What is an Arduino
An Arduino is an Open Source small computer that you can program to process its input and output pins. It was originally designed for students without a background in electronics and programming. Through the use of hardware and software, one can use the Arduino to interact with the environment. The simplest example is to use the Arduino to blink an LED connected to one of its output pins.
The Arduino board is made of a microcontroller which forms the heart of the board. It also has a crystal oscillator which basically acts as a clock that sends time pulses to the microcontroller to enable it to operate at the correct speed. The board also has digital and analog Input and Output pins to enable one to connect the microcontroller pins to other components such as LEDs, sensors, shields and modules.
The Arduino Integrated Development Environment (IDE) is used to write a computer program that you can then upload to the Arduino. Once the code is uploaded to the Arduino, it will carry out the instructions in the code and enables the Arduino interact with the outside world.
The Arduino Uno board offers the best option for the beginners in the Arduino world. It consists of 14-digital pins and 6-analog pins. The digital pins can be used as both the input/output (I/O) pins to the Arduino while the analog pins as input pins.
You now know what an Arduino is and what it can do. In the next topic we will get started with the Arduino. This will involve downloading and setting up the Arduino IDE for uploading the codes (Arduino Sketches). We will then use the Arduino in a number of projects.
You can download the Arduino IDE here.