Arduino is a tool for making computers that can sense and control more of the physical world than your desktop computer. Arduino is a small circuit board with an Atmel MicroController chip and other parts.
Arduino is a “Rapid Electronics Prototyping Platform” which consists of two main parts:
HARDWARE: An Arduino Open-Source Microcomputer board
SOFTWARE: The free Arduino IDE that runs on PC, MAC, or Linux
ARDUINO BASIC OVERVIEW
STRUCTURE OF ARDUINO SOFTWARE:
Every Arduino Software Sketch has two main parts:
SETUP - Runs Once at the beginning
LOOP - Runs over and over again, forever
The Simplest Arduino Code - LED Blink
Arduino makes it very easy to use commands! Here is a simple code to get started:
#define led 13 // define name of pin number
void setup() /****** SETUP: RUNS ONCE ******/
{
pinMode(led, OUTPUT); // initialize the digital pin as an output.
}
void loop() /****** LOOP: RUNS CONSTANTLY ******/
{
digitalWrite(led, HIGH); // turn the LED on (HIGH is the voltage level)
delay(1000); // wait for a second, watching the bright LED
digitalWrite(led, LOW); // turn the LED off by making the voltage LOW
delay(1000); // wait for a second, watch the Dark
}
What SETUP does: Tells Arduino about things that need to be done once. Arduino Digital Pins can be either INPUT or OUTPUT. You have to tell Arduino when a Pin will be used as an OUTPUT. In this example, there is one line that tells Arduino that Pin 13 must be an OUTPUT.