Arduino Programming:-
For anyone new to the world of basic electronics, the first Arduino system might look somewhat cobbled together. But that's because it was!
Consisting of little more than an 8-bit Atmel ATmega168 microcontroller, a basic PCB, and a cable to connect it to a computer for programming, it was very 'rough and ready.
The first Arduino board
As a concept project, though, it was perfect -- the chip was very capable for the team's needs and also very cheap. You can buy them now for around $2 apiece!
Now, there's a whole host of different Arduino models to choose from: the basic Uno model, sporting another 8-bit Atmel microcontroller, to the likes of the Arduino Zero, which packs a 32-bit ARM Cortex chip and 256 kB of Flash memory.
You don't have to buy them pre-made; thanks to the open-source nature of the system, you can download schematics and make them yourself, too.
The popular Arduino Uno -- just $20
Each model comes with a number of analog and digital pins, for powering electronic components and sending/receiving inputs/outputs to and from the controller. The data pins are essentially 1 bit (a low or high voltage) but that's more than enough to use it to do a wealth of things.
For example, Uno can be easily hooked up to a digital temperature sensor and programmed to calculate the temperature, based on the signals received.
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