INTRODUCTION TO ARDUINO
BOARD
The
Arduino
board
The Arduino board parts and
functions
1. USB power- Arduino board can be powered by using the USB cable from your computer. All
you need to do is connect the USB cable to the USB connection (1).
2. Power (Barrel Jack) - Arduino boards can be powered directly from the AC mains power
supply by connecting it to the Barrel Jack.
3. Voltage Regulator- The function of the voltage regulator is to control the voltage given to
the Arduino board and stabilize the DC voltages used by the processor and other elements.
4. Crystal Oscillator- The crystal oscillator helps Arduino in dealing with time issues. How does
Arduino calculate time? The answer is, by using the crystal oscillator. The number printed on
top of the Arduino crystal is 16.000H9H. It tells us that the frequency is 16,000,000 Hertz or
16 MHz.
5. Arduino Reset - You can reset your Arduino board, i.e., start your program from the
beginning. You can reset the UNO board in two ways. First, by using the reset button (17) on
the board. Second, you can connect an external reset button to the Arduino pin labelled
RESET (5).
The Arduino board parts and
functions
6. Pins (3.3, 5, GND, Vin)
• 3.3V (6) − Supply 3.3 output volts
• 5V (7) − Supply 5 output volts
• Most of the components used with Arduino board works fine with 3.3 volt and 5 volt.
• GND (8)(Ground) − There are several GND pins on the Arduino, any of which can be used to ground
your circuit.
• Vin (9) − This pin also can be used to power the Arduino board from an external power source, like
AC mains power supply.
10. Analog pins - The Arduino UNO board has six analog input pins A0 through A5. These pins
can read the signal from an analog sensor like the humidity sensor or temperature sensor
and convert it into a digital value that can be read by the microprocessor.
The Arduino board parts and
functions
[Link] microcontroller - Each Arduino board has its own microcontroller (11). You can assume
it as the brain of your board. The main IC (integrated circuit) on the Arduino is slightly different
from board to board. The microcontrollers are usually of the ATMEL Company. You must know
what IC your board has before loading up a new program from the Arduino IDE. This information
is available on the top of the IC. For more details about the IC construction and functions, you
can refer to the data sheet.
12. ICSP pin- Mostly, ICSP (12) is an AVR, a tiny programming header for the Arduino consisting of
MOSI, MISO, SCK, RESET, VCC, and GND. It is often referred to as an SPI (Serial Peripheral
Interface), which could be considered as an "expansion" of the output. Actually, you are slaving
the output device to the master of the SPI bus.
13. Power LED indicator - This LED should light up when you plug your Arduino into a power
source to indicate that your board is powered up correctly. If this light does not turn on, then
there is something wrong with the connection.
The Arduino board parts and
functions
[Link] and RX LEDs - On your board, you will find two labels: TX (transmit) and RX (receive).
They appear in two places on the Arduino UNO board. First, at the digital pins 0 and 1, to
indicate the pins responsible for serial communication. Second, the TX and RX led (13). The
TX led flashes with different speed while sending the serial data. The speed of flashing
depends on the baud rate used by the board. RX flashes during the receiving process.
[Link] I/O - The Arduino UNO board has 14 digital I/O pins (15) (of which 6 provide PWM
(Pulse Width Modulation) output. These pins can be configured to work as input digital pins
to read logic values (0 or 1) or as digital output pins to drive different modules like LEDs,
relays, etc. The pins labeled ~ can be used to generate PWM.
[Link] - AREF stands for Analog Reference. It is sometimes, used to set an external
reference voltage (between 0 and 5 Volts) as the upper limit for the analog input pins.
PWM
• Pulse Width Modulation, or PWM, is a technique for getting analog results with
digital means.
• Digital control is used to create a square wave, a signal switched between on and
off. This on-off pattern can simulate voltages in between the full Vcc of the board
(e.g., 5 V on UNO, 3.3 V on a MKR board) and off (0 Volts) by changing the portion
of the time the signal spends on versus the time that the signal spends off.
• The duration of "on time" is called the pulse width. To get varying analog values,
you change, or modulate, that pulse width. If you repeat this on-off pattern fast
enough with an LED for example, the result is as if the signal is a steady voltage
between 0 and Vcc controlling the brightness of the LED.
PWM
SENSORS
• HUMIDITY SENSOR
• ULTRASONIC SENSOR
• LIGHT SENSOR
• TEMPERATURE SENSOR
• MOTION SENSOR