project GitHub here.

To report issues go to our issue tracker on GitHub here.

For conversations, sharing ideas and support please join our Discord community here.

Please note that we also offer a VS extension compatible with VS2019.