Arduino For Dummies

John Nussey

• Publisher: For Dummies
• Year: 2018
• ISBN:
  9781119489573
• Edition: 2
• Topic: Computer Science
• Subtopic: Hardware
• Index: Computer Science

Bring your ideas to life with the latest Arduino hardware and software

Arduino is an affordable and readily available hardware development platform based around an open source, programmable circuit board. You can combine this programmable chip with a variety of sensors and actuators to sense your environment around you and control lights, motors, and sound. This flexible and easy-to-use combination of hardware and software can be used to create interactive robots, product prototypes and electronic artwork, whether you're an artist, designer or tinkerer.

Arduino For Dummies is a great place to start if you want to find out about Arduino and make the most of its incredible capabilities. It helps you become familiar with Arduino and what it involves, and offers inspiration for completing new and exciting projects.

• Covers the latest software and hardware currently on the market

• Includes updated examples and circuit board diagrams in addition to new resource chapters

• Offers simple examples to teach fundamentals needed to move onto more advanced topics

• Helps you grasp what's possible with this fantastic little board

Whether you're a teacher, student, programmer, hobbyist, hacker, engineer, designer, or scientist, get ready to learn the latest this new technology has to offer!

Part 1

Getting to Know Arduino

IN THIS PART …

Find out all about the little blue circuit board.

Discover everything you need to get started with Arduino and where to get them.

Learn how to wield the awesome power of an LED, blinking in on command with a few simple lines of code.

Chapter 1

Discovering Arduino

IN THIS CHAPTER

Discovering what Arduino is

Learning where Arduino came from

Introducing the basic principles

Arduino is made up of both hardware and software.

The Arduino board is a printed circuit board (PCB) designed to use a microcontroller chip as well as other input and outputs. The board has many other electronic components that are needed for the microcontroller to function or to extend its capabilities.

A microcontroller is a small computer contained in a single, integrated circuit or computer chip. Microcontrollers are an excellent way to program and control electronics. Microcontroller boards have a microcontroller chip and other useful connectors and components that allow a user to attach inputs and outputs. Some examples of devices with microcontroller boards are the Wiring board, the PIC, and the Basic Stamp.

You write code in the Arduino software to tell the microcontroller what to to-do. For example, by writing a line of code, you can tell an light-emitting diode (LED) to blink on and off. If you connect a pushbutton and add another line of code, you can tell the LED to turn on only when the button is pressed. Next, you may want to tell the LED to blink only when the pushbutton is held down. In this way, you can quickly build a behavior for a system that would be difficult to achieve without a microcontroller.

Similar to a conventional computer, an Arduino can perform a multitude of functions, but it’s not much use on its own. It requires inputs or outputs to make it useful. These inputs and outputs allow a computer — and an Arduino — to sense objects in the world and to affect the world.

Before you move forward, it might help you to understand a bit of the history of Arduino.

Where Did Arduino Come From?

Arduino started its life in Italy, at Interaction Design Institute Ivrea (IDII), a graduate school for interaction design that focuses on how people interact with digital products, systems, and environments and how they in turn influence us.

The term interaction design was coined by Bill Verplank and Bill Moggridge in the mid-1980s. The sketch in Figure 1-1 by Verplank illustrates the basic premise of interaction design: If you do something, you feel a change, and from that you can know something about the world.

Courtesy of Bill Verplank

FIGURE 1-1: The principle of interaction design, illustrated by Bill Verplank.

Although interaction design is a general principle, it more commonly refers specifically to how we interact with conventional computers by using peripherals (such as mice, keyboards, and touchscreens) to navigate a digital environment that is graphically displayed on a screen.

Another avenue, referred to as physical computing, is about extending the range of these computer programs, software, or systems through electronics. By using electronics, computers can sense more about the world and have a physical effect on the world themselves.

Both areas — interaction design and physical computing — require prototypes to fully understand and explore the interactions, which presented a hurdle for non-technical design students.

In 2001, a project called Processing, started by Casey Reas and Benjamin Fry, aimed to get non-programmers into programming by making it quick and easy to produce onscreen visualizations and graphics. The project gave the user a digital sketchbook on which to try ideas and experiment with a small investment of time. This project in turn inspired a similar project for experimenting in the physical world.

In 2003, building on the same principles as Processing, Hernando Barragán started developing a microcontroller board called Wiring. This board was the predecessor to Arduino.

In common with the Processing project, the Wiring project also aimed to involve artists, designers, and other non-technical people. However, Wiring was designed to get people into electronics as well as programming. The Wiring board (shown in Figure 1-2) was less expensive than some other microcontrollers, such as the PIC and the Basic Stamp, but it was still a sizable investment for students.

FIGURE 1-2: An early Wiring board.

In 2005, the Arduino project began in response to the need for affordable and easy-to-use devices for interaction design students to use in their projects. It is said that Massimo Banzi and David Cuartielles named the project after Arduin of Ivrea, an Italian king, but I’ve heard from reliable sources that it also happens to be the name of the local pub near the university, which may have been of more significance to the project.

The Arduino project drew from many of the experiences of both Wiring and Processing. For example, an obvious influence from Processing is the graphic user interface (GUI) in the Arduino software. This GUI was initially “borrowed” from Processing, and even though it still looks similar, it has since been refined to be more specific to Arduino. I cover the Arduino interface in more depth in Chapter 3.

Arduino also kept the naming convention from Processing, calling its programs sketches. In the same way that Processing gives people a digital sketchbook to create and test programs quickly, Arduino gives people a way to sketch their hardware ideas as well. Throughout this book, I show many sketches that allow your Arduino to perform a huge variety of tasks. By using and editing the example sketches in this book, you can quickly build up your understanding of ho...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Table of Contents
• Foreword
• Introduction
• Part 1: Getting to Know Arduino
• Part 2: Getting Physical with Arduino
• Part 3: Building on the Basics
• Part 4: Sussing Out Software
• Part 5: The Part of Tens
• Connect with Dummies
• Index
• About the Author
• End User License Agreement