Arduino

Arduino is a way to build digital tools and machines.

It is a project that uses special computer boards. These boards are called microcontrollers. A microcontroller is a tiny computer on a single circuit board. People use them to make many different things. You might build a simple robot or a motion detector. You could even make a thermostat to control heat.

These boards are great because they are easy to use. They help people turn their ideas into real machines.

Working with an Arduino board happens in a few steps. First, you connect the board to a computer. You use a cable like a USB to do this. Next, you write instructions for the board. These instructions are called code. You write this code using a special program called an IDE. This stands for an integrated development environment.

The IDE helps you write and check your code. After that, you send the code to the board. The board uses a bootloader to save your code. A bootloader is a small program that helps load new instructions. Finally, the board follows your code to control things.

The Arduino project started in 2005 in Italy. It began at a school called the Interaction Design Institute Ivrea. Students there needed a cheap way to make digital tools. Before Arduino, they used a tool called a BASIC Stamp. That tool cost about $50. The founders wanted something much less expensive. The team included Massimo Banzi, David Cuartielles, Tom Igoe, Gianluca Martino, and David Mellis. They even named the project after a local bar. The bar was called Bar di Re Arduino.

This bar was located in the city of Ivrea.

There are many different types of Arduino boards. Some boards use a chip called an ATmega8. Other boards might use the more powerful ATmega128. Some boards have 14 digital pins for input and output. They also have six analog pins. These pins allow the board to talk to sensors. A sensor is a part that feels things like light. You can also use pins to power small motors. By 2013, about 700,000 official boards were being used. Today, the community has about 30 million active users.

This shows how much the project has grown.

You can think of an Arduino like a brain. Just as your brain tells your hands to move, the board tells machines what to do. It takes information from the world through its pins. Then, it makes a choice based on your code. It can then send a signal to make something happen. This makes it very useful for making interactive things. Many people use it to learn about science and building. It is a bridge between computer code and the physical world.

This makes it a favorite tool for makers everywhere.