Arduino for beginners

What Is Arduino?

Arduino is an open source programmable circuit board that can be integrated into a wide variety of projects. This boards contains a microcontroller which can be programmed to control and sense a big variety of things . The Arduino is able to interact with a large array of outputs such as LEDs, motors and displays. Because of it’s flexibility and low cost, Arduino has become a very popular choice for makers to create interactive hardware projects.

Arduino was introduced back in 2005 in Italy by Massimo Banzi as a way for non-engineers to have access to a low cost, simple tool for creating hardware projects. Since the board is open-source, it is released under a Creative Commons license which allows anyone to produce their own board. Attention when you buy arduino boards, because there are tons, some of there are clones, the only ones true have the only official boards have Arduino in it’s name.

If you’re a complete beginner. Don’t worry, it is absolutely normal, it will become clear after reading this, so, don’t get discouraged!

Although a tutorial like this might be very helpful, you’ll learn mostly by experimenting yourself. Use this as a starting point, as a reference, but make your own projects, modify the given examples, try new things, search the internet, the possibilities are pretty much endless!

Features and Benefits of Arduino

Arduino is different from other programming languages because it is easy to learn and hides all the difficulties of writing programs in microcontrollers by providing a package that simplifies and wraps all the important details. Some key features and advantages of Arduino are:

• User-friendly environment
• Cost-effective
• Open-source and extensible
• Cross-platform

To get started with the basics, we suggest you go through their website page, which has good information. This would greatly supplement your learning along with books.

Best books for beginners and intermediate level

• Programming Arduino with sketches

cost: $14.25

You can buy here

• Arduino Workshop

cost: $26.91

You can buy here

• Arduino Cookbook

cost: $39.19

You can buy here

• Arduino Programming in 24 Hours

cost: $17.44

You can buy here

Arduino Boards

Arduino is a great platform for prototyping projects, there are many variations of the official Arduino boards and then there are hundreds more from competitors who offer clones.

The boards with the name Arduino on them are the official boards.

cost: $85.89

You can buy here

cost: $149.99

You can buy here

But there are also a lot of really great clones on the market as well. Like:

cost: $98.59

You can buy here

cost: $109.99

you can buy here

Board Breakdown

Arduino board components and their functions.

1. Reset Button — This will restart any code that is loaded to the Arduino board
2. AREF — Stands for “Analog Reference” and is used to set an external reference voltage
3. Ground Pin — There are a few ground pins on the Arduino and they all work the same
4. Digital Input/Output — Pins 0–13 can be used for digital input or output
5. PWM — The pins marked with the (~) can simulate analog output
6. USB Connection — Used for powering up your Arduino and uploading sketches
7. TX/RX — Transmit and receive data indication LEDs
8. Microcontroller — This is the brains and is where the programs are stored
9. Power LED Indicator — This LED lights up anytime the board is plugged in a power source
10. Voltage Regulator — This controls the amount of voltage going into the Arduino board
11. DC Power Barrel Jack — This is used for powering your Arduino with a power supply
12. 3.3V Pin — This pin supplies 3.3 volts of power to your projects
13. 5V Pin — This pin supplies 5 volts of power to your projects
14. Ground Pins — There are a few ground pins on the Arduino and they all work the same
15. Analog Pins — These pins can read the signal from an analog sensor and convert it to digital

Arduino Power Supply

The Arduino Uno needs a power source in order for it to operate and can be powered in a variety of ways.

You can do what most people do and connect the board directly to your computer via a USB cable.

If you want your project to be mobile, consider using a 9V battery pack to give it juice. The last method would be to use a 9V AC power supply.

How not to fry your Arduino

Before you begin plugging things into your new Arduino, it may be good to know what can damage the board.

1. Drawing more than 40mA from an output pin.
   An Arduino can only supply 40mA per output pin, so you cannot drive a motor or a speaker directly.
   Shorting an output in to the +5v, +3.3v or the ground pins, will also kill your board, if an output pin is at 5v for example, and you connect it to the ground, it draws an enormous amount of current and kills your Arduino.
2. Supplying more than 5v (3.3v) to an input pin.
   Supplying more than the operating voltage of the Arduino on any pin is very dangerous for some Arduinos that run at 3.3v have 5v tolerant pins, this also holds true for other devices, like sensors or wireless chips.
3. Supplying more than 5v to the 5v pin.
   The 5v of the Arduino board goes directly to the ATmega chip, that is rated for an absolute maximum of 6v.
4. Supplying more than 12v to the Vin pin.
   There’s an onboard 5v voltage regulator on the board, that will overheat and die if you feed it with more than 12v.
5. Drawing more than 500mA from the 5v pin (when running off an external power supply.
   The onboard 5v voltage regulator can only supply 500mA of current. The 5vUSB has a polyfuse to limit the current to 500mA.
6. Drawing more than 50mA from the 3.3v pin.
   The onboard 3.3v voltage regulator can only supply 50mA of current. This means that you can not connect power hungry 3.3v devices, you need an external 3.3v voltage regulator.
7. Reversing the polarity of the power supply.
   If you swap the 5v or Vin pin with the GND pin, you’ll kill the board almost instantly.
8. Connecting a load to the Vin pin while using USB power.

How To Program Arduino

Once the circuit has been created on the breadboard, you’ll need to upload the program ( a sketch) to the Arduino. The sketch is a set of instructions that tells the board what functions it needs to perform. An Arduino board can only hold and perform one sketch at a time.

The software used to create Arduino sketches is called the IDE which stands for Integrated Development Environment. The software is free to download and can be found at here.

Every Arduino sketch has two main parts to the program:

void setup() — Sets things up that have to be done once and then don’t happen again.

void loop() — Contains the instructions that get repeated over and over until the board is turned off.

Arduino IDE

Windows:

1. Go to the site, go to Download, and select the Windows installer.
2. Consider donating some money, if you want to support the project, and click download.
3. Click the downloaded file to run it.
4. Grant administrator permission.
5. Agree to the License Agreement.
6. Select the appropriate boxes, you’ll need the Arduino Software and the USB driver, the other three are optional.
7. Accept the default installation folder, or pick another one. Then click install.
8. When you’re prompted whether or not you want to install the Arduino USB Driver (device software), click install.
9. Wait for the installer to complete, and launch the Arduino IDE.

Ubuntu:

1. Go to the site, go to Download, and select the right Linux version.
2. Consider donating some money, if you want to support the project, and click download.
3. Open a terminal window (CTRL+ALT+T), and run these commands, changing the filename appropriately
4. cd Downloads
5. tar xf arduino-1.8.13-linux64.tar.xz
6. sudo mv arduino-1.8.13/ /opt/arduino-1.8.13/
7. /opt/arduino-1.8.13/install.sh
8. sudo usermod -a -G dialout $USER

Your Arduino’s serial port should now be available in the IDE.

Example sketches

Arduino ide have already built-in sketches for you.

Arduino Sensors

There are a wide range of sensors to choose from and they each have a specific purpose. Below you will find some of the commonly used sensors in projects.

• Distance Ranging Sensor
• PIR Motion Sensor
• Light Sensor
• Pressure Sensor
• Proximity Sensor
• Acceleration Sensor
• Sound Detecting Sensor
• Humidity and Temperature Sensor

Conclusion

Now you are ready to start…

My next post will be a complete project example.