{"id":35,"date":"2017-03-19T15:50:00","date_gmt":"2017-03-19T20:50:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.chrystalsander.com\/blog\/?p=35"},"modified":"2023-07-26T12:43:54","modified_gmt":"2023-07-26T17:43:54","slug":"arduino-part-i-introducing-the-arduino","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.chrystalsander.com\/blog\/?p=35","title":{"rendered":"Arduino:  Part I:  Introducing the Arduino"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>\nIf you&#8217;re completely new, a starter kit is a good way to go. &nbsp;They might seem expensive but actually can cost less than buying all the parts individually. &nbsp;As a bonus, assure that either the starter kit includes some introductory lessons for you to walk through or that you have located some online.<\/p>\n<p>Amazon usually has good deals on these kits. &nbsp;Examples:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.vilros.com\/ultimate-starter-kit.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">https:\/\/www.vilros.com\/ultimate-starter-kit.html<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.arduino.cc\/en\/Main\/ArduinoStarterKit\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">https:\/\/www.arduino.cc\/en\/Main\/ArduinoStarterKit<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>\nOtherwise, parts of a good kit might include: &nbsp;an<a href=\"https:\/\/www.arduino.cc\/en\/main\/boards\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"> Arduino board<\/a>, a breadboard, jumper wires, some LED lights, resistors, capacitors, diodes, random sensors, a servos to start. <\/p>\n<p>Your PC (can be Windows, Mac, Linux) with a USB port. Software to run code. &nbsp;Code?! &nbsp;Don&#8217;t worry, you don&#8217;t have to be a programmer here. &nbsp;Let&#8217;s review a process:<\/p>\n<ol>\n<li>Pull a plan together. &nbsp;(even if it&#8217;s just going to<a href=\"http:\/\/www.instructables.com\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">&nbsp;instructables.com<\/a> and turning on some <a href=\"http:\/\/www.instructables.com\/id\/BLINK-LED-USING-AN-ARDUINO\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">LED lights<\/a>)<\/li>\n<li>Gather your equipment.<\/li>\n<li>Turn on a computer that has a USB port.<\/li>\n<li>Get some software to interact with your Arduino. &nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.arduino.cc\/en\/Main\/Software\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Easiest is here<\/a>.&nbsp;<\/li>\n<li>Attach all wires and components per lesson diagram.<\/li>\n<li>Copy paste code from lesson into your software.<\/li>\n<li>Build the code and then push it to the Arduino and watch the results.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<p>\nHEADS-UP!:<\/p>\n<ol>\n<li>GOTCHA #1: &nbsp;The lessons. &nbsp;Sometimes the lessons will have a big in the code or show a wire hooked up to the breadboard in a way that doesn&#8217;t work for you. &nbsp; Google your project and error. &nbsp;Someone has probably already been there and fixed that.<\/li>\n<li>GOTCHA #2: &nbsp;Your wiring. &nbsp;If there are no errors but something doesn&#8217;t work, check how you&#8217;ve set up your components.<\/li>\n<li>GOTCHA #3: &nbsp;Uploading your code. &nbsp;It&#8217;s probably going to happen: &nbsp;some type of COM port error that will be called out by a process named &#8220;avrdude.&#8221; &nbsp; &nbsp;I&#8217;ll try to remember to write &nbsp;a post for that.<\/li>\n<li>GOTCHA #4: &nbsp;Powering your project. &nbsp;If you have too much power going to your Arduino, you can fry it. &nbsp;To start, try to power your project via your USB port. &nbsp;Most projects are 3.5V or 5V and batteries can work as well. &nbsp;But, avoid wall power for a while. &nbsp;<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<div>\n<\/div>\n<div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>If you&#8217;re completely new, a starter kit is a good way to go. &nbsp;They might seem expensive but actually can cost less than buying all the parts individually. &nbsp;As a bonus, assure that either the starter kit includes some introductory lessons for you to walk through or that you have located some online. Amazon usually &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/www.chrystalsander.com\/blog\/?p=35\" class=\"more-link\">Continue reading<span class=\"screen-reader-text\"> &#8220;Arduino:  Part I:  Introducing the Arduino&#8221;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[22,19,9],"tags":[62,64],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.chrystalsander.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.chrystalsander.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.chrystalsander.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.chrystalsander.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.chrystalsander.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=35"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.chrystalsander.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":204,"href":"https:\/\/www.chrystalsander.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35\/revisions\/204"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.chrystalsander.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=35"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.chrystalsander.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=35"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.chrystalsander.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=35"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}