What is an Arduino?

Introduction
• Arduino is an open-source platform used for building electronics
projects.
• Arduino consists of both a physical programmable circuit board (often
referred to as a microcontroller) and a piece of software, or IDE
(Integrated Development Environment) that runs on your computer,
used to write and upload computer code to the physical board.
• The Arduino does not need a separate piece of hardware (called a
programmer) in order to load new code onto the board -- you can
simply use a USB cable.
• Additionally, the Arduino IDE uses a simplified version of C++, making
it easier to learn to program.
Arduino Uno
a screenshot of the
Arduino IDE.
What Does it Do?
• The Arduino hardware and software was designed for artists,
designers, hobbyists, hackers, newbies, and anyone interested in
creating interactive objects or environments.
• Arduino can interact with buttons, LEDs, motors, speakers, GPS units,
cameras, the internet, and even your smart-phone or your TV!
• This flexibility combined with the fact that the Arduino software is
free, the hardware boards are pretty cheap, and both the software
and hardware are easy to learn has led to a large community of users
who have contributed code and released instructions for a huge
variety of Arduino-based projects.
What's on the board?
Power (USB / Barrel Jack)
• Every 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 (like this) that is terminated in a barrel
jack. In the picture above the USB connection is labeled (1) and the barrel
jack is labeled (2).

• The USB connection is also how you will load code onto your Arduino
board. More on how to program with Arduino can be found in our
Installing and Programming Arduino tutorial.

• NOTE: Do NOT use a power supply greater than 20 Volts as you will
overpower (and thereby destroy) your Arduino. The recommended voltage
for most Arduino models is between 6 and 12 Volts.
Pins (5V, 3.3V, GND, Analog, Digital, PWM,
AREF)
• GND (3): Short for ‘Ground’. There are several GND pins on the Arduino,
any of which can be used to ground your circuit.
• 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 (6): The area of pins under the ‘Analog In’ label (A0 through A5 on
the UNO) are Analog In pins. These pins can read the signal from an analog
sensor (like a temperature sensor) and convert it into a digital value that
we can read.
• Digital (7): Across from the analog pins are the digital pins (0 through 13 on
the UNO). These pins can be used for both digital input (like telling if a
button is pushed) and digital output (like powering an LED).
Pins (5V, 3.3V, GND, Analog, Digital, PWM,
AREF)
• PWM (8): You may have noticed the tilde (~) next to some of the
digital pins (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).
• AREF (9): Stands for Analog Reference. Most of the time you can
leave this pin alone. It is sometimes used to set an external reference
voltage (between 0 and 5 Volts) as the upper limit for the analog
input pins.
Other Pins Details
• Reset Button : The Arduino has a reset button (10). Pushing it will
temporarily connect the reset pin to ground and restart any code that
is loaded on the Arduino.
• Power LED Indicator: The word ‘ON’ (11). This LED should light up
whenever you plug your Arduino into a power source
• Main IC: The black thing with all the metal legs is an IC, or Integrated
Circuit (13). Think of it as the brains of our Arduino. The main IC on
the Arduino is slightly different from board type to board type, but is
usually from the ATmega line of IC’s from the ATMEL company
TX RX LEDs
• TX is short for transmit, RX is short for receive.
• These markings appear quite a bit in electronics to indicate the pins
responsible for serial communication.
• In this case, there are two places on the Arduino UNO where TX and
RX appear -- once by digital pins 0 and 1, and a second time next to
the TX and RX indicator LEDs (12).
• These LEDs will give us some nice visual indications whenever our
Arduino is receiving or transmitting data (like when we’re loading a
new program onto the board).
Voltage Regulator
• The voltage regulator (14) is not actually something you can (or
should) interact with on the Arduino.
• But it is potentially useful to know that it is there and what it’s for.
• The voltage regulator does exactly what it says -- it controls the
amount of voltage that is let into the Arduino board.
• Think of it as a kind of gatekeeper; it will turn away an extra voltage
that might harm the circuit.
• Of course, it has its limits, so don’t hook up your Arduino to anything
greater than 20 volts.
The Arduino Family
Sensors
• With some simple code,
the Arduino can control
and interact with a wide
variety of sensors - things
that can measure light,
temperature, degree of
flex, pressure, proximity,
acceleration, carbon
monoxide, radioactivity,
humidity, barometric
pressure,
Shields
• Additionally, there are
these things called
shields -- basically they
are pre-built circuit
boards that fit on top of
your Arduino and
provide additional
capabilities -- controlling
motors, connecting to
the internet, providing
cellular or other wireless
communication,
controlling an LCD
screen, and much more.