What is an Arduino?
Arduino is a simple open-source platform for prototyping
your design. Nowadays Arduino is widely used by the tinkerer and hobbyist.
Arduino Provides the best user Interface environment for users. Arduino gained its
popularity because it is user-friendly and doesn’t require any type of external
hardware for programming or installing. Most of the old development boards require
external hardware which is known as a programmer but in the case of Arduino, you can
simply plug a USB and program it. The first Arduino is manufactured in Italy.
Things that make an Arduino
Arduino consist of various electronics elements for various purposes.
Actually, Arduino is just a Family name
and this family has many members which can be differentiated by its size, work,
hardware, etc. Here we will talk about Arduino Uno R3 because it is a standard
board and widely used. We will also talk about other family members but in a different tutorial.
1. USB-B:
Arduino needs power for processing or doing its work and this can be done by using a USB B type cable in Arduino UNO. By using this cable we can provide power supply from any USB socket available in the computer or communication link board. Actually, the power supply function is a secondary function of this socket. The primary function of this socket is to provide a medium by which we can feed program from our system (Laptop or Computer) to Arduino. So we will use this USB B type socket for programming.
2. Power Supply (7v - 12v):
This is another socket which is used for supplying power. Usually, we provide power by using USB cable but think about a project where you have to put your Arduino outdoor and you don’t have any access of USB communication link then you have to provide power by using 12v adapter, which uses regular home supply and provides you 12v dc power supply. You can simply plug this adapter to Arduino for power-up.
3.Voltage Regulator IC:
There is a 3 pin IC which looks like a transistor With heat sink but actually, it is a voltage regulator IC which is used for maintaining the ambient voltage range for proper working. The exact work of this IC can be seen when we apply 9 – 12v supply by power socket but as we know the board works on 5v so we have to provide 5v by any mean and the most suitable mean, is to regulate the voltage to 5v by using a 5v voltage regulator ic.
4. Xtal Oscillator:
Crystal Oscillator here used for as always for generating clock signal which is used by the microcontroller for time reference. Here board uses a 16 MHz Crystal Oscillator.
5. ATMega 16:
This is a QFN Package IC manufactured by ATMEL and known as ATMega 16 which is an 8-bit microcontroller. Basically, this microcontroller is not for users, it is used for handling the USB interface.
6.RESET BUTTON:
This is a hardware button that is used for resetting the board. This button forces the microcontroller to stop executing the current programs and start executing the program from the Initial program address. In other words, execute the program from start.
7.Built-In Led Pin:
In Arduino Board, you will find a Built-in Led which is connected to pin no 13. This Led or Pin 13 can be used for monitoring or indicating any specific task.
8. Tx and Rx LED:
There is a pair of LED you will find next to the built-in led. This Pair of LED known as the Tx and Rx led pin which indicates the status of transmitting or receiving data.
9.Serial Tx and Rx pin:
Pin 0 and 1 Known as Rx Tx pin respectively. These 2 pins
are used to transmit or receive data serially from external devices. Pin 0 is
used for receiving whereas pin 1 is used for transmitting the data. The above
two LEDs actually indicate the status of these two pins. These pins also can be
used as simple digital I/O pins.
10. On Indication LED:
In the Arduino board, we will find a green LED beside the ICSP
pins. This LED is used to indicate the power status of the board. If the board has
sufficient power supply then it glows otherwise it stays in the off state.
11. ATMega 328:
12. ICSP Header Pin:
The bunch of pins situated at the end of the board known as
ICSP pins. These pins are used for initial programming purposes or for uploading
the firmware to the ATMega 328 microcontroller IC. Actually, microcontrollers read
the binary and next layer assembly language but for conveying the specific Arduino
ide command we have to load some initial commands which decode the Ide data
according to the microcontroller and this commands or program is known as Boot
program or boot command.
13.Analog Pins
There are 6 (A0, A1, A2, A3, A4, A5) analog input pins which are connected to built-in ADC (Analog to Digital Converter). Sometimes we have to interface analog-type sensors which give analog output but our Arduino can process only on
digital data so we have to convert that analog signal into their respective
digital signal and that time we need this ADC. These
pins also can be used as simple digital I/O pins.
14. Digital I/O Pins
These 12 pins (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13) are
our main concern because we are going to use these pins in almost our every
project. These are simple Digital input and output pins which are work on
defined job (input or output). In Arduino Uno, there are 6 pure digital pins (2,
4, 7, 8, 12, 13) in other words these pins have only digital input/output operation
and don’t have any other specific tasks whereas remaining 6 pins (3, 5, 6, 9,
10, 11) have digital I/O as well as PWM (Pulse Width Modulation) operation.
These 6 pins can be used as a PWM generator with an appropriate duty cycle and frequency.
15. Power Supply for Add-ons
There are various types of add-ons available in the market which
works with the Arduino boards and generally these boards are known as "shield".
These shields are maybe for sensors, motors or any other optoelectronics
devices and they need power for their proper operation and this power can be
supplied by using power output. Arduino Uno can provide 5v as well as 3.3v
supply for external boards.
Thank You Sir for this useful information
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