Arduino is an open source programmable circuit board that can be integrated into a wide variety of makerspace projects both simple and complex. This board contains a microcontroller which is able to be programmed to sense and control objects in the physical world. By responding to sensors and inputs, the Arduino is able to interact with a large array of outputs such as LEDs, motors and displays. Because of it’s flexibility and low cost, Arduino has become a very popular choice for makers and makerspaces looking to create interactive hardware projects.

 

Types of Arduino Boards

Arduino UNO R3:  The Arduino UNO is the best board to get started with electronics and coding. If this is your first experience tinkering with the platform, the UNO is the most robust board you can start playing with. The UNO is the most used and documented board of the whole Arduino family.

Arduino NANO: The Arduino Nano is a small, complete, and breadboard-friendly board based on the ATmega328 (Arduino Nano 3.x). It has more or less the same functionality of the Arduino Duemilanove, but in a different package. It lacks only a DC power jack, and works with a Mini-B USB cable instead of a standard one.

Arduino Leonardo: The Leonardo differs from all preceding boards in that the ATmega32u4 has built-in USB communication, eliminating the need for a secondary processor. This allows the Leonardo to appear to a connected computer as a mouse and keyboard, in addition to a virtual (CDC) serial / COM port.

Arduino Micro: The Micro is a microcontroller board based on the ATmega32U4 (datasheet), developed in conjunction with Adafruit. It has 20 digital input/output pins (of which 7 can be used as PWM outputs and 12 as analog inputs), a 16 MHz crystal oscillator, a micro USB connection, an ICSP header, and a reset button. It contains everything needed to support the microcontroller; simply connect it to a computer with a micro USB cable to get started. It has a form factor that enables it to be easily placed on a breadboard.

Arduino Nano Every: The Nano Every is Arduino’s smallest board with dimensions of only 45x18mm and a weight under 5gr. The small footprint and low price, make the Nano Every particularly suited for wearable inventions, low cost robotics and interactive projects requiring a small and easy to use microcontroller board.

The Nano 33 BLE (without headers) is Arduino’s 3.3V compatible board in the smallest available form factor: 45x18mm!

Arduino Nano 33 BLE: The Arduino Nano 33 BLE is a completely new board on a well-known form factor. It comes with an embedded 9 axis inertial sensor what makes this board ideal for wearable devices, but also for a large range of scientific experiments in the need of short-distance wireless communication.

The Arduino Nano 33 BLE is an evolution of the traditional Arduino Nano, but featuring a lot more powerful processor, the nRF52840 from Nordic Semiconductors, a 32-bit ARM® Cortex®-M4 CPU running at 64 MHz. This will allow you to make larger programs than with the Arduino Uno (it has 1MB of program memory, 32 times bigger), and with a lot more variables (the RAM is 128 times bigger). The main processor includes other amazing features like Bluetooth® pairing via NFC and ultra-low power consumption modes.

Arduino NANO 33 BLE Sense: The Arduino Nano 33 BLE Sense combines a tiny form factor, different environment sensors and the possibility to run AI using TinyML and TensorFlow™ Lite. Whether you are looking at creating your first embedded ML application or you want to use Bluetooth® Low Energy to connect your project to your phone, the Nano 33 BLE Sense will make that journey easy.

Arduino MKR Zero: The Arduino MKR Zero is a development board for music makers! With an SD card holder and dedicated SPI interfaces (SPI1), you are able to play music files without extra hardware.

Arduino Nano 33 IOT Headers: Arduino Nano 33 IoT allows you to build your next smart project. Ever wanted an automated house? Or a smart garden? Well, now it’s easy with the Arduino IoT Cloud compatible boards. It means: you can connect devices, visualize data, control and share your projects from anywhere in the world. Whether you’re a beginner or a pro, we have a wide range of plans to make sure you get the features you need.

Arduino Uno

The Arduino UNO is a standard board of Arduino. Here UNO means ‘one’ in Italian. It was named as UNO to label the first release of Arduino Software. It was also the first USB board released by Arduino. It is considered as the powerful board used in various projects. Arduino.cc developed the Arduino UNO board.

Arduino UNO is based on an ATmega328P microcontroller. It is easy to use compared to other boards, such as the Arduino Mega board, etc. The board consists of digital and analog Input/Output pins (I/O), shields, and other circuits.

The Arduino UNO includes 6 analog pin inputs, 14 digital pins, a USB connector, a power jack, and an ICSP (In-Circuit Serial Programming) header. It is programmed based on IDE, which stands for Integrated Development Environment. It can run on both online and offline platforms.

The IDE is common to all available boards of Arduino.

The Hardware Structure of Arduino Uno

    1. Microcontroller

    2. Digital Pin

    3. Analog Pins

    4. Power Supply

    5. Power Jack

    6. USB Port

    7. Reset Button

Microcontroller: Microcontroller is the central processing unit of Arduino Uno.

Digital Pins: There are 14 digital pins on Arduino Uno which can be connected to components like LED, LCD, etc.

Analog Pins: There are 6 analog pins on the Uno. These pins are generally used to connect sensors because all the sensors generally have analog values. Most of the input components are connected here.

Power Supply: The power supply pins are IOREF, GND, 3.3V, 5V, Vin are used to connecting sensors because all the sensors generally have analog values. Most of the input components are connected here.

Power Jack: Uno board can be powered both by external supply and via USB cable.

USB Port: This port function is to program the board or to upload the program. The program can be uploaded to the board with the help of Arduino IDE and USB cable.

Reset Button: This is used to restart the uploaded program.

How to Download the Arduino IDE

 The Arduino software or the Arduino IDE can be downloaded either via Arduino official site or you can download the latest version here. There are two ways to install IDE. One is via automatic installer which is a .exe file another is via zip files. We suggest you install the Arduino IDE via the installer as it automatically installs all the required drivers to run. In zip files, you will have to install everything manually. After the download, please allow automatic driver installation and give administrative permissions if required.

Choose which parts you want to install. (Recommendation default selection)

Step 1: Go to the https://www.arduino.cc/en/softwareWebsite and Click on the Download Link

Step 2: Begin the Installation Process

Step 3: Select What to Install

Step 4: Choose the Installation Path

Step 5: Finish the Installation

Step 6: Launch the Arduino IDE

The Arduino IDE has now been successfully installed.

To launch the IDE you can click on the Desktop icon that was created for you, or by searching for it in the start menu.

Configuring the Arduino IDE

The next thing to do is to make sure the software is set up for your particular Arduino board. Go to the “Tools” drop-down menu, and find “Board”. Another menu will appear, where you can select from a list of Arduino models.

Select the serial/COM port that your Arduino is attached to: Tools > Port > COMxx. In this case it was COM11.