What is Arduino?

Imagine you have a magic brain that can help you build cool things like robots, talking toys, or even a smart light that turns on when it gets dark. That magic brain is called Arduino!

Arduino is a small electronic board that acts like a tiny computer. You can tell it what to do by writing simple instructions (called a program), and it can control lights, sounds, motors, and sensors.

How Does Arduino Work?

1. You Give It Instructions – Just like telling a robot to dance, you write a program on a computer.
2. It Follows Your Instructions – The Arduino understands your commands and controls different things like lights, buzzers, or motors.
3. It Reacts to the World – You can add sensors, and Arduino will sense light, temperature, or movement and act accordingly.

What Can You Make with Arduino?

• A smart lamp that turns on when it’s dark 🌟
• A plant waterer that waters plants when the soil is dry 🌱
• A robot that follows a line 🤖
• A musical instrument that plays notes when you press a button 🎶

Diagram of Arduino and Explanation of Its Parts

Starting clockwise from the top center:

• 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 serial communication between the board and the computer; can be used to power the board) (yellow)