Technical Articles
2025-01-13

Getting Started with Arduino for Beginners

In portfolios, we often see many devices implemented using Arduino, which could be interactive devices or artistic installations. Many students are interested in Arduino and enjoy working on related projects, finding them quite engaging. Today, Teacher Cheng from Mark Pen Design Study Abroad will discuss Arduino-related knowledge to help interested students get started.

Arduino is a convenient, flexible, and easy-to-use open-source electronic prototyping platform. It includes hardware (various models of Arduino boards) and software (Arduino IDE). Why do we say it has open-source characteristics? The term “open source” refers to things being planned for public access, allowing people to modify and share them. Arduino is a platform for everyone; as long as you understand the logic and language of Arduino, you can realize your own concepts and ideas with it.

The hardware part of Arduino can work independently or collaborate with external hardware devices. For example, we can use Arduino with various sensors (ultrasonic sensors, photoresistors, temperature and humidity sensors, sound sensors, pH sensors, etc.) to sense the environment. We can also use Arduino to control servos to drive robotic arms, robots, and drones. The lighting effects of Arduino are also quite impressive; we can use this hardware for project creation. There are many experimental videos on Arduino on YouTube, where many experts have conducted different tests, making them excellent learning resources. Overall, Arduino acts like our little assistant, helping us realize our inner thoughts and achieve project outcomes.

Getting Started with Arduino for Beginners

Getting Started with Arduino for Beginners

There are many development boards for Arduino, including Arduino Yun, Arduino UNO, Arduino Nano, Arduino Mega, Arduino Pro/Pro Mini, Arduino Gemma, etc. Today, I will introduce three of the most common boards: Arduino UNO, Arduino Nano, and Arduino Pro/Pro Mini. Arduino UNO is the most basic development board in the Arduino family; generally, the board included in the beginner’s package we buy online is the UNO board. The blue line in the image is a USB cable that connects to a computer for program transfer, and the red button on the board is the reset button, which restarts the program already burned into the board. Regarding power supply, Arduino can be powered by a computer, power bank, or 9V battery. If we don’t want to bring a computer for testing, it is generally better to choose a power bank, as the 9V battery has limited power and a short supply time.

Getting Started with Arduino for Beginners

Arduino UNO has many ports, among which the power connection block is the most important; 5V and 3.3V are positive terminals, while GND is the negative terminal. A0-A5 are analog ports, and 0-13 are digital interfaces. Ports 0 and 1 are used for serial communication, which we generally do not occupy; ports 2 to 13 are available for our use, and digital interfaces can read and output digital signals. The Arduino UNO board also has status lights: if the L and On lights are on, it indicates that Arduino is working. The Arduino Nano board is much smaller than the UNO board, about the size of our little finger, and the other connection interfaces are almost the same as those of the UNO, including the power connection block, analog ports, and reset button. The only difference is that if you connect a digital port 5 on the UNO, you connect it to D5 on the NANO. The Arduino Nano uses a mini USB cable, and there are two types of Nano boards: one is soldered, and the other is unsoldered. We will use these two types according to specific situations. The Arduino Pro Mini is even smaller than the Nano board, and we generally use these two small boards when making wearable devices.

Getting Started with Arduino for Beginners

Getting Started with Arduino for Beginners

Getting Started with Arduino for Beginners

Arduino includes two types of libraries: standard libraries and third-party libraries; of course, you can also write your own libraries. The standard libraries are already imported after installing the Arduino IDE; you just need to call them directly. Third-party libraries need to be imported; if they are not imported, the compiler will report an error. We generally rely on third-party libraries for our projects, and GitHub is the world’s largest Git service provider and one of the largest open-source communities. Many commonly used Arduino libraries can be found on GitHub. The libraries folder stores various libraries for Arduino, and after placing the libraries in it, you can call them when writing programs.

Getting Started with Arduino for Beginners

(Click the image to learn more about GitHub)

Arduino programs can be divided into three main parts: structure, values (variables and constants), and functions. The software structure includes two main functions: the Setup() function and the Loop() function. Setup is to do this first, what this is—what’s in the parentheses, and loop is the cycle; the cyclical task is also what follows after the loop in parentheses. All Arduino programs are based on this two-function structure.

Getting Started with Arduino for Beginners

The Arduino IDE software is the programming development environment for Arduino boards. You just need to write the program code in the IDE and upload it to Arduino, and it will execute the tasks you assign based on your instructions. The Arduino development language is based on C/C++.

Finally, let me talk about how to learn Arduino. Arduino is low-threshold and easy to use; students who are interested can start by understanding input and output devices to enter the world of Arduino. The second step is to understand the IO (input, output) functions of input and output devices. We do not need to understand all the sensors in the kit right away; we can only truly grasp the programming logic and wiring method of a sensor when we practice it in specific projects.

“Why is Arduino so popular?”

All images are sourced from the internet.

Article Author:Cheng Yaqiu

Master’s in Product Design from the Royal College of Art, UK

Specializes in product service system design, user experience design, and hardware Arduino interaction

Any questions about schools and portfolios

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Getting Started with Arduino for Beginners

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