“do i have to have the arduino software/app to make the board take in the information when the python program works?”

no. you don’t. It could even complicate matters.

for i in range(1, 5):
//put your code here

Change the 5 to the number of times you want it to loop. I did it this way because it’s an easy way to keep it from being an infinite loop. -> there definitely are better ways to do this, but this will work.

however i have some simple questions. do i have to have the arduino software/app to make the board take in the information when the python program works?

great news:

so i was able to test the python connecting to my gmail account and it does work now. whenever i tell it to run the program to see if it has mail or not, python will print “some mail” or ” no mail”.

also testing the arduino board was a success as well. when i type in “m” in the serial monitor the led will light up, when i type in “n” in the serial monitor the led will turn off.

bad news:
the bad news is that when i run the program it in terminal with everything uncommented, it will say no device connected.

i have the serial port written write in the py code with the right baud, however i don’t understand why it won’t communicate and find the port.

do u have any suggestions?