Arduino Uno

Overview

Hello everyone hello hello hello,

now what is an Arduino ...well...find a detailed introduction here [[1]]
Computer and processor are generic terms for the anything that can run a program, basically.
Controller or microcontroller usually refers to a simple processor that does only one task, like listening to sensors. In explaining microcontrollers, we’ll distinguish them from computers, which contain more powerful processors that can run an operating system.
Arduino is an open source physical computing platform based on a simple input/output (I/O) board and a development environment that implements the Processing language. Arduino can be used to develop standalone interactive objects or can be connected to software on your computer.
The Arduino contains a microcontroller.
Most electronic devices today have a microcontroller at their core. Microcontrollers are optimized for control of general input and output. What Is Physical Computing? Physical Computing uses electronics to prototype new materials for ( in our case ) designers and artists.
Arduino is composed of two major parts: the Arduino board, which is the piece of hardware you work on when you build your objects; and the Arduino IDE, the piece of software you run on your computer. You use the IDE to create a sketch (a little computer program) that you upload to the Arduino board. The sketch tells the board what to do.

In the meantime, HERE you can find ANYTHING about Arduino, including download the software

NOW,
The pins on your Arduino are the places where you connect wires to construct a circuit (probably in conjunction with a breadboard and some wire. They usually have black plastic ‘headers’ that allow you to just plug a wire right into the board. The Arduino has several different kinds of pins, each of which is labeled on the board and used for different functions.

First things first, Blink it

we start by figuring put if our Arduino is all good or it is somehow damaged ...it is a basic test to check and run a simple script at the same time.

Go to File ---> Examples ---> Basics --->Blink

so we have something like this

/*
  Blink
  Turns on an LED on for one second, then off for one second, repeatedly.
 
  Most Arduinos have an on-board LED you can control. On the Uno and
  Leonardo, it is attached to digital pin 13. If you're unsure what
  pin the on-board LED is connected to on your Arduino model, check
  the documentation at http://www.arduino.cc
 
  This example code is in the public domain.
 
  modified 8 May 2014
  by Scott Fitzgerald
 */
 
 
// the setup function runs once when you press reset or power the board
void setup() {
  // initialize digital pin 13 as an output.
  pinMode(13, OUTPUT);
}
 
// the loop function runs over and over again forever
void loop() {
  digitalWrite(13, HIGH);   // turn the LED on (HIGH is the voltage level)
  delay(1000);              // wait for a second
  digitalWrite(13, LOW);    // turn the LED off by making the voltage LOW
  delay(1000);              // wait for a second
}

GOOOD! lets dissect this

commenting / one line and multiple lines
setup
loop

Choose board

Choose port

Lets compile this

--- Press/ Click upper most left button, looks like a Tick. Observe the messages appearing in the bottom of the Arduino software window ( there must be a sentence Done Compiling

Lets upload this

And we should have a Blinking aka Flashing on board LED

Let's add a trough hole led

OK, wait...the BREADBOARD

OK, first, what's with the name....bread board? Bread, like in food? Well yes, kind of.

This terminology goes way back in the days. Generally, you would mount electronic components to a piece of wood (the actual "breadboard"), and do all the wiring with point-point wire and the components just hanging between the various devices.

The story goes that an engineer had an idea for a vacuum tube device late one night. Looking around the house, the only base for his prototype that he found was indeed his wife's breadboard, from the breadbox.

A video by the Make magazine people

Ok, but why do we need to breadboard?
Well, they are useful for making temporary circuits and prototyping, and they require absolutely no soldering.
Prototyping is the process of testing out an idea by creating a preliminary model from which other forms are developed or copied, and it is one of the most common uses for breadboards.
The best way to explain how a breadboard works is to take it apart and see what’s inside.

connections lines are connected like this

so Hello world on the breadboard

Sensors / Input

Digital Sensors

Digital sensors are the sensors that gives 2 state (on/off, 5V/0V). You will connect them to digital Pins and set it as INPUT.
Digital data consists exclusively of 0s and 1s .
For example, consider a push button switch. This is one of the simplest forms of sensors. It has two discrete values. It is on, or it is off. Other 'discrete' sensors might provide you with a binary value.
Another example of a digital sensor is an accelerometer, which sends a series of data points (speed, direction, and so on) to the Arduino. Usually digital sensors need a chip in the sensor to interpret the physical data.
Analog Sensors
Analog sensors on the other hand, gives range. You connect this types of Analog sensors to Analog Input pins which is measuring the incoming voltage between 0V-5V*. Arduino converts this incoming voltage into the number between 0-1023.
Analog data is transmitted as a continuous signal, almost like a wave. In other words, an analog sensor doesn’t send a burst of 1s and 0s like digital sensors do; instead, the sensor modulates a continuous signal to transmit data.
Microcontrollers are capable of detecting binary signals: is the button pressed or not? These are digital signals. When a microcontroller is powered from five volts, it understands zero volts (0V) as a binary 0 and a five volts (5V) as a binary 1. The world however is not so simple and likes to use shades of gray. What if the signal is 2.72V? Is that a zero or a one? We often need to measure signals that vary; these are called analog signals. A 5V analog sensor may output 0.01V or 4.99V or anything inbetween. Luckily, nearly all microcontrollers have a device built into them that allows us to convert these voltages into values that we can use in a program to make a decision.
An Analog to Digital Converter (ADC) is a very useful feature that converts an analog voltage on a pin to a digital number. By converting from the analog world to the digital world, we can begin to use electronics to interface to the analog world around us.
Not every pin on a microcontroller has the ability to do analog to digital conversions. On the Arduino board, these pins have an ‘A’ in front of their label (A0 through A5) to indicate these pins can read analog voltages.
ADCs can vary greatly between microcontroller. The ADC on the Arduino is a 10-bit ADC meaning it has the ability to detect 1,024 (210) discrete analog levels. Some microcontrollers have 8-bit ADCs (28 = 256 discrete levels) and some have 16-bit ADCs (216 = 65,536 discrete levels).

The knob

 
/*
  AnalogReadSerial
 
  Reads an analog input on pin 0, prints the result to the Serial Monitor.
  Graphical representation is available using Serial Plotter (Tools > Serial Plotter menu).
  Attach the center pin of a potentiometer to pin A0, and the outside pins to +5V and ground.
 
  This example code is in the public domain.
 
  http://www.arduino.cc/en/Tutorial/AnalogReadSerial
*/
 
// the setup routine runs once when you press reset:
void setup() {
  // initialize serial communication at 9600 bits per second:
  Serial.begin(9600);
}
 
// the loop routine runs over and over again forever:
void loop() {
  // read the input on analog pin 0:
  int sensorValue = analogRead(A0);
  // print out the value you read:
  Serial.println(sensorValue);
  delay(1);        // delay in between reads for stability
}

Button

// constants won't change. They're used here to set pin numbers:
const int buttonPin = 7;     // the number of the pushbutton pin
const int ledPin =  13;      // the number of the LED pin
 
// variables will change:
int buttonState = 0;         // variable for reading the pushbutton status
 
void setup() {
  // initialize the LED pin as an output:
  pinMode(ledPin, OUTPUT);
  // initialize the pushbutton pin as an input:
  pinMode(buttonPin, INPUT);
}
 
void loop() {
  // read the state of the pushbutton value:
  buttonState = digitalRead(buttonPin);
 
  // check if the pushbutton is pressed. If it is, the buttonState is HIGH:
  if (buttonState == HIGH) {
    // turn LED on:
    digitalWrite(ledPin, HIGH);
  } else {
    // turn LED off:
    digitalWrite(ledPin, LOW);
  }
}

LDR

Stretch sensor

Output

Servo

Now we will hookup a servo motor and instruct it to behave a certain way.

This is a servo, a very small one

Hookup

The servo has 3 wires, we need to connect them all to the arduino.

red is for 5V

you will find it easy to plug one end of a jumper wire inside the connectors of the servo motor, and the other end to the corresponding pin of the Arduino make sure you use corresponding colors for the jumpers, in bigget setups messy wire can cause you more time to debug

black is for GND

to GND of the Arduino

and orange is for signal

signal is going into the pin of the Arduino we will use to control the servo motor We will look for a pin that has a wave next to the number ( look at the Arduino board). Those pins are able to output Pulse Width Modulation (PWM) is a fancy term for describing a type of digital signal. Pulse width modulation is used in a variety of applications including sophisticated control circuitry. Also in our case control the servo motor. The control wire is used to send this pulse. For more info how servos work look here [[2]]

We will use another example to see if our servos work

Sweep

Now with knowing where the examples are located, find a servo example sketch called sweep.

you should have a code that looks like this

/* Sweep
 by BARRAGAN <http://barraganstudio.com>
 This example code is in the public domain.
 
 modified 8 Nov 2013
 by Scott Fitzgerald
 http://www.arduino.cc/en/Tutorial/Sweep
*/
 
#include <Servo.h>
 
Servo myservo;  // create servo object to control a servo
// twelve servo objects can be created on most boards
 
int pos = 0;    // variable to store the servo position
 
void setup() {
  myservo.attach(9);  // attaches the servo on pin 9 to the servo object
}
 
void loop() {
  for (pos = 0; pos <= 180; pos += 1) { // goes from 0 degrees to 180 degrees
    // in steps of 1 degree
    myservo.write(pos);              // tell servo to go to position in variable 'pos'
    delay(15);                       // waits 15ms for the servo to reach the position
  }
  for (pos = 180; pos >= 0; pos -= 1) { // goes from 180 degrees to 0 degrees
    myservo.write(pos);              // tell servo to go to position in variable 'pos'
    delay(15);                       // waits 15ms for the servo to reach the position
  }
}

Let's upload the sketch to the board
Observe the motor---->sweeping?

DC

we will follow this guide for the shields we have [3]

Stepper

A good source to learn how steppers work HERE
we will follow the guide for the shield at hand [4]

Input & Output

Servo and Pot

/*
 Controlling a servo position using a potentiometer (variable resistor)
 by Michal Rinott <http://people.interaction-ivrea.it/m.rinott>
 
 modified on 8 Nov 2013
 by Scott Fitzgerald
 http://www.arduino.cc/en/Tutorial/Knob
*/
 
#include <Servo.h>
 
Servo myservo;  // create servo object to control a servo
 
 
int val;    // variable to read the value from the analog pin
 
void setup() {
  myservo.attach(9);  // attaches the servo on pin 9 to the servo object
}
 
void loop() {
  val = analogRead(A0);            // reads the value of the potentiometer (value between 0 and 1023)
  val = map(val, 0, 1023, 0, 180);     // scale it to use it with the servo (value between 0 and 180)
  myservo.write(val);                  // sets the servo position according to the scaled value
  delay(15);                           // waits for the servo to get there
}

Arduino Basics Workshop

- Workshop notes
Here you will find a PDF with diagrams from the Arduino Basics Workshop.

Media:arduino_basics_workshop.pdf

Arduino basics workshop

Contents