Beginners Guide On Arduino UNO
Do you want to learn Arduino UNO efficiently? If so, this guide will help you get an insight of Arduino UNO and provide you with all the necessary resources. You can find several downloadable pinout diagrams here for future reference. This blog also includes some projects for you to do as you advance through your learning.
Table of contents
- What is an Arduino UNO
- Arduino UNO voltage requirement
- Arduino UNO pin diagram
- Data transmitting and receiving
- Providing power
- The reset button
- Some important information
1. What is an Arduino UNO:
Arduino UNO is a widely used microcontroller by beginners in robotics because of its easy-to-learn design and wide range of applications. It can even be used in advanced prototypes. There are almost 20 types of Arduino boards out there, among which the Arduino UNO R3 is the most popular. This development board can be programmed with C and Python. It doesn’t require any type of soldering to begin with making it a suitable robotics learning tool for beginners. You can find the datasheet and some necessary information in Arduino Docs
2. Arduino UNO voltage requirement:
As per the datasheet of an Arduino UNO, it can withstand an input voltage up to 20V. But I recommend not to provide more than 12V in this board as it gets heated up quickly and can even damage out the board permanently. ( Respect towards all the boards that sacrificed their lives for me to realize it😅.) Arduino UNO can provide up to 5V of output voltage. It has a separate pin for 3.3V output for some sensors and components. All the GND pins are connected internally.
3. Arduino UNO pin diagram:
This microcontroller consists of 3 types of pins. They are the digital, analog, and PWM pins.
Digital pins :
The Arduino UNO development board has a total of 14 digital pins. These pins are used for both input and output of digital signal. Digital value typically means 0 and 1 or HIGH and LOW. In electrical language, HIGH means the full voltage or the presence of voltage while LOW means no voltage at all. So you can use these pins for sensors like- push buttons or actuators like- motors and LED. If you want, you can try out this simulation of a simple project with Arduino UNO digital pin for better understanding.
Analog pins :
On the left side of an Arduino UNO, there are 6 analog pins that can only be used for taking input. They are normally used for taking analog values from sensors. Unlike digital pins, these pins can take an input of various values. For example, sensors like – sonar sensors, and IR sensors are used through these pins.
Check out this Potentiometer and Arduino UNO project simulation on Tinkercad.
PWM pins :
Among the digital pins, some pins are called the PWM pins. They have this (~) sign beside them to indicate PWM pins. PWM stands for Pulse Width Modulation. For easier understanding, it gives analog output through digital signals. There are some devices or components that need analog values for them to operate properly but as you’ve seen earlier the analog pins on an Arduino UNO can only take inputs. This is where the PWM pins step in. You can use these pins for controlling a motor’s speed or turning a servo motor at a certain angle.
This servo motor and Arduino Uno project might help you to get a clear idea. You can also watch this video on how servo motors work to understand PWM signals more.
4. Data transmitting and receiving:
There are two special pins on an Arduino UNO for transmitting and receiving data. They are written as TX and RX. Bluetooth modules can be used through these pins. These pins must be empty during code upload; otherwise, you may face issues or the code may not upload.
5. Providing power:
You can typically use a USB cable for supplying power through your PC or other power source such as a power bank. Or you can use the black power jack on the board if you want. The best way to provide power is to use batteries through the VIN pin. You just need to connect the GND pin with your battery case’s GND ( black ) wire and the voltage ( red ) wire in the VIN pin.
6. The reset button:
If you look at the top of your Arduino UNO board, you’ll find a round push button. This button is for resetting an existing code. This works the same as unplugging and plugging back in an Arduino board with a PC. It means that the code runs from the beginning again. I used to think that this will get rid of all the code inside and make it fresh as new. So, I used to be terrified of this button 😅. By the way, you can achieve the same result through the RESET pin of the board. So if you ever want to reset the code through the instruction of your code, you can use this pin.
7. Some important information:
When you plug in your Arduino UNO with your PC there should be an LED on the bottom that turns green. It means that the Arduino now has a power supply in it. If it doesn’t light up that would mean that there might be some problem with the power source or the Arduino is no longer alive. While uploading any code the same LED should turn yellow. There’s another important LED on an Arduino board. It’s the built-in LED which is connected with the digital pin 13. You can turn this LED on to check your code or things like that.
Congrats on unlocking Arduino UNO!! Now you have all the necessary information for doing projects with this microcontroller. I’m excited to know what projects you want to work on. If you need any further help or if you have any interesting questions cooking in your head feel free to contact me. I’d love to work with you and come up with awesome project ideas together. And if you are a beginner on robotics and can’t figure out which way to proceed feel free read my blog on “How to Get Started With Robotics “
Feel free to share this blog with other robotics enthusiasts like you 😊!