Description

Getting Started with Arduino

The Arduino team has developed the most straight-forward way to program a microcontroller for your projects. After connecting this board to a computer's USB port using a USB A/B cable (not included), it is ready to start running the instructions you program on it using the Arduino IDE. Check out our Learning Resources for step-by-step guides on using your Arduino!

What is Arduino?

The term Arduino specifically refers to an Open-Source electronics, prototyping platform comprised by easy-to-use hardware and software.

Arduino Hardware

The Arduino Team has designed not one, but an entire family of hardware that covers a wide range of specifications. Some boards have a small form factor, and thus have a limited amount of readily accessible pins.Some are designed to run directly from a 3.7V battery, while others need at least 5V. Thanks to the variety of choices, we can choose the most appropriate board depending on the requirements of a project.

Arduino Software: Pre-programmed bootloader

The microcontroller unit on each Arduino board is pre-programmed with a tiny piece of firmware (0.5KB of memory) that allows us to upload code without using any additional hardware. We can see the bootloader running when an Arduino is reset as its activity makes the LED (pin 13) blink on startup.

Arduino Software: Development Environment (Download)

As most Integrated Development Environments (IDEs), the one offered by the Arduino team combines a text editor for writing code, and a set of interfaces for debugging, programming, and monitoring an Arduino board.

The Arduino Team have greatly facilitated the use of inexpensive computational devices in projects developed by artists, designers, hobbyists and just about anyone interested in creating interactive objects or environments. Once the code is loaded onto an Arduino Board, we are able to perceive inputs from a particular environment, and produce a desired response or effect. All the code and design files associated with the project are available under an open-source license, so that anyone can use—and sometimes even improve—them.

Technical Details

Microcontroller	ATmega328
Input Voltage	7–12V
System Voltage	5V
Clock Speed	16MHz
Digital I/O	14 (including 6 PWM)
Analog Inputs	6
Flash Memory	32KB (ATmega328); bootloader uses 0.5KB
SRAM	2KB (ATmega328)
EEPROM	1KB (ATmega328)
Communication	1 SPI, 1 UART TTL (5V), 1 I2C/TWI, 1 USB (ATmega16U2)
Bootloader	Optiboot
Programming	USB (ATmega16U2)