Arduino Lesson 1 – What is Arduino? Introduction for Beginners

Arduino: Lesson 1 – What is Arduino?

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The first Arduino board was launched in 2005 to help design students, who had no previous experience in electronics or microcontroller programming, to create working prototypes connecting physical world to digital world.

Since then, it has become most popular electronic prototyping tool used by engineers and even large corporations.

An Arduino board can be purchased pre-assembled or, because the hardware design is Open Source, it can be built manually, however, users can adapt boards according to their needs, as well as update or develop their own versions.

The Arduino platform has become quite popular with people who are starting out with electronics and for a very good reason.

Unlike most previous programmable circuit boards, Arduino doesn’t need separate hardware (called a Programmer, USB Serial Converter, FTDI) to load a new code on the board, you can simply use a USB cable.

In addition, the Arduino IDE uses a simplified version of C++, making it easy to learn to program. Finally, Arduino provides a standard form factor that divides the microcontroller functions into a more affordable package.

Fig. 2 – Arduino Uno Board Pinout and Specification

The Arduino Uno is one of the most popular boards in the Arduino family and a great option for beginners.

Believe it or not, 10 lines of code are all you need to blink the On-board LED on your Arduino.

What It Does?

Arduino‘s Hardware and Software was designed for Engineers, technicians, designers, artists, enthusiasts, amateurs, hackers and anyone interested in creating interactive objects or environments.

The Arduino can interact with Buttons, LEDs, Motors, Speakers, GPS Units, Cameras, Internet and even your Smartphone or TV.

This flexibility combined with the fact that Arduino software is Open Source, that is, free, the hardware cards are very cheap and both the software and hardware are easy to learn, leading to a large community of users who contributed code and launched instructions for a huge variety of Arduino-based Projects.

We can use Arduino for just about everything, from robots, heating blanket with temperature limit, machines to count bills, robot arms, etc. The Arduino can be used as the brain behind almost any electronics project.

Source: Arduino.cc

The Arduino Family

There are different types of Arduino board, each with different capacities. In addition, some of the open source hardware means that others can modify and produce Arduino board derivatives that provide even more form and functionality factors.

If you are not sure which one is right for your project. Here are some options that are suitable for someone new to the Arduino’s world:

Arduino Uno (R3)