Introduction to Arduino

What is Arduino?

Arduino is an open-source prototyping platform based on easy-to-use hardware and software. Arduino boards are able to read inputs - light on a sensor, a finger on a button, or a Twitter message - and turn it into an output - activating a motor, turning on an LED, publishing something online. You can tell your board what to do by sending a set of instructions to the microcontroller on the board. To do so you use the Arduino programming language (based on Wiring), and the Arduino Software (IDE), based on Processing. Arduino was born at the Ivrea Interaction Design Institute as an easy tool for fast prototyping, aimed at students without a background in electronics and programming. As soon as it reached a wider community, the Arduino board started changing to adapt to new needs and challenges, differentiating its offer from simple 8-bit boards to products for IoT applications, wearable, 3D printing, and embedded environments.

Why Arduino?

Thanks to its simple and accessible user experience, Arduino has been used in thousands of different projects and applications. The Arduino software is easy-to-use for beginners, yet flexible enough for advanced users. It runs on Mac, Windows, and Linux. Teachers and students use it to build low cost scientific instruments, to prove chemistry and physics principles, or to get started with programming and robotics.

Arduino Software

The open-source Arduino Software (IDE) makes it easy to write 

code and upload it to the board. It runs on Windows, Mac OS X,

and Linux. The environment is written in Java and based on 

Processing and other open-source software. This software can be

used with any Arduino board.

There are two special functions that are a part of every Arduino sketch: setup() and loop() . The setup() is called once, when the sketch starts. It's a good place to do setup tasks like setting pin modes or initializing libraries. The loop() function is called over and over and is heart of most sketches.