DIY Hideout: Get to Know Arduino IDE & Arduino UNO

In this tutorial post, you will learn the basic of Arduino IDE & Arduino UNO. If you're interested in learning via video you can watch the below video which covers all the topics which are shared in this post.

Note: The video doesn't cover the explanation for the sketch

Click here to watch the video on YouTube

Whom does this post help?

This post is helpful for people who are just getting started with Arduino and who have no knowledge of Arduino IDE or Arduino UNO.

About Arduino

Arduino is an open-source electronics platform that offers various kinds of Microcontroller boards and shields for various types of applications. Arduino also offers easy to use software. Arduino boards are capable of reading inputs from various sensors like LDR, LM35, Gas sensors & many more.

About Arduino UNO which will be used in this post

Source: Arduino Website

Arduino Uno is based on the microcontroller ATmega328P which is a high-performance Microchip 8-bit AVR RISC microcontroller combines 32KB ISP flash memory with simultaneously read-write capabilities, 1024 bytes EEPROM, 2KB SRAM, 23 I/O lines, 32 working registers, 3 flexible timer/counters with compare modes, Internal & external interrupts, serial programmable USART, a byte-oriented 2- wire serial interface, SPI serial port, and a 6 channel 10-bit A?D converter.

Arduino UNO has 14 digital pins of which 6 pins can be used as PWM outputs, 6 Analog Pins, Vin pin for input voltage, 2 GND points, a 5V pin, a 3.3V pin, a built-in LED for output which is associated to the PIN 13 of the UNO (built-in LED can be called in the sketch using LED_BUILTIN), a 16 MHz resonator, a USB connection for power and programming, a DC power jack, ICSP header & a reset button.

The operating voltage of the Arduino UNO is 5V & the recommended input voltage is between 7 to 12V

Source: Arduino Website

Affiliate Links for Arduino UNO

Installing Arduino IDE

To download the Arduino IDE click here & scroll down and select the Arduino IDE according to your OS. Once the download is complete, extract the files from .zip folder
and open the extracted folder & click on Arduino executable file which should open the Arduino IDE. Arduino website now also offers a web-based editor which you can check by clicking here.

Running First Sketch

To run the first sketch first connect the Arduino UNO to a laptop or a desktop and then open the Arduino IDE

After opening the IDE go to Tools > Board > & select Arduino UNO

Next, go to the Port > select your COM port.

Next, let's upload the example sketch which comes along with Arduino IDE. To upload the example sketch go to File > Basics and select Blink Sketch

Next, click on Verify to compile the sketch

and then click on upload button to upload your sketch to Arduino UNO

Now if your upload is successful you can see TX, RX LED's rapidly flashing

and then the L LED will start blinking.

How to connect external components with Arduino UNO

Take a breadboard and mount 220-ohm resistor and connect +ve lead of the LED to one end of the resistor, next connect two breadboard wires to the outer end of the circuit as shown in the below image

Next, connect the Red wire to Pin 9 and Black wire to the GND pin. After making the connections connect the Arduino UNO to a laptop or desktop and open the Arduino IDE and then follow the process showed in "Running First Sketch".

Note: For this example, you need to use the sketch Fade which is under File > Examples > Basics > Fade

Sketch Explanation for sketches used in this post

Blink Sketch: Blink is an example sketch which comes with Arduino IDE

Sketch Start

void setup() {
pinMode(LED_BUILTIN, OUTPUT);
}
void loop() {
digitalWrite(LED_BUILTIN, HIGH);
delay(1000);
digitalWrite(LED_BUILTIN, LOW);
delay(1000);
}

Sketch End

Sketch Explanation - Blink

void setup() {} - Setup function runs when you power the board or press reset button.
void loop() {} - Loop function runs statements inside it over and over again forever
pinMode(LED_BUILTIN, OUTPUT); - declaring the built in digital pin LED_BUILTIN to Output

digitalWrite(LED_BUILTIN, HIGH); - This turns the LED ON (Voltage = +5V)

digitalWrite(LED_BUILTIN, LOW); - This turns the LED OFF (Voltage = 0V)

delay(1000); - delays execution of next statement by 1second(1second = 1000milli Second)

Fade Sketch: Fade is an example sketch which comes with Arduino IDE

Sketch Start

int led = 9;
int brightness = 0;
int fadeAmount = 5;
void setup() {
pinMode(led, OUTPUT);
}
void loop() {
analogWrite(led, brightness);
brightness = brightness + fadeAmount;
if (brightness <= 0 || brightness >= 255) {
fadeAmount = -fadeAmount;
}
delay(30);
}

Sketch End

Sketch Explanation - Fade

int led = 9; - assigning PIN 9 to LED

int brightness = 0; - Assigning the brightness of the LED at the start

int fadeAmount = 5; - Points to fade the LED by

brightness = brightness + fadeAmount; - changing the brightness for the next time when it goes through the loop. Lets see the iteration of the this statement

1st Iteration brightness = 0 + 5; - so brightness = 5 Now2nd Iteration brightness = 5 + 5 - at the end of 2nd Iteration the brightness = 10. this will continue until the brightness value becomes 255

if (brightness <= 0 || brightness >= 255) {fadeAmount = -fadeAmount;} - this reverse the direction of fading at the end the fade.

A detailed explanation of the IF Statement

if (brightness <= 0 || brightness >= 255) this translates to 'if brightness is less than or equal to zero OR brightness greater than or equal to 255 enter inside or get out'

When brightness reaches the value 255 one of the conditions inside the IF statement (brightness >= 255) becomes true and goes through the IF statement.

Once inside the IF statement, the statement fadeAmount = -fadeAmount; assigns a new value to the fadeAmount which is -5 and then exists the IF statement

So now brightness = 255 + (-5); and this Iteration will continue until brightness reaches 0 when this happens it enters the IF statement once again since the condition brightness <= 0 becomes true and the new value for the fadeAmount will be assigned which now becomes +5 since negative multiplied by negative is positive and this cycle goes on forever

Thank You for Reading Guys !!!