What is Arduino

Definitely, Arduino has evolved as a phenomenon in electronics and this Open source prototyping platform has gained immense popularity in the field of electronics. Ever since its introduction in 2005, Arduino has gained much popularity in the electronics world due to its easy to use application properties. It is an extremely easy to use platform compared to other prototyping platforms and uses flexible hardware and software to create an interactive environment. Designers can use the libraries and reference designs to integrate Arduino into their projects.

Arduino originated in Ivrea in Italy aimed to develop a device for controlling a student built interactive project. Later Arduino has turned into electronics to develop their own products.

Arduino Board

Arduino is the open source single board microcontroller that can receive inputs from a variety of sensors. It uses the Arduino programming language for microcontroller programming and can communicate with the computer preloaded with software. TheArduino board is available as kit or preassembled boards and the running software can be downloaded. CAD files for hardware design are also available as open source.

Arduino enjoys cost advantages compared to the proprietary boards so that many people can afford the cost to make the gadget. Average cost of the Arduino board is Rs.500 and cheaper boards are also available. Arduino hardware and software are open source so that there is no need to purchase them. The schematics and building instructions can be used to develop a project .It is also easy to add or remove features in the existing design.

Arduino Rover

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Hardware and software

The Arduino hardware is a simple open hardware design for the Arduino board with an Atmel AVR processor. The Arduino board has an 8 bit Atmel AVR microcontroller (16 and 32 bits are also available) that can incorporate programmes for controlling different circuits. The board has connectors to use with PC and add on modules. Majority of the boards have 5 volt linear regulator and 16MHz crystal oscillator. Recent boards can be programmed via USB with the introduction of USB to Serial adapter chips. Some board uses Bluetooth or other methods.

The Arduino boards have exposed input and output pins of microcontroller to connect with input or output circuits.

The hardware can be programmed using the wiring based language similar to the C++ and a processing based development environment. The wiring platform was created by Hernando Barragan, an artist and programmer from Colombia together with the Mexican electrical engineer, Diego Gonzalez Joven.

Arduino Software

The Arduino IDE is the cross platform written in Java to help the people who are unfamiliar with software development. It consists of a code editor having Syntax highlighting, Brace matching etc and is capable of uploading the program to the board easily on a single mouse click. The program has C/C++ library called Wiring to make the input and output operations easily.