Avik Dhupar

Overview

What is Arduino?
• What is it used for?
• How to get started
• Demonstration

• Questions are welcome at any time.

 What is Arduino?

• “Arduino is an open-source physical computing platform

based on a simple i/o board and a development
environment that implements the Processing / Wiring
language. Arduino can be used to develop stand-alone
interactive objects or can be connected to software on
your computer.“ ( [Link], 2006 )
 Arduino is a platform

• A physical Input / Output board (I/O) with a programmable

Integrated Circuit (IC).
 Arduino is a platform

• Also including an Integrated

Development Environment
(IDE) for programming.

• The language itself is based in

C but is largely modeled upon
the [Link]
language.
 What is it used for?

• Physical Computing projects / research

• Interactive Installations
• Rapid prototyping

• When you wish to move beyond the traditional Mouse,

Keyboard and Monitor to develop novel and custom
interactions in your project work.
 What can it do?

• Sensors ( to sense stuff )

– Push buttons, touch pads, tilt switches.
– Variable resistors (eg. volume knob / sliders)
– Photoresistors (sensing light levels)
– Thermistors (temperature)
– Ultrasound (proximity range finder)

• Actuators ( to do stuff )
– Lights, LED’s
– Motors
– Speakers
– Displays (LCD)
 Why Arduino?

• It is Open Source, both in terms of Hardware and

Software.

• It is cheap(1300र), the hardware can be built from

components or a prefab board can be purchased for
approx 900र.

• It can communicate with a computer via serial

connection over USB.

• It can be powered from USB or standalone DC power.

 Why Arduino?

• It can run standalone from a computer (chip is

programmable) and it has memory (a small amount).

• It can work with both Digital and Analog electronic

signals. Sensors and Actuators.

• You can make cool stuff! Some people are even making
simple robots, and we all know robots are just cool. 
 How to get started

• You’ll need a board of course, along with the USB cable

and DC power supplies.

• Read about, understand what you are working with and

download the IDE: [Link]

• Mac, Windows and Penguin friendly versions available

• Then you are ready to plug it in!

 Not so fast!

• It’s important to note at this stage that Arduino’s are

electronic devices.

• This means you MUST consider electrical safety and

understand the basics before diving straight in.

• The board itself doesn’t operate at what would normally

be considered dangerous Voltages or Current, but if in
doubt at any stage of use you should seek more expert
advice.
 Basic Electrical knowledge

• At the moment we don’t have any electrical engineers so

we need to do some ground work ourselves.

• A fantastic guide to electronics in theory, practice and of

course safety is available as a PDF at:

[Link]

What you want is Volume 1, DC circuits. This will help

you greatly in understanding how to wire circuits when
using sensors and actuators.
 Basic Electrical knowledge
Each electronic component has a schematic symbol, which is a simplified
drawing of the part. For resistors the symbol looks like this:

And the symbol for LED's look like this:

Resistor symbol

LED symbol, positive pin on the left,

negative pin on the right
Power and Ground symbols

You can see that the resistor symbol is symmetric, just like resistors
themselves. The LED symbol, however, has an arrow thing going on. This is
the direction in which current flows. The little arrows that are coming out of the
symbol indicate that this is a diode that emits light.
Basic Electrical knowledge
The only thing we need to do now is indicate
how the LED and resistor are hooked up and
show the 5V and ground connections.

Next to symbols, we often write important

information like what the resistor value is,
what color and size the LED should be,
and the voltage associated with the power
supply.
 Quiz!
LED #1 has a 100 ohm resistor (Brown Black Brown)
LED #2 has a 1.0K (Brown Black Red)
LED #3 has a 10K (Brown Black Orange).

Which LED is brightest?

Which LED is dimmest ?

If we had an LED with a resistor that was 5K ohms, which LED would it
be brighter than? Which LED would it be dimmer than?
 A Quick Rewiring...
We're going to make a very small modification to our wired up circuit

Result?
 Getting up and running

• The power mode must be selected before you plug the

board into anything.

• When powering from the USB cable (5 volts) the jumper

should be closest to the USB input, for DC supply the
jumper should be closest to the DC input.
 Getting up and running

• Plug it into the USB port and install the USB drivers that
come with the IDE.

• Open up the Arduino IDE and select the COM port,

usually COM1 or COM2 on a Windows machine.

• Within the IDE, select the BAUD rate (communication

speed for serial connections)

• Set BAUD rate to 9600 on Windows, (?) for Mac?

 Basic Process

•Design the circuit:

– What are electrical requirements of the sensors or actuators?
– Identify inputs (analog inputs)
– Identify digital outputs
•Write the code
– Build incrementally
• Get the simplest piece to work first
• Add complexity and test at each stage
• Save and Backup frequently
– Use variables, not constants
– Comment liberally
Writing and Downloading Code
Running Code While Tethered
Running Code Stand-Alone
 Arduino
IDE
IDE =
Integrated
Development
Environment
[Link]
 Overview of

The C Programming
Language
 Example 1
Demonstration

Start up the Arduino software

and open up the Blink sketch.
For the most basic kind of program you’ll need a simple actuator, an
LED with the long leg (+) pushed into pin 13 and the short leg (-) in the
adjacent ground pin (GND). Pin 13 is special, in the sense that it has a
built in resistor to correctly control the voltage going into a testing LED
just like this.
 Example 1
Code Structure: Header

Header provides information

 Example 1
Code Structure: setup function

setup function is executed

only once at the start
 Example 1
Code Structure: loop function

loop function is
repeated indefinitely
 Example 1
Code

pinMode(13, Output)
prepare pin 13 for
outputs of voltage

Digital I/O Functions:

pinMode
digitalWrite
digitalRead
 Example 1
Code

digitalWrite(13, HIGH)
Sets pin 13 to a voltage
that
means “on”

Digital I/O Functions:

pinMode
digitalWrite
digitalRead
 Example 1
Code

delay(1000);
Tells microcontroller to
do nothing for 1000 ms =
1s

Digital I/O Functions:

pinMode
digitalWrite
digitalRead
 Example 1
Code

digitalWrite(13, LOW)
Sets pin 13 to voltage
that means “off”

Digital I/O Functions:

pinMode
digitalWrite
digitalRead
 Example 1
The connections
 Upload a program

• At this stage we just programmed the LED to blink on and off at a

set time interval.

• Press the reset button on the board and then click ‘Upload to I/O
board’ in the IDE. If all goes well lights should flicker on the board
and the IDE will confirm success.
MORE
 Example 2
Demonstration

Robot controlled by a TV remote

 Example 3
Demonstration

RFID based wireless login system

 Conclusion

• There’s heaps more to explore, I’ve barely scratched the

surface of what you can really do with this technology.

• Make it happen. If you want to use an Arduino in your

project you’ll have to be proactive about it and do the
research yourself. It really isn’t hard, just get stuck in.
 ¿ Questions ?
• Use the website and associated forum for tutorials, code samples
and general help:

[Link]
• Find my PPTs at

[Link]/avikdhupar
• Find me at

[Link]/avikd
• Or drop an email

[Link]@[Link]
• Find my videos at

[Link]
Thank you
