What is Arduino?

Arduino is an open source licensed software and hardware platform developed by Italian engineers.

Arduino boards are frequently used in robotics training. These cards have a microcontroller (Atmel AVR) and many input and output pins.

A wide variety of sensors can be connected to this card, so that information about the environment can be obtained, and desired outputs can be produced by using this information. For example, a led can be lit, a motor can be powered, an online sharing can be made, etc.

This card is available in several versions and can be purchased as a card alone or as a set. There are many circuit elements (sensor , resistor, led, motor, cable, buttons, modules…) in the sets together with the arduino board . For this reason, sets will be more advantageous. Because the board alone is not enough to develop something with Arduino. We need other auxiliary hardware and a software development environment (IDE) for programming.

Major arduino boards;

Arduino Uno : It is the most popular. It is ideal in terms of size and number of pins. This card is mostly used in entry-level projects.

Arduino Nano : Same structure as Uno but smaller . This card is preferred when the design needs to be small.

Arduino Mega : As the name suggests, it is larger and has more pins than the Uno version.

There are other arduino models as well. The Uno model is best suited for training purposes for beginners. If you need a different card, you probably know the subject and you can choose from the models.

What Can Be Done With Arduino?

From students to professionals, everyone can realize small or large projects using arduino cards. In recent years, we have seen that arduino is used in many professional projects.

Examples of small projects: irrigation system for flowers when you are away, robots that detect obstacles, bluetooth-controlled vehicle, drone management, etc.

Examples of large projects: Automation systems, smart home systems, robots, etc.

How to Program Arduino?

The most important advantages of working with Arduino are;

• Does not require much hardware knowledge
• Having a large number of easily accessible resources and sample projects
• Rapid project development
• Low cost
• Easy to program

A programming language called wiring is used to program Arduino. There are two possibilities to write the codes and transfer them from the usb port to the card.

We can work on our own computer by installing the Arduino Software (IDE) desktop application on our computer.

We can work online using the Arduino Web Editor.

It would not be wrong to say that the Arduino web editor will be more advantageous. Because we can easily organize our work by keeping it registered on the Arduino.cc site and accessing it from any computer connected to the internet. We may also access other services offered over the web. For this, we need to register (free) on Arduino.cc site.

If you want to download and install the Arduino IDE software, you can click here: www.arduino.cc

The Wiring language is similar to the C language. Those who are familiar with C or one of the languages ​​derived from it can also easily use wiring.

Kids and beginners can use Scratch or mBlock for programming. These applications make it possible to write code with drag and drop method, so that the logic of the algorithm can be understood more easily.

EXERCISES