Very simply put, an Arduino is a small, programmable computer on a tiny circuit board with built in interfaces. Yeah. What do you do with it? Well, probably almost anything you can think of. Common uses are in robotics and control. Some applications I have in mind are:
- temperature and humidity control for my egg incubator
- enlarger timer and controller for film photography
- flight management system for a tri-rotor helicopter
Okay, it's really nerdy. But it's also electronics for programmers. The Arduino is programmed using C. That might seem scary, but if you've ever programmed javascript, java or PHP, you'll feel pretty comfortable.
Arduino themselves describe it as "...an open-source electronics prototyping platform based on flexible, easy-to-use hardware and software. It's intended for artists, designers, hobbyists, and anyone interested in creating interactive objects or environments."
You have the ability to easily interface sensors (data input) and analog or digital outputs, e.g. motors and LCD displays. Expanding this, I can use temperature and humidity sensors to turn the incubator heater on and off. Light sensors to measure a film exposure and display the result on an LCD display or gyro, and GPS to autonomously control a model helicopter.
The variety of sensors available is huge and there are ready made software libraries to do almost anything you can think of.
So it must be expensive. Not at all. My starter kit cost about £33 and included a genuine Arduino Uno (more about genuine in a moment), 60 LEDs and a pile of other components. I bought it from Earthshine Electronics but there are dozens of other companies with their own deals.
Arduino is an open-source project and that extends to the hardware as well, so you can get Seeduino, Freeduino (not free!) etc. clone boards. In general, they're all 100% compatible. You can even build your own. The boards on their own mostly cost from £10 - £30.
You have the ability to easily interface sensors (data input) and analog or digital outputs, e.g. motors and LCD displays. Expanding this, I can use temperature and humidity sensors to turn the incubator heater on and off. Light sensors to measure a film exposure and display the result on an LCD display or gyro, and GPS to autonomously control a model helicopter.
The variety of sensors available is huge and there are ready made software libraries to do almost anything you can think of.
So it must be expensive. Not at all. My starter kit cost about £33 and included a genuine Arduino Uno (more about genuine in a moment), 60 LEDs and a pile of other components. I bought it from Earthshine Electronics but there are dozens of other companies with their own deals.
Arduino is an open-source project and that extends to the hardware as well, so you can get Seeduino, Freeduino (not free!) etc. clone boards. In general, they're all 100% compatible. You can even build your own. The boards on their own mostly cost from £10 - £30.
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