Arduino Workshop Notes

Thursday, August 19 2010

Agenda

Basic: Intro to Electronics; Intro to Microcontrollers; Install and run Arduino IDE; Intro to Arduino Advanced topic: Counters and timers

Intro to Electronics

closed/open circuits; schematic; switch; transistor

Intro to Microcontrollers

Miniature computer with special features: transistors attached to pins (Digital Outputs) that you can control in your program

First workshop

topics 1-electronics 2-arduino 3-programming

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1. open circuit vs closed circuit vs short circuit. short circuits are easy to do and not notice, it just breaks your components.

electricity - mechanical controls of electricity

electronics - electrical control of electricity

transistor - an electronic switch

Electric current is the flow of electrical charge through a conductor

voltage - analogous to water pressure current - analogous to water flow rate (e.g. gallons per minute) resistance - somewhat analogous to a blockage in a water pipe, reducing the rate of flow

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2. digital pins 0-13: each can be either output OR input. When output, each pin corresponds to an individual transistor which is under your control (via your program)

DIP-name of type of chip, with 2 parallel rows of legs (DIP = Dual Inline Package)

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3. software environment - file-examples-

/*multiline comments*/

//short comments at end of line

2 things minimum to make a program

void setup () {entire function}

void loop () {entire function}

(don't worry about the "void" for now)

installing drivers: comes with the software kit

once installed tools/serial port menu gets clickable, choose your port. then make sure you chose the right chip!!