Arduino, a beautiful combination between hard- and software

Technology is wonderful, it offers you a lot of options. One of them is Arduino. It is a open source computing platform. You can use the microcontrollers when you are interested in tech, computer science and designing/creating. Let’s introduce you to the beauty of Arduino!

In this article, I will tell you about some fascinating topics. First, how does Arduino work. This is important to understand everything else related to Arduino. So, here we go.

With Arduino it is possible to create devices and objects that respond to their environment through digital and analog input signals. These signals are possible due to switches, light sensors, motion sensors, distance meters, temperature sensors, or based on commands from the Internet, a radio module or any other device with a serial interface. Output signals are, for example, control motors, lights, pumps and screens, but can also generate input for another Arduino module. Arduino mainly exist of two things: hardware and software.

The hardware part: Arduino requires microcontrollers to realise this idea. There are a lot to choose from. I will give you a list of them, with some information:

• Arduino Uno, the latest version; the USB-to-Serialchip is the ATmega8U2 USB-to-TTL and a bootloader that uses only 0.5 KB of total memory
• Arduino Duemilanove, price around 26 euros
• Arduino Mega, like the name already says, everything is bigger, 128 KB or 256 KB of programmable memory. A lot more input, 54 digital + 16 analog. This thing is really ‘mega’
• Arduino Nano, a small version with exactly the same possibilities as the Duemilanove, but it lacks a 6V adapter plug and can be placed on a breadboard
• Arduino BT, equipped with a bluetooth chip, which allows it to communicate via bluetooth via software. The BT version is a board with similar dimensions and connections to the Duemilanove
• Arduino mini, about the same as the nano, but even smaller
• Arduino (pro-)micro, very similar to the mini, but uses an ATmega32U4 microcontroller. So far this is the smallest arduino

The Arduino Nano

The software part: Arduino made his own software, Arduino IDE. The latest version has some nice features:

• Modern, fully featured development environment
• Dual Mode, Classic Mode (identical to the Classic Arduino IDE) and Pro Mode (File System view)
• New Board Manager
• New Library Manager
• Board List
• Basic Auto-Completion (Arm targets only)
• Git Integration
• Serial Monitor
• Dark Mode

If you make a new file, you are making a sketch, a program written with the Arduino IDE. The file has a standard structure: you use normally two functions, the ‘setup’ and ‘loop’ function.

#define LED_PIN 13                  // Pin number attached to LED.

void setup() {
    pinMode(LED_PIN, OUTPUT);       // Configure pin 13 to be a digital output.
}

void loop() {
    digitalWrite(LED_PIN, HIGH);    // Turn on the LED.
    delay(1000);                    // Wait 1 second (1000 milliseconds).
    digitalWrite(LED_PIN, LOW);     // Turn off the LED.
    delay(1000);                    // Wait 1 second.

This would be a normal script. And as you can see, two functions. You can find multiple things in the functions, like ‘pinmode’, ‘digitalWrite’ and a few others. These are also some functions. If you want to make a project with Arduino, chances are you want to use a library. The new Arduino IDE has a Library Manager, which already has loads of libraries for you. The open-source nature of the Arduino project has facilitated the publication of many free software libraries that other developers use to augment their projects.

Another cool fact about Arduino, Tinkercad offers a really clean function for Arduino. To visualize your idea and how it would look like in real life, you can use Tinkercad. There, you can create your picture of your Arduino idea.

This is the picture you can get from Tinkercad

I also used Arduino during some of my classes. I made a story about my project. To make you interested, I played Rocket League with my own game controller made with Arduino. In the article, I tell about the process of making the game controller. I explain the Arduino part as well.

The conclusion, Arduino is amazing and you can make so many things with it. You don’t need any experience to start. Just practise a lot.
I hope you like the story, make sure to follow me on Medium!

This story wasn’t possible without these links and sites:

Arduino - Home

I made a gaming glove and it is working fantastic

Arduino - Wikipedia