Have you ever had the scenario where you start playing with an Arduino after not playing with it for a while, but have no idea what program is on it?

You can use an raspberry pi to retrieve the contents. Do remember though it is in executable format, so you won’t be able to get your sketch back word for word, but you will have the ability to back it up to disk and restore it at a later date.

The instruction below are for an Arduino Uno. You will need to adjust the commands for other Arduinos.

Pre-requisites

Install avdrude on the Raspberry Pi

sudo apt install -y avrdude

Also make sure that the dialout group is added to the pi user

sudo usermod -a -G dialout pi

Reboot after this command is executed.

Save/backup the contents of uploaded Arduino binary to a file

avrdude -v  -p atmega328p -carduino -P /dev/ttyACM0 -b 115200 -D -Uflash:r:backup.bin:r

verify contents of uploaded Arduino binary

avrdude -v  -p atmega328p -carduino -P /dev/ttyACM0 -b 115200 -D -Uflash:v:saved-program.bin:r

write/restore backup to Arduino (dangerous, proceed with caution)

avrdude -v  -p atmega328p -carduino -P /dev/ttyACM0 -b 115200 -D -Uflash:w:saved-program.bin:r