arduino


 * Ce este ARDUINO**
 * Programare ARDUINO**

Introduction
 [|Arduino] is an open-source platform used for building electronics projects. Arduino consists of both a physical programmable circuit board (often referred to as a [|microcontroller] ) and a piece of [|software], or IDE (Integrated Development Environment) that runs on your computer, used to write and upload computer code to the physical board. The Arduino platform has become quite popular with people just starting out with electronics, and for good reason. Unlike most previous programmable circuit boards, the Arduino does not need a separate piece of hardware (called a programmer) in order to load new code onto the board – you can simply use a USB cable. Additionally, the Arduino IDE uses a simplified version of C++, making it easier to learn to program. Finally, Arduino provides a standard form factor that breaks out the functions of the micro-controller into a more accessible package.

What's on the board?
There are many varieties of Arduino boards ( [|explained on the next page] ) that can be used for different purposes. Some boards look a bit different from the one below, but most Arduinos have the majority of these components in common:

Power (USB / Barrel Jack)
Every Arduino board needs a way to be connected to a power source. The Arduino UNO can be powered from a USB cable coming from your computer or a wall power supply ( [|like this] ) that is terminated in a barrel jack. In the picture above the **USB connection is labeled (1)** and the **barrel jack is labeled (2)**. The USB connection is also how you will load code onto your Arduino board. More on how to program with Arduino can be found in our [|Installing and Programming Arduino] tutorial. **NOTE: Do NOT use a power supply greater than 20 Volts** **as you will overpower (and thereby destroy) your Arduino. The recommended voltage for most Arduino models is between 6 and 12 Volts.**

Pins (5V, 3.3V, GND, Analog, Digital, PWM, AREF)
The pins on your Arduino are the places where you connect wires to construct a circuit (probably in conjuction with a [|breadboard] and some [|wire] . They usually have black plastic ‘headers’ that allow you to just plug a wire right into the board. The Arduino has several different kinds of pins, each of which is labeled on the board and used for different functions.
 * **GND (3):** Short for ‘Ground’. There are several GND pins on the Arduino, any of which can be used to ground your circuit.
 * **5V (4) & 3.3V (5):** As you might guess, the 5V pin supplies 5 volts of power, and the 3.3V pin supplies 3.3 volts of power. Most of the simple components used with the Arduino run happily off of 5 or 3.3 volts.
 * **Analog (6):** The area of pins under the ‘Analog In’ label (A0 through A5 on the UNO) are Analog In pins. These pins can read the signal from an analog sensor (like a [|temperature sensor] ) and convert it into a digital value that we can read.
 * **Digital (7):** Across from the analog pins are the digital pins (0 through 13 on the UNO). These pins can be used for both digital input (like telling if a button is pushed) and digital output (like powering an LED).
 * **PWM (8):** You may have noticed the tilde (~) next to some of the digital pins (3, 5, 6, 9, 10, and 11 on the UNO). These pins act as normal digital pins, but can also be used for something called Pulse-Width Modulation (PWM). We have [|a tutorial on PWM], but for now, think of these pins as being able to simulate analog output (like fading an LED in and out).
 * <span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #333333; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue',Helvetica,Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 14px;">**AREF (9):** Stands for Analog Reference. Most of the time you can leave this pin alone. It is sometimes used to set an external reference voltage (between 0 and 5 Volts) as the upper limit for the analog input pins.

<span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #555555; font-family: Montserrat,'Helvetica Neue',Helvetica,Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 20px;">Reset Button
<span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #333333; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue',Helvetica,Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 14px;">Just like the original Nintendo, the Arduino has **a reset button (10).** Pushing it will temporarily connect the reset pin to ground and restart any code that is loaded on the Arduino. This can be very useful if your code doesn’t repeat, but you want to test it multiple times. Unlike the original Nintendo however, blowing on the Arduino doesn’t usually fix any problems.

<span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #555555; font-family: Montserrat,'Helvetica Neue',Helvetica,Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 20px;">Power LED Indicator
<span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #333333; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue',Helvetica,Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 14px;">Just beneath and to the right of the word “UNO” on your circuit board, **there’s a tiny LED** next to the word **‘ON’ (11).** This LED should light up whenever you plug your Arduino into a power source. If this light doesn’t turn on, there’s a good chance something is wrong. Time to re-check your circuit!

<span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #555555; font-family: Montserrat,'Helvetica Neue',Helvetica,Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 20px;">TX RX LEDs
<span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #333333; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue',Helvetica,Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 14px;">TX is short for transmit, RX is short for receive. These markings appear quite a bit in electronics to indicate the pins responsible for [|serial communication]. In our case, there are two places on the Arduino UNO where TX and RX appear – once by digital pins 0 and 1, and a second time next to the **TX and RX indicator LEDs (12).** These LEDs will give us some nice visual indications whenever our Arduino is receiving or transmitting data (like when we’re loading a new program onto the board).

<span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #555555; font-family: Montserrat,'Helvetica Neue',Helvetica,Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 20px;">Main IC
<span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #333333; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue',Helvetica,Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 14px;">The black thing with all the metal legs is an IC, or **Integrated Circuit (13).** Think of it as the brains of our Arduino. The main IC on the Arduino is slightly different from board type to board type, but is usually from the ATmega line of IC’s from the ATMEL company. This can be important, as you may need to know the IC type (along with your board type) before loading up a new program from the Arduino software. This information can usually be found in writing on the top side of the IC. If you want to know more about the difference between various IC’s, reading the datasheets is often a good idea.

<span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #555555; font-family: Montserrat,'Helvetica Neue',Helvetica,Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 20px;">Voltage Regulator
<span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #333333; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue',Helvetica,Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 14px;">**The voltage regulator (14)** is not actually something you can (or should) interact with on the Arduino. But it is potentially useful to know that it is there and what it’s for. The voltage regulator does exactly what it says – it controls the amount of voltage that is let into the Arduino board. Think of it as a kind of gatekeeper; it will turn away an extra voltage that might harm the circuit. Of course, it has its limits, so don’t hook up your Arduino to anything greater than 20 volts.

<span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #555555; font-family: Montserrat,'Helvetica Neue',Helvetica,Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 24px;">The Extended Family
<span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #333333; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue',Helvetica,Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 14px;">While your Arduino board sure is pretty, it can’t do a whole lot on its own – you’ve got to hook it up to something. There are lots of tutorials here on learn as well as the links back in the ‘What does it do’ section, but rarely do we talk about the general //kinds// of things you can easily hook into. In this section we’ll introduce basic sensors as well as Arduino shields, two of the most handy tools to use in bringing your projects to life.

<span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #555555; font-family: Montserrat,'Helvetica Neue',Helvetica,Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 20px;">Sensors
<span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #333333; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue',Helvetica,Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 14px;">With some simple code, the Arduino can control and interact with a wide variety of sensors - things that can measure [|light], [|temperature] , [|degree of flex] , [|pressure] , [|proximity] , [|acceleration] , [|carbon monoxide] , [|radioactivity] , [|humidity] , [|barometric pressure] , [|you name it] , [|you can sense it] !



<span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #555555; font-family: Montserrat,'Helvetica Neue',Helvetica,Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 20px;">Shields
<span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #333333; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue',Helvetica,Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 14px;">Additionally, there are these things called shields – basically they are pre-built circuit boards that fit on top of your Arduino and provide additional capabilities – [|controlling motors], [|connecting to the internet] , [|providing cellular] or [|other wireless communication] , [|controlling an LCD screen] , and [|much more].

//A partial selection of available shields to extend the power of your Arduino//

<span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #333333; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue',Helvetica,Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 14px;">For more on shields, check out:
 * [|ShieldList.org]
 * <span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #333333; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue',Helvetica,Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 14px;">ShieldStravaganza!!! (A series of videos briefly explaining all of the shields we have at SparkFun) [|Part 1], [|Part 2] , and [|Part 3]

<span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #555555; font-family: Montserrat,'Helvetica Neue',Helvetica,Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 24px;">Resources and Going Further
<span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #333333; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue',Helvetica,Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 14px;">For more info about the Arduino, check [|here] and [|here].

<span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #333333; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue',Helvetica,Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 14px;">Now that you know all about the Arduino family, which board you might want to use for your project, and that there are tons of sensors and shields to help take your projects to the next level. Here’s some further reading that may help you along in learning more about the world of electronics. For more info on Arduino, check out these tutorials:


 * <span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #e0311d; font-family: "Helvetica Neue",Helvetica,Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 14px; text-decoration: none;">[|Arduino Curriculum]
 * <span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #e0311d; font-family: "Helvetica Neue",Helvetica,Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 14px; text-decoration: none;">[|Arduino Comparison Guide]
 * <span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #e0311d; font-family: "Helvetica Neue",Helvetica,Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 14px; text-decoration: none;">[|Arduino Shields]
 * <span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #e0311d; font-family: "Helvetica Neue",Helvetica,Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 14px; text-decoration: none;">[|Installing Arduino]
 * <span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #e0311d; font-family: "Helvetica Neue",Helvetica,Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 14px; text-decoration: none;">[|Installing an Arduino Library]
 * <span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #e0311d; font-family: "Helvetica Neue",Helvetica,Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 14px; text-decoration: none;">[|Arduino Data Types]

<span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #333333; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue',Helvetica,Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 14px;">For more hardware related tutorials, give these a read:


 * <span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #e0311d; font-family: "Helvetica Neue",Helvetica,Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 14px; text-decoration: none;">[|Breadboards]
 * <span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #e0311d; font-family: "Helvetica Neue",Helvetica,Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 14px; text-decoration: none;">[|Working with Wire]
 * <span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #e0311d; font-family: "Helvetica Neue",Helvetica,Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 14px; text-decoration: none;">[|Sewing with conductive thread]
 * <span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #e0311d; font-family: "Helvetica Neue",Helvetica,Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 14px; text-decoration: none;">[|How do I power my project?]