EXPERIMENT- 1
Understanding Arduino microcontroller
Aim
To study Arduino and IDE software.
Electrical Components and Software
1. Arduino board
2. Arduino IDE
Theory
An Arduino is an open-source electronics platform based on easy-to-use hardware and
software. Arduino boards can read various inputs, such as light from a sensor, button presses,
or Twitter messages, and then convert them into outputs—like activating a motor, turning on
an LED, or publishing something online. Generally, Arduino is known as a Microcontroller,
but it is a step ahead of it. The PIC microcontrollers require some basic circuit to start with but
Arduino brings revolution in the automation industry by removing the need of developing any
basic circuit. Although Atmega328 is the Microcontroller used in Arduino UNO. Also, the
burner is required to burn the program in PIC Microcontrollers, while there is no need to
connect separate burner with the Arduino - simply plug it with the computer through a USB
cable and start playing with it. Essentially, it’s a versatile microcontroller that allows you to
create interactive projects and prototypes.
The Arduino IDE is an open-source software, which is used to write and upload code to the
Arduino boards. The IDE application is suitable for different operating systems such as
Windows, Mac OS X, and Linux. It supports the programming languages C and C++. Here,
IDE stands for Integrated Development Environment. The program or code written in the
Arduino IDE is often called as sketching. We need to connect the Genuino and Arduino board
with the IDE to upload the sketch written in the Arduino IDE software. The sketch is saved
with the extension '.ino.'.
To program an Arduino Uno in C language, follow these steps:
1. Setting Up:
o Download and install Code: Blocks, a lightweight IDE.
o Create a new AVR project.
o Select the Atmega328p chip (used in Uno) as the target.
o Open the main.c file.
2. Writing Code:
o Copy the code from the attached text file (you can find it in the Instructables
link below).
o The code uses headers like <avr/io.h> and <util/delay.h> for port manipulation
and delays.
o Compile and build the necessary files.
3. Uploading Code to Arduino:
o Attach the Uno to your PC.
o Click on Load sketch / hex file and browse the hex file you saved earlier
(usually in C:\file_name\bin\debug\).
o Select the COM port of the Uno.
o The Arduino Builder will program the Uno, and the built-in LED (L) should
blink.
Figure 1. Arduino UNO Figure 2. Arduino IDE
