What is Arduino and its applications?

By Ashiqur R.
21 May, 2022
1 year ago
5 Mins Read
Article
1179

Arduino is a name of development board that is used for developing an electronic prototype of different devices or systems. In other words, it is called, Arduino, which is an open-source electronic dev. board based on user-friendly hardware and software.

arudino uno photo

Photo: Arduino UNO board

From the picture above, we can see it looks like a circuit board or mini version of the computer logic board. It is made of a few essential blocks, such as i/p, a controlling unit, and o/p. If we want to execute such instruction then we’ll have to write the perspective program in C++ and some special methods or functions in the Arduino IDE (an open-source IDE platform).

arduino leonardo high quality photo

Photo: Arduino Leonardo board

We can not only execute programs using an Arduino, but also we can obtain a reading from different analog or digital sensors by connecting them on the i/p end. It has built-in ADC (analog to digital converter) and DAC (digital to analog converter).

If we need to build a system or device then we must use this dev. board to make the prototype because in development most of the test and error occurs and none doesn’t want to risk the main project.

arduino uno pinout diagram

Photo: Arduino UNO Pinout

From the picture above, we can see it needs a power supply so that the board can be powered up from an external source to compile the code and run the additional input/output devices. And then there is a USB port using which we can connect the board to the computer (more specifically Arduino IDE) so that we can also see in the serial monitor what is happening when the code is getting executed.

In the corner, there is a RED button, known as the Reset button. It is used to restart the written code inside of the microcontroller.

The big black color portion is called the heart or brain of the Arduino board. It is a microcontroller, which executes all the programs.

On the left side, there are a few power pins and beside them, there are a few analog pins that are used to receive the analog values coming from the external components or sensors.

On the opposite side, there are a couple of other pins, known as digital pins. These can be used for digital input or outputs. i.e.: an LED can be connected to any of the digital pins and be used as an o/p load. Also, if someone tries to take digital i/p then they can use these pins too. A few of these pins are called PWM (Pulse Width Modulation) pins, we’ll know them later.

And then there are a couple of LEDs, one of them is the power LED which indicated whether Arduino is connected to any external power sources or not. There is another LED marked L is also there which is connected to digital pin 13 for onboard test purposes. And there are other two (2) LEDs which are TX-Rx, which blinks depending on the situation when communicating with sensors or computer.

arudino fire fighting robot

Photo: A fire fighting project made with Arduino UNO

Arduino makes things easier than ever for both engineers and hobbyists because of its purposes. Otherwise, we’d have to struggle a lot to develop a logical or automated system. There are many types of Arduino boards depending on the applications such as Arduino UNO, Arduino Leonardo, Genuino MKR1000, Arduino 101/Genuino 101, Arduino Zero, Arduino Due, Arduino Mega2560, Arduino Nano, LilyPad Arduino, Arduino Pro, Arduino Esplora, Arduino Micro, Arduino Pro Mini and so on.

You can learn Arduino Programming here: https://www.arduino.cc/education

Download Arduino IDE here:https://www.arduino.cc/en/software

Arduino Blog: https://blog.arduino.cc/

Arduino Forum: https://forum.arduino.cc/

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