Introduction to Arduino

Arduino is an open source platform used for building electronics projects. Arduino consists of both a physical programmable circuit board ,microcontroller and software, and IDE (Integrated Development Environment) that runs on the computer. It is used to write and upload computer code to the physical board.

Arduino board is designed to  use a variety of microprocessors and controllers. The Arduino boards are equipped with sets of analog and digital input/output pins, USB connection which is used for loading programs from computers, Transmit and Receive LED's, External power adapter, power jack, reset button etc.

A program written with the IDE for Arduino is called a sketch. The Arduino IDE supports the languages C and C++ using special rules of code structuring. It consists of only two functions, setup and loop. The setup function is used to initialize variables, input and output pin modes and other libraries needed in the sketch. After setup has been called, function loop is executed repeatedly in the main program. It controls the board until the board is powered off or reset.

Arduino can interact with buttons, LEDs, motors, speakers, cameras, TV and smart phones etc. It can used for almost any electronics projects.

This course helps students to learn how to set up a physical connection between Arduino and a computer, Overview of Arduino components and IDE, Arduino Hardware, Arduino programming language and Interfacing LED's, Sensors, Actuators, WiFi connectivity to Arduino.