Arduino Cookbook, 3rd Edition

Getting Started

1.0 Introduction

The Arduino environment has been designed to be easy to use for beginners who have no software or electronics experience. With Arduino, you can build objects that can respond to and/or control light, sound, touch, and movement. Arduino has been used to create an amazing variety of things, including musical instruments, robots, light sculptures, games, interactive furniture, and even interactive clothing.

Arduino is used in many educational programs around the world, particularly by designers and artists who want to easily create prototypes but do not need a deep understanding of the technical details behind their creations. Because it is designed to be used by nontechnical people, the software includes plenty of example code to demonstrate how to use the Arduino board’s various facilities.

Though it is easy to use, Arduino’s underlying hardware works at the same level of sophistication that engineers employ to build embedded devices. People already working with microcontrollers are also attracted to Arduino because of its agile development capabilities and its facility for quick implementation of ideas.

Arduino is best known for its hardware, but you also need software to program that hardware. Both the hardware and the software are called “Arduino.” The hardware (Arduino and Arduino-compatible boards) is inexpensive to buy, or you can build your own (the hardware designs are open source). The software is free, open source, and cross-platform. ...