Arduino Uno (R3)

As we discussed we know that Arduino Uno is the most standard board available and
probably the best choice for a beginner. We can directly connect the board to the computer
via a USB Cable which performs the function of supplying the power as well as acting as a
serial port.


Vin: This is the input voltage pin of the Arduino board used to provide input supply from an
external power source.
5V: This pin of the Arduino board is used as a regulated power supply voltage and it is used
to give supply to the board as well as onboard components.
3.3V: This pin of the board is used to provide a supply of 3.3V which is generated from a
voltage regulator on the board
GND: This pin of the board is used to ground the Arduino board.
Reset: This pin of the board is used to reset the microcontroller. It is used to Resets the
microcontroller.
Analog Pins: The pins A0 to A5 are used as an analog input and it is in the range of 0-5V.
Digital Pins: The pins 0 to 13 are used as a digital input or output for the Arduino board.
Serial Pins: These pins are also known as a UART pin. It is used for communication between
the Arduino board and a computer or other devices. The transmitter pin number 1 and
receiver pin number 0 is used to transmit and receive the data resp.
External Interrupt Pins: This pin of the Arduino board is used to produce the External
interrupt and it is done by pin numbers 2 and 3.
PWM Pins: This pins of the board is used to convert the digital signal into an analog by
varying the width of the Pulse. The pin numbers 3,5,6,9,10 and 11 are used as a PWM pin.
SPI Pins: This is the Serial Peripheral Interface pin, it is used to maintain SPI
communication with the help of the SPI library. SPI pins include:
1. SS: Pin number 10 is used as a Slave Select
2. MOSI: Pin number 11 is used as a Master Out Slave In
3. MISO: Pin number 12 is used as a Master In Slave Out
4. SCK: Pin number 13 is used as a Serial Clock
LED Pin: The board has an inbuilt LED using digital pin-13. The LED glows only when the
digital pin becomes high.
AREF Pin: This is an analog reference pin of the Arduino board. It is used to provide a
reference voltage from an external power supply.
Arduino Uno pinout - Power Supply
There are 3 ways to power the Arduino Uno:
 Barrel Jack - The Barrel jack, or DC Power Jack can be used to power your Arduino
board. The barrel jack is usually connected to a wall adapter. The board can be
powered by 5-20 volts but the manufacturer recommends to keep it between 7-12
volts. Above 12 volts, the regulators might overheat, and below 7 volts, might not
suffice.
 VIN Pin - This pin is used to power the Arduino Uno board using an external power
source. The voltage should be within the range mentioned above.
 USB cable - when connected to the computer, provides 5 volts at 500mA.

There is a polarity protection diode connecting between the positive of the barrel jack to
the VIN pin, rated at 1 Ampere.
The power source you use determines the power you have available for your circuit. For
instance, powering the circuit using the USB limits you to 500mA. Take into consideration
that this is also used for powering the MCU, its peripherals, the on-board regulators, and
the components connected to it. When powering your circuit through the barrel jack or VIN,
the maximum capacity available is determined by the 5 and 3.3 volts regulators on-board
the Arduino.
 5v and 3v3
They provide regulated 5 and 3.3v to power external components according to
manufacturer specifications.
 GND
In the Arduino Uno pinout, you can find 5 GND pins, which are all interconnected.
The GND pins are used to close the electrical circuit and provide a common logic reference
level throughout your circuit. Always make sure that all GNDs (of the Arduino, peripherals
and components) are connected to one another and have a common ground.
 RESET - resets the Arduino
 IOREF - This pin is the input/output reference. It provides the voltage reference with
which the microcontroller operates.
Arduino Uno Pinout - Analog IN
The Arduino Uno has 6 analog pins, which utilize ADC (Analog to Digital converter).
These pins serve as analog inputs but can also function as digital inputs or digital outputs.

Analog to Digital Conversion

ADC stands for Analog to Digital Converter. ADC is an electronic circuit used to convert
analog signals into digital signals. This digital representation of analog signals allows the
processor (which is a digital device) to measure the analog signal and use it through its
operation.
Arduino Pins A0-A5 are capable of reading analog voltages. On Arduino the ADC has 10-bit
resolution, meaning it can represent analog voltage by 1,024 digital levels. The ADC
converts voltage into bits which the microprocessor can understand.
One common example of an ADC is Voice over IP (VoIP). Every smartphone has a
microphone that converts sound waves (voice) into analog voltage. This goes through the
device’s ADC, gets converted into digital data, which is transmitted to the receiving side over
the internet.
Arduino Uno Pinout - Digital Pins
Pins 0-13 of the Arduino Uno serve as digital input/output pins.
Pin 13 of the Arduino Uno is connected to the built-in LED.
In the Arduino Uno - pins 3,5,6,9,10,11 have PWM capability.
It’s important to note that:
● Each pin can provide/sink up to 40 mA max. But the recommended current is 20 mA.
● The absolute max current provided (or sank) from all pins together is 200mA
What does digital mean?
Digital is a way of representing voltage in 1 bit: either 0 or 1. Digital pins on the Arduino are
pins designed to be configured as inputs or outputs according to the needs of the user.
Digital pins are either on or off. When ON they are in a HIGH voltage state of 5V and when
OFF they are in a LOW voltage state of 0V.
On the Arduino, When the digital pins are configured as output, they are set to 0 or 5 volts.
When the digital pins are configured as input, the voltage is supplied from an external
device. This voltage can vary between 0-5 volts which is converted into digital
representation (0 or 1). To determine this, there are 2 thresholds:
● Below 0.8v - considered as 0.
● Above 2v - considered as 1.
When connecting a component to a digital pin, make sure that the logic levels match. If the
voltage is in between the thresholds, the returning value will be undefined.
What is PWM?
In general, Pulse Width Modulation (PWM) is a modulation technique used to encode
a message into a pulsing signal. A PWM is comprised of two key components:
frequency and duty cycle. The PWM frequency dictates how long it takes to complete a
single cycle (period) and how quickly the signal fluctuates from high to low. The duty cycle
determines how long a signal stays high out of the total period. Duty cycle is represented in
percentage.
In Arduino, the PWM enabled pins produce a constant frequency of ~ 500Hz, while the duty
cycle changes according to the parameters set by the user. See the following illustration:
PWM signals are used for speed control of DC motors, dimming LEDs and more.
Communication Protocols
Serial (TTL) - Digital pins 0 and 1 are the serial pins of the Arduino Uno.
They are used by the onboard USB module.
What is Serial Communication?
Serial communication is used to exchange data between the Arduino board and another
serial device such as computers, displays, sensors and more. Each Arduino board has at
least one serial port. Serial communication occurs on digital pins 0 (RX) and 1 (TX) as well as
via USB. Arduino supports serial communication through digital pins with the SoftwareSerial
Library as well. This allows the user to connect multiple serial-enabled devices and leave the
main serial port available for the USB.
Software serial and hardware serial - Most microcontrollers have hardware designed to
communicate with other serial devices. Software serial ports use a pin-change interrupt
system to communicate. There is a built-in library for Software Serial communication.
Software serial is used by the processor to simulate extra serial ports. The only drawback
with software serial is that it requires more processing and cannot support the same high
speeds as hardware serial.
SPI - SS/SCK/MISO/MOSI pins are the dedicated pins for SPI communication. They can be
found on digital pins 10-13 of the Arduino Uno and on the ICSP headers.
What is SPI?
Serial Peripheral Interface (SPI) is a serial data protocol used by microcontrollers to
communicate with one or more external devices in a bus like connection. The SPI can also
be used to connect 2 microcontrollers. On the SPI bus, there is always one device that is
denoted as a Master device and all the rest as Slaves. In most cases, the microcontroller is
the Master device. The SS (Slave Select) pin determines which device the Master is currently
communicating with.
SPI enabled devices always have the following pins:
 MISO (Master In Slave Out) - A line for sending data to the Master device
 MOSI (Master Out Slave In) - The Master line for sending data to peripheral devices
  SCK (Serial Clock) - A clock signal generated by the Master device to synchronize data
transmission.
I2C - SCL/SDA pins are the dedicated pins for I2C communication. On the Arduino Uno they
are found on Analog pins A4 and A5.
What is I2C?
I2C is a communication protocol commonly referred to as the “I2C bus”. The I2C protocol
was designed to enable communication between components on a single circuit board.
With I2C there are 2 wires referred to as SCL and SDA.
 SCL is the clock line which is designed to synchronize data transfers.
 SDA is the line used to transmit data.
Each device on the I2C bus has a unique address, up to 255 devices can be connected on
the same bus.
Aref - Reference voltage for the analog inputs.
Interrupt - INT0 and INT1. Arduino Uno has two external interrupt pins.
External Interrupt - An external interrupt is a system interrupt that occurs when outside
interference is present. Interference can come from the user or other hardware devices in
the network. Common uses for these interrupts in Arduino are reading the frequency a
square wave generated by encoders or waking up the processor upon an external event.
Arduino has two forms of interrupt:
 External
 Pin Change
There are two external interrupt pins on the ATmega168/328 called INT0 and INT1. both
INT0 and INT1 are mapped to pins 2 and 3. In contrast, Pin Change interrupts can be
activated on any of the pins.
Arduino Uno Pinout - ICSP Header
ICSP stands for In-Circuit Serial Programming. The name originated from In-System
Programming headers (ISP). Manufacturers like Atmel who work with Arduino have
developed their own in-circuit serial programming headers. These pins enable the user to
program the Arduino boards’ firmware. There are six ICSP pins available on the Arduino
board that can be hooked to a programmer device via a programming cable.
Know your Pinout
The Arduino Uno Microcontroller is one of the most versatile boards on the market today
and that’s why we decided to focus on it in this guide. This guide displays most of its
capabilities, but there are also more advanced options which we did not go into in this post.