IT ELECTIVE 3

Intro to Microcontroller
(Arduino)
 Course Description
IT ELEC 3: Intro to Microcontroller
This course aims to explain the Arduino microcontroller through
hands-on work creating simple machines with embodied
behaviors. The Arduino is a versatile resource for physical
projects for students in all disciplines.

This course brings students over the beginner’s threshold to a

basic understanding of the use, terminology, and potential of the
Arduino. The first portion will teach the essential skills for creating
a simple sensor-driven physical computing system, and the
second portion will reinforce those skills by making a simple
interactive project.
Topic Outline 01 Arduino and its Key Features

02 Brief History of Arduino

03 What can I do when using Arduino?

04 Why should I choose Arduino?

05 Terminologies to Help Out

 What is Arduino?

Arduino is also an open sourced Arduino is a prototype platform (open-

platform, which means that anyone is source) based on an easy-to-use
able to use it, for free, as well as hardware and software.
make adjustments to the code to fit
their needs.

Contents
Performance

It consists of a circuit board, which can be programmed (referred to

as a micro controller) and a ready-made software called Arduino IDE
(Integrated Development Environment), which is used to write and
upload the computer code to the physical board.
 Brief History of Arduino
Originally started as a research project by Massimo Banzi,
David Cuartielles, Tom Igoe, Gianluca Martino, and David
Mellis at the Interaction Design Institute of Ivrea in the early
2000s.

It builds upon the Processing project, a language for learning

how to code within the context of the visual arts developed by
Casey Reas and Ben Fry as well as a thesis project by
Hernando Barragan about the Wiring board.

The first Arduino board was introduced in 2005 to help design

START students — who had no previous experience in electronics or
microcontroller programming — to create working prototypes
connecting the physical world to the digital world.
Brief History of Arduino
Arduino is the first widespread Open Source Hardware project
and was set up to build a community that could help spread the
use of the tool and benefit from contributions from hundreds of
people who helped debug the code, write examples, create
tutorials.

The openness and ease-of-use of the project has led to mass

adoption of micro-controller based electronics projects and was
a catalyst in the creation of the Maker Movement. Arduino has
become the number one choice for electronics makers,
especially for developing solutions for the IoT marketplace.
 Key Features of Arduino

Arduino boards are able to read

analog or digital input signals
from different sensors and turn
it into an output such as
activating a motor, turning LED
on/off, connect to the cloud and Arduino provides a
many other actions. standard form factor that
breaks the functions of the
micro-controller into a more
accessible package.
You can control your
board functions by
sending a set of
instructions to the
microcontroller on the Arduino IDE uses a
board via Arduino IDE simplified version of C++,
(referred to as uploading making it easier to learn
Arduino does not need an extra piece of hardware (called to program.
software). a programmer) in order to load a new code onto the
board. You can simply use a USB cable.

1 2 3 4 5
 What can I do when using Arduino?

You can use just the board or attach it to You can create awesome and cool
some electronic project to make it do Arduino projects.
some amazing things.

You are able to work with the board A cheap electronic board that lets you
making sounds, blinking lights, sending build not only complex but also one of a
out signals to control what is on the kind electronic systems.
screen ahead of it, and so many other
things.
 Why should I choose Arduino?

Works across many platforms Simple environment

The IDE that works with Arduino has The Arduino environment
the ability to work with pretty much is similar to the C++
environment, but has
any operating system that you want.
It will work with Mac OS, Windows,
and Linux.
1 2
been made even simpler
to use..

3 4
Open source & Free to use A large community
Programmers are able to You will be able to find many
come and use the platform forums and other locations where
and the software, as well as you can ask questions, look at
make changes to them tutorials, and find answers you
whenever needed need when working on your project.
 Terminology to help out
Breadboard: this is a tool that is reusable for building circuits. It
makes it easier to connect the circuits without having to get
them permanently attached to the board. It is also a stable
surface that will connect all your components together.

Compiler: the compiler is a piece of software that will take your

written program and translate it into something that the Arduino
microcontroller is able to understand.

START Device driver: this is a piece of software that makes it so that

the computer is able to communicate with the devices that are
attached to it, such as the Arduino board.
 Terminology to help out
EEPROM: this will stand for Electrically Erasable Programmable
Read-Only Memory. This is a computer chip that will be written
and re-written with the code that you want.

External interrupt: the external interrupt means that something

that is outside of the processor or the computer system and it
needs your attention.

Flash memory: this is one of your memory choices. It is going

START to retain the data whether there is power to the system or not. A
good example would be the flash drive, which is going to store
files, even if it isn’t plugged into your computer.
 Terminology to help out
Digital input/output: digital pins are known to have either a
high or a low value. You are able to pick from a wide variety of
digital pins based on the type of board that you get.

Analog input/output: this is opposite of working with digital.

The analog is going to receive a continuous electrical signal,
while the digital option will focus just on whether the value is
either zero or one.

START Processor: this is the part of the system that is going to take
the instructions from the computer.
 Terminology to help out
Serial communication: when this kind of communication is
occurring, it means that the two systems are sending digital
pulses between them at a rate that you determine.

Sketch: this is what the Arduino code is known as. It is going to

consist of the instructions that you will send to tell Arduino how
to run. You will need to compile the sketch and then upload it to
your board.

START SPI: this stands for serial peripheral interface. It is in charge of

keeping the data communication protocol over small distances.
THANK YOU