what is Arduino ?

Posted by Unknown on Wednesday, July 02, 2014 with No comments
Arduino is an open-source electronics prototyping platform based on flexible, easy-to-use hardware and software. It's intended for artists, designers, hobbyists, and anyone interested in creating interactive objects or environments. This Google Code project is the home for the development of the Arduino platform. For more information on using Arduino, see the Arduino homepage.

The Arduino software consists of a development environment (IDE) and the core libraries. The IDE is written in Java and based on the Processing development environment. The core libraries are written in C and C++ and compiled using avr-gcc and AVR Libc. The source code for Arduino is now hosted on GitHub.

“Arduino is a single-board microcontroller designed to make the process of using electronics in
multidisciplinary projects more accessible. The hardware consists of a simple open-source hardware board designed around an 8-bit Atmel AVRmicrocontroller, though a new model has been designed around a 32-bit Atmel ARM.
The software consists of a standard programming language compiler and a boot loader that executes on the microcontroller.

 The Arduino board is made up of an Atmel AVR microprocessor, a crystal or oscillator (a crude clock that sends time pulses at a specified frequency to enable it to operate at the correct speed) and a 5V voltage regulator. (Some Arduinos may use a switching regulator, and some, like the Due, are not 5 volt). Depending on what type of Arduino you have, it may also have a USB socket to enable it to be connected to a PC or Mac to upload or retrieve data. The board exposes the microcontroller’s I/O (input/output) pins to enable you to connect those pins to other circuits or to
sensors, etc.
To program the Arduino (make it do what you want it to), you also use the Arduino IDE, which is a piece of free software that enables you to program in the language that the Arduino understands. In the case of the Arduino, the language is based on C/C++ and can even be extended through C++ libraries. The IDE enables you to write a computer program, which is a set of step-by-step instructions that you then upload to the Arduino. Your Arduino will then carry out those instructions and interact with whatever you have connected to it. In the Arduino world, programs
are known as “sketches”.

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