Arduino is a range of microcontrollers with a companion Integrated Development Environment (IDE) which is used to program the boards. The technology was developed in the Ivrea Interaction Design Institute as a tool for fast prototyping. It was specifically designed to be used by people that didn’t have a lot of experience in electronics. The main purpose of Arduino boards is to read inputs like a button being pressed or a sensor being activated and then to turn those actions into outputs, which could be a motor moving or an LED light going on.  

 

MakerClub has developed its own microcontroller based on the Arduino architecture. This is because Arduino is Open Source there are lots of different versions out there made by all kind of companies. Our MakerClub Hornet board takes all the best bits from Arduino and then supercharges it for robotics, but adding a load of functionality. The Arduino community is very active and it’s microcontrollers can be found in maker projects all over the world. If you Google ‘Aduino projects’, you’ll get thousands of hits, with loads of great tutorials.

Additionally, the Arduino IDE uses a simplified version of the programming language C++, making it easier to learn to programing. At MakerClub, we have made our own version that simplifies the process even more. You can access the MakerClub IDE for free, it is also compatible with Arduino boards.

There are a wide range of Arduino boards, but you’ll find roughly the same bits on every board. There’s the main power supply which is called a Barrel Jack (because it’s shaped like a barrel!), a USB connector to program the board and a reset button, that will temporarily connect the reset pin to ground and restart any code that is loaded on the Arduino.

You’ll also see rows of what we call ‘pins’, these are what you connect the wires to when you want to add inputs and outputs. You may be using a breadboard to attach these too, but with the MakerClub Hornet board, you don’t need to do this. You’ll learn more about the functions of the pins on our MakerClub courses.

At the heart of the Arduino is the Main IC or Integrated circuit (IC), you can think of this as the brains of the board. Arduino boards mostly use the ATmega range of IC’s from the ATMEL company. Make sure you know what IC your board has before programming it, as it may have certain memory limitations.  

There are a huge range of sensors available that are compatible with Arduino, everything from heartbeat monitors to C02 detectors. The combinations are endless. Arduino based devices can also used Shields, these are secondary boards that fit on top of the Arduino to give it extra functionality like WiFi or speakers.