{"id":3752,"date":"2012-03-21T20:05:40","date_gmt":"2012-03-21T20:05:40","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.markwilson.co.uk\/blog\/?p=3752"},"modified":"2017-01-31T20:40:39","modified_gmt":"2017-01-31T20:40:39","slug":"getting-started-with-arduino","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.markwilson.co.uk\/blog\/2012\/03\/getting-started-with-arduino.htm","title":{"rendered":"Getting started with Arduino"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a title=\"Arduino Uno by Snootlab, on Flickr\" href=\"http:\/\/www.flickr.com\/photos\/snootlab\/6052455554\/\"><img data-recalc-dims=\"1\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignright\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/farm7.staticflickr.com\/6209\/6052455554_a4301347ef_m.jpg?resize=240%2C160\" alt=\"Arduino Uno\" width=\"240\" height=\"160\" \/><\/a>A couple of days ago, my new <a href=\"http:\/\/arduino.cc\/\">Arduino<\/a>\u00a0board arrived and, last night, I finally got around to having a play.<\/p>\n<p>For those who don&#8217;t know what an Arduino is:<\/p>\n<blockquote cite=\"http:\/\/arduino.cc\/\"><p>&#8220;Arduino is an open-source electronics prototyping platform based on flexible, easy-to-use hardware and software. It&#8217;s intended for artists, designers, hobbyists, and anyone interested in creating interactive objects or environments.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: right;\">[Arduino website]<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p>The first thing I noticed was how small the board is (smaller than a credit card) and how large the USB connector makes it&#8230; but,\u00a0when I was working out what I needed to buy (I&#8217;ve always been interested in electronics, but never really got into it), I learned a few things about Arduino that might be useful to other newbies:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>You can buy various Arduino boards, with a variety of processors. I picked up an Arduino Uno, which seems to be a good starting point. My Uno shipped with a USB cable that can also provide power (i.e. powering from a battery or other DC source is optional, as <a href=\"http:\/\/twitter.com\/JacobyDave\/statuses\/179667953065803776\">Dave Jacoby<\/a> and <a href=\"http:\/\/twitter.com\/ghalfacree\/statuses\/179668198235447298\">Gareth Halfacree<\/a> confirmed for me on Twitter &#8211; thanks guys). Note that <a href=\"http:\/\/arduino.cc\/en\/Main\/ArduinoBoardUno\">some Uno boards<\/a> have surface-mounted (SMB) chips &#8211; you might prefer to go for a DIP version instead (as I did) as this can be swapped out if necessary.<\/li>\n<li>Shields are boards that sit on top of the Arduino and add additional functionality.<\/li>\n<li>Whilst my Arduino has an LED on the board that I can interact with to get my head around the concept, you&#8217;ll need some more bits and bobs to do anything more complex. There are various starter kits on the interwebs (many or which include the board and a USB cable). I&#8217;ve just ordered an ARDX kit from <a href=\"http:\/\/oomlout.co.uk\">.: oomlout :.<\/a>\u00a0(as <a href=\"http:\/\/twitter.com\/ghalfacree\/statuses\/179656207009722368\">recommended by Gareth<\/a>) but one of the reasons for going for this one is that it&#8217;s also available without the board if you already have one&#8230; \u00a0when it arrives, I&#8217;ll have a breadboard, and a whole bunch of components\u00a0to try out different ideas and get my head around controlling electronics programmatically.<\/li>\n<li>I bought my board from Amazon (RS Components&#8217; shipping charges were too high and Maplin&#8217;s stock levels are appalling) but, I&#8217;ve since been recommended a number of suppliers including the aforementioned .: oomlout :., <a href=\"http:\/\/www.coolcomponents.co.uk\/\">Cool Components<\/a> and\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/www.skpang.co.uk\/\">SK Pang<\/a>\u00a0(<a href=\"http:\/\/twitter.com\/andypiper\/statuses\/179657575153942529\">thanks to Andy Piper<\/a>).<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>The intention is that I&#8217;ll use one or more of these devices to control a model railway (yes, it&#8217;s geeky, but it could be a fun project) but, for now, I&#8217;ll start off by getting to grips with turning on lights and other similarly simple tasks, and I&#8217;ll probably try and get my sons interested too (they&#8217;ve already asked what it is&#8230; and seen some videos of other people&#8217;s projects).<\/p>\n<p>The Arduino integrated developer environment (IDE) runs on Windows, OS X or Linux but, as this is a geek project and my netbook is basically redundant (and very portable), I decided to use that and install it on Ubuntu (11.10). Installation was very simple (I just followed <a href=\"http:\/\/arduino.cc\/playground\/Linux\/Ubuntu\">the instructions on the Arduino Playground<\/a> &#8211; a wiki for the Arduino community &#8211; and found v22 of the Arduino IDE in the Ubuntu software centre).<\/p>\n<p><img data-recalc-dims=\"1\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone\" title=\"Arduino IDE in the Ubunto Software Centre\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.markwilson.co.uk\/blog\/images\/arduino-ide-ubuntu.png?resize=614%2C345&#038;ssl=1\" alt=\"\" width=\"614\" height=\"345\" \/><\/p>\n<p>With the IDE installed, I set about writing code. Or, perhaps more accurately, I set about modifying other people&#8217;s code. There are a load of <a href=\"http:\/\/arduino.cc\/en\/Tutorial\/HomePage\">examples on the Arduino playground<\/a>\u00a0and a good <a href=\"http:\/\/www.bit-tech.net\/modding\/2010\/09\/02\/arduino-projects-getting-started\/1\">getting started guide for Arduino at Bit-Tech<\/a> but I found the\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/www.ladyada.net\/learn\/arduino\/index.html\">Arduino Tutorials at Lady Ada<\/a>\u00a0really accessible for a newbie like me. Pretty soon I used <a href=\"http:\/\/www.ladyada.net\/learn\/arduino\/lesson1.html\">lesson 1<\/a>\u00a0and <a href=\"http:\/\/www.ladyada.net\/learn\/arduino\/lesson2.html\">lesson 2<\/a> to change the 1 second blinking LED on my board to a variety of settings, and finally to just off (ready for when I have a go at this with my son). \u00a0Once my starter kit arrives with a bunch more components, I&#8217;ll try a do something a little more complicated! Maybe one day I&#8217;ll <a href=\"http:\/\/www.wikihow.com\/Write-Arduino-Software-in-C\">even get past the IDE and onto some real C programming<\/a>\u00a0(it&#8217;s been a while since I wrote any code, let alone in C).<\/p>\n<p>Right&#8230; now it&#8217;s time to go off and find some cool projects for my new toy&#8230;<\/p>\n<p><em>Image credit: <a href=\"http:\/\/www.flickr.com\/photos\/snootlab\/6052455554\/\">Arduino Uno by\u00a0Snootlab, on Flickr<\/a>, used under the\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by\/2.0\/deed.en_GB\">Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 Generic licence<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>A couple of days ago, my new Arduino\u00a0board arrived and, last night, I finally got around to having a play. For those who don&#8217;t know what an Arduino is: &#8220;Arduino is an open-source electronics prototyping platform based on flexible, easy-to-use hardware and software. It&#8217;s intended for artists, designers, hobbyists, and anyone interested in creating interactive &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/www.markwilson.co.uk\/blog\/2012\/03\/getting-started-with-arduino.htm\" class=\"more-link\">Continue reading <span class=\"screen-reader-text\">Getting started with Arduino<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_active":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_note":"","_exactmetrics_sitenote_category":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[218],"tags":[369,425],"class_list":["post-3752","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-technology","tag-arduino","tag-electronics"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.7 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Getting started with Arduino - markwilson.it<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.markwilson.co.uk\/blog\/2012\/03\/getting-started-with-arduino.htm\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_GB\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Getting started with Arduino - markwilson.it\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"A couple of days ago, my new Arduino\u00a0board arrived and, last night, I finally got around to having a play. 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During a career spanning more than two decades, Mark has gained widespread recognition as an expert in his field including both industry and national press exposure. In addition to certifications from Microsoft, VMware, Red Hat, The Open Group and Axelos, Mark held a Microsoft Most Valuable Professional (MVP) award for three years and is now part of the MVP Reconnect programme. 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I use the Arduino IDE\u00a0on a netbook running Ubuntu Linux (other development tools are available) and,\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Technology&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Technology","link":"https:\/\/www.markwilson.co.uk\/blog\/topic\/technology"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":4189,"url":"https:\/\/www.markwilson.co.uk\/blog\/2012\/07\/traffic-lights-for-my-home-office.htm","url_meta":{"origin":3752,"position":1},"title":"&#8220;Traffic lights&#8221; for my home office","author":"Mark Wilson","date":"Tuesday 31 July 2012","format":false,"excerpt":"It's the school holidays, which means that working from home can be a little... noisy... at times. \u00a0Earlier today I saw a blog post from Scott Hanselman where he had hooked a light up to his instant messenger status to tell his family when he was on a call, or\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Technology&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Technology","link":"https:\/\/www.markwilson.co.uk\/blog\/topic\/technology"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":4587,"url":"https:\/\/www.markwilson.co.uk\/blog\/2014\/10\/ethernet-control-for-my-office-traffic-lights.htm","url_meta":{"origin":3752,"position":2},"title":"Ethernet control for my office &#8220;traffic lights&#8221;","author":"Mark Wilson","date":"Friday 17 October 2014","format":false,"excerpt":"A couple of years ago, I wrote about the \"traffic lights\" I'd created for my home office (and subsequent \"upgrade\"). Shortly after that, I updated the solution to use three LEDs (as shown below) but it still wasn't quite what I needed. Walking to the door to push a button\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Technology&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Technology","link":"https:\/\/www.markwilson.co.uk\/blog\/topic\/technology"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.markwilson.co.uk\/blog\/images\/basic-red-yellow-green-led-button-ethernet.png?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":4200,"url":"https:\/\/www.markwilson.co.uk\/blog\/2012\/08\/upgraded-the-traffic-lights-in-my-office-already.htm","url_meta":{"origin":3752,"position":3},"title":"Upgraded the &#8220;traffic lights&#8221; in my office already","author":"Mark Wilson","date":"Wednesday 1 August 2012","format":false,"excerpt":"Last night I wrote a blog post about the \"traffic lights\" for my office. The trouble with the original setup was that the light was set to a particular state until I edited the code and uploaded a new version to the Arduino. I was so excited about having something\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Technology&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Technology","link":"https:\/\/www.markwilson.co.uk\/blog\/topic\/technology"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":5281,"url":"https:\/\/www.markwilson.co.uk\/blog\/2014\/07\/geeking-out-at-microsoft-research.htm","url_meta":{"origin":3752,"position":4},"title":"Geeking out at Microsoft Research","author":"Mark Wilson","date":"Wednesday 16 July 2014","format":false,"excerpt":"A couple of weeks ago, I was invited to join the Microsoft Technical Community Council (MTCC), which is described as \"a\u00a0group of external IT professionals influential in the IT Pro world, who are engaged and interested in sharing their opinions and meet once a month via a Lync call\". \u00a0Basically,\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Technology&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Technology","link":"https:\/\/www.markwilson.co.uk\/blog\/topic\/technology"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":3798,"url":"https:\/\/www.markwilson.co.uk\/blog\/2012\/04\/short-takes-kids-coding-in-c-new-car-and-finally-fit-at-40.htm","url_meta":{"origin":3752,"position":5},"title":"Short takes: Kids coding in C (!); new car; and finally &#8220;fit at 40&#8221;!","author":"Mark Wilson","date":"Friday 6 April 2012","format":false,"excerpt":"Last week I kicked off my new initiative to actually get some blog posts out, despite not having time for all the details... 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