Getting started with Arduino UNO

About Arduino

Arduino is an open-source electronics platform based on easy-to-use hardware and software. Arduino boards are able to read inputs - light on a sensor, a finger on a button, or a Twitter message - and turn it into an output - activating a motor, turning on an LED, publishing something online. You can tell your board what to do by sending a set of instructions to the micro-controller on the board.
In this blog, I will give you a brief description of the Arduino Uno board.

Components of an Arduino Uno

• Analog Reference pin (orange)
• Digital Ground (light green)
• Digital Pins 2-13 (green)
• Digital Pins 0-1/Serial In/Out - TX/RX (dark green) - These pins cannot be used for digital i/o (digitalRead and digitalWrite) if you are also using serial communication (e.g. Serial.begin).
• Reset Button - S1 (dark blue)
• In-circuit Serial Programmer (blue-green)
• Analog In Pins 0-5 (light blue)
• Power and Ground Pins (power: orange, grounds: light orange)
• External Power Supply In (9-12VDC) - X1 (pink)
• Toggles External Power and USB Power (place jumper on two pins closest to desired supply) - SV1 (purple)
• USB (used for uploading sketches to the board and for grated serial communication between the board and the computer; can be used to power the board) (yellow)

The software (IDE)

The IDE(Integrated Development Environment) is a special program running on your computer that allows you to write sketches on the Arduino board in a simple language modeled after the processing language.
The programming cycle on Arduino is basically as follows:

• Plug the board into a USB port on your computer.
• Write the sketch that will bring the board to life.
• Upload this sketch to the board through the USB connection and wait a couple of seconds for the board to restart.
• The board executes the sketch that you wrote.

Installing Arduino on your computer

To program the Arduino board , you must download the development environment (the IDE)from here :www.arduino.cc/en/main/software. Choose the right version for your operating system.

Download the file and double-click on it to open it.

Installing Drivers :Windows 

• Plug the Arduino board into the computer ; when the Found New Hardware Wizard comes up Windows will first try to find the driver on the Windows Update site.
• Windows XP will ask you whether to check Windows Update ; if you don't want to use Windows Update , select the "No , not at this time" option and click Next.
• On the next screen , choose "Install from a list or specific location " and click Next
• Navigate to and select the Uno's driver file named ArduinoUNO.inf, located in the "Drivers" folder of Arduino.

Installing Drivers :Macintosh

• The Arduino Uno uses a driver provided by the Macintosh operating system so there is nothing to install.
• Now that the IDE is installed, connect your Arduino Uno to your Macintosh via USB.

Port Identification :Windows

• Run the Arduino IDE, either using a desktop shortcut or the Start menu.
• From the Tools menu in the Arduino IDE, select Serial Port. You will see one or more COM ports with different numbers. Note the port that Arduino is on.
• Open your IDE and select the port from Tools->port.

Port Identification :Macintosh

• From the Tools menu in the Arduino IDE, select “Serial Port” and select the port that begins with "/dev/cu.usbserial-"; this is the name that your computer uses to refer to the Arduino board.

Basic components for a Arduino project

The basic components required to get started with Arduino Uno are given below with links to Amazon.in:

• Arduino UNO ( I recommend buying the original one)
• USB 2.0 Cable Type A/B
• A few LED(s)
• Breadboard
• Jumper wires (male to male)
• A few sensors like LDR(s),IR sensors, etc (optional)