What Are Arduino

You might have heard about arduino and might have wondered what they are. So in this post I will be clearing all your doubt regarding arduino and guide you through different arduinos available in market. 

Arduino boards are made by a company in Italy and they are open source hardware which means there documentation are available to us and we can make an arduino for ourselves but this may cost more than what it would take to buy one.

Arduino boards consists of micro controller which can be programmed using software called arduino IDE(Integrated Development Environment)  which you can download from their official website: https://www.arduino.cc/en/main/software  .

what are arduino

Components  Of Arduino :-  

    1)Microcontroller:- most of the arduino board makes use of Atmel AVR. Microcontroller is the place where all your codes stored and executed.Microcontroller used in most coomonly used arduino UNO is the ATmega328p.

    2)Pins:- these pins are used to make connections with sensors and module.Common pins on arduino boads are 5V, 3.3V, GND, Digital, PWM, Analog, AREF.

    3)Power supply and USB:- USB is used to upload the code onto your arduino board along with it you can power your arduino board via USB but it might not be always handy to power your arduino with USB in that case you can use barrel jack which is provided for power supply.A power supply anywhere between 6-12 volt will be good to power your arduino.

    (Note:-Do Not use a power supply greater than 20 volt which might overpower your arduino and destroy it.)
              
    4)Reset button:- this button is used to restart your arduino and make it to run the code from the beginning.
                
    5)Power LED indicator:- on the arduino board you will find a LED just next to 'ON' this LED glows when you connect your arduino to a power supply.If this LED does not glow either there is problem in the board or you have not connected the arduino board with power supply properly.

    6)RX and TX LED:- first of all RX and TX is short term for receive and transmit respectively.When ever there is data transfer while uploading code or communicating with bluetooth module etc these LED glow.

    7)Voltage regulator:- this controls the amount of voltage which is let into arduino by turning away extra voltage which may dame our board.This regulator also has a limit so Do Not burn up arduino by supplying power more than 20 volts. 

    So now that we know what is an arduino and and what are its essential components now I will guide you through some of the most popular arduino available to us.

    1) Arduino UNO:- is the most popular and most used arduino.

    Cost:-$22(Which is about 1,560 Indian rupees)
    Microcontroller:- ATmega328p
    Weight:- 25g
    For more details click here.

    2) Arduino NANO:- the main feature of this board is its size ,it is very small when compared to an arduino UNO but it is capable of doing most of the thing which any other Arduino board can do.

    Cost:-$22(Which is about 1,560 Indian rupees)
    Microcontroller:- ATmega328
    Weight:- 7g
    For more details click here

    3) Arduino Mega 2560 Rev3:- This board is used for more complex projects as it has 54 digital pins and 16 analog pins.

    Cost:-$38.50(Which is about 2,750 Indian rupees)
    Microcontroller:- ATmega2560
    Weight:- 35g
    For more details click here

    Arduino clones

    There are many clone version of arduino which are way cheaper than the original board.I would recommend a clone arduino for beginners as it serves the same purpose but at lower cost.Once you are familiar with it you can go for original made in Italy arduino boards.

    For beginners   

    I post simple projects that you can make with arduino.So, if you are new to my blog do not forget to check out my other posts if you are interested to build your own projects.
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