Arduino

Introduction
Arduino is an open-source platform used for building electronics projects. It consists of a
microcontroller and a piece of software i.e. Integrated Development Environment (IDE) that
runs on your computer. This code is used to write and upload computer code to the
microcontroller.

The Arduino board is a microcontroller board, which is a small circuit that contains a whole
computer on a small chip. There are different versions of the Arduino board: they are different
in components, aim and size, etc. Some common Arduino boards which are being use now a
days are: Arduino Diecimila, Arduino Uno, Arduino Mega and lot more.

It can affect its surroundings by controlling lights, motors, and other actuators. Arduino can
sense the environment by receiving input from a variety of sensors. The microcontroller on the
board is programmed using the Arduino programming language and the Arduino development
environment. Arduino projects can be stand-alone or they can communicate with software on
running on a computer .

Why Arduino:-
 It is very flexible to be customized and extended and it is an open-source project,
software/hardware which is extremely accessible.
 It offers a variety of digital and analog inputs, SPI and serial interface and digital
and PWM outputs
 It is easy to use, communicates using standard serial protocol, that connects to
computer via USB and runs in standalone mode and as interface connected to PC.
Aurdino IDE:-
One of the most important component of the Arduino platform is the Arduino IDE. This contains
all the software which will run a computer in order to program and communicate with an
Arduino board.

There is an editor in Arduino IDE which we can use to write Arduino programs /sketches in a
simple programming .

The program we wrote is converted to C language and then compiled using avr-gcc. This process
produce binary code wich the microcontroller on the Arduino board will be able to understand
and execute.

Arduino Types
Arduino Uno (R3)

 14 digital input/output pins (of which 6 can be used as PWM outputs)

 6 analog inputs
 a USB connection
 a reset button
 a power jack

It contains everything needed to support the microcontroller; simply connect it to a computer

with a USB cable or power it with a AC-to-DC adapter or battery to get started.

What's on the board?

There are many varieties of Arduino boards that can be used for different purposes. Some
boards look a bit different from the one below, but most Arduinos have the majority of these
components in common:
Power (USB / Barrel Jack)
Arduino board needs a way to be connected to a power source. The Arduino UNO can be
powered from a USB cable coming from your computer or a wall power supply In the picture
above the USB connection and the barrel jack are labeled (1) and (2) respectively.

This USB connection can also be used to upload code into the microcontroller.

Do NOT use a power supply greater than 20 Volts ,for most aurdinos the recommended voltage
is between 6 and 12 Volts.

Pins (5V, 3.3V, GND, Analog, Digital, PWM, AREF)

The pins on Arduino are the places where we connect wires to construct a circuit. They usually
have black plastic headers through which we can plug a wire right into the board. The Arduino
has several different kinds of pins. Each of pin is labeled on the board and each pin is used for
different functions.
Ground: There are several ground pins on the Arduino, any of which can be used to ground your
circuit. These pins are labeled (3) in the above figure.

5V (4) & 3.3V (5): As you might guess, the 5V pin supplies 5 volts of power, and the 3.3V pin
supplies 3.3 volts of power. Most of the simple components used with the Arduino run happily
off of 5 or 3.3 volts.

Analog Pins: The labels (A0 through A5 on the UNO) are Analog In pins. These pins can read the
signal from an analog sensor and convert it into a digital value. These pins are labeled (6) in the
above figure.

Digital Pins: On the board other than analog pins we have the digital pins (0 through 13). These
pins can be used for both digital input and digital output. These pins are labeled (7) in the
above figure.

Pulse Width Modulation: Next to some of the digital pins, some pins are with tilde (~) sign.
These pins include 3, 5, 6, 9, 10, and 11 on the UNO. These pins act as normal digital pins, but
can also be used for something called Pulse-Width Modulation (PWM).These pins as being able
to simulate analog output. These pins are labeled (8) in the above figure.

Analogue Reference: This pin is used when we want to set an external reference voltage
(between 0 and 5 Volts) as the upper limit for the analog input pins. These pins are labeled (9)
in the above figure.

Reset Button: There is a reset button in Arduino. Labeled (10) in the above figure. By pushing it,
connect the both reset pin and ground pin and restart the code which we had loaded on the
Arduino. If we want to test our code multiple times and if our code doesn’t repeat itself this can
be very useful.

Power LED Indicator: There is a LED on the board labeled as ‘ON’ and (11). When we powered
our Arduino, this LED lightens up. If this LED does not glow, there is something wrong. We have
to re-check our circuit.
TX RX LEDs: TX is short form of transmit, RX is short form of receive. These pins are responsible
for the serial communication. In our Arduino, TX and RX appear two times. Once at the digital
pins (0 and 1), and second time next at the TX and RX indicator LEDs labeled as (12) in the
above diagram. Whenever we are receiving or sending data through our Arduino these LEDs
gives us visual indications. For example these LEDs will glow when we are loading a new
program onto the Microcontroller.

Main IC: There is a black IC with all the metal legs labeled as (13) in the above figure. This IC act
as the brain of Arduino. This IC on the Arduino is little bit different from board type. Before
loading a new program from the IDE, this is important to know the IC type. This information is
written on the top side of the IC.

Voltage Regulator: The voltage regulator controls the amount of voltage that is let into the
Arduino board. It acts like a gatekeeper; as it will remove an extra voltage that might harms the
board. It has its own limits; do not power up the Arduino greater than 20 volts. The voltage
regulator is labeled as (14) in the above diagram.

Technical Specifications
Microcontroller ATmega328

Operating Voltage 5V

Input Voltage (recommended) 7-12V

Input Voltage (limits) 6-20V

Digital I/O Pins 14 (of which 6 provide PWM output)

Analog Input Pins 6

DC Current per I/O Pin 40 mA

DC Current for 3.3V Pin 50 mA

Flash Memory 32 KB of which 0.5KB used by boot loader

SRAM 2 KB

EEPROM 1 KB

Clock Speed 16 MHz

 Features Arduino Uno Arduino Due Arduino Mega Arduino

Leonardo

Processor 16Mhz 84MHz 16MHz 16MHz

ATmega328 AT91SAM3X8E ATmega2560 ATmega32u4

Memory 2KB SRAM, 96KB SRAM, 8KB SRAM, 2.5KB SRAM,

32KB flash 512KB flash 256KB flash 32KB flash

Digital I/O 14 54 54 20

Analogue I/O 6 input, 0 12 input, 2 16 input, 0 12 input, 0

output output output output