Arduino
Topics:
The Arduino
Digital IO
Analog IO
Serial Comm
Topic 1:
Meet
Arduino
Uno
• Download & install the
Arduino environment (IDE)
• Connect the board to your
computer via the USB cable
Getting • If needed, install the drivers
• Launch the Arduino IDE
Started • Select your board
• Select your serial port
• Open the blink example
• Upload the program
http://arduino.cc/en/Guide/HomePage
Arduino IDE
http://arduino.cc/en/Guide/Environment
Select Serial Port and Board
todbot.com/blog/bionicarduino
Input/Output
Image from Theory and Practice of Tangible User Interfaces at UC Berkley
• Digital IO is binary valued—it’s either
on or off, 1 or 0
• Internally, all microprocessors are
digital, why?
1
Topic 2:
Digital 0
Input/Output
Arduino Digital I/0
• pinMode(pin, mode)
• Sets pin to either
INPUT or OUTPUT
• digitalRead(pin)
• Reads HIGH or LOW
from a pin
• digitalWrite(pin, value)
• Writes HIGH or LOW
to a pin
Our First
Program
IO Pins
Image from Theory and Practice of Tangible User Interfaces at UC Berkley
Two states (binary Signal) vs multiple states (Continuous Signal)
In-class Exercise 1: Digital IO
Use a push-button to turn
ON/Off LED
Topic 3:
Analog Input
Think about music stored
on a CD---an analog signal
captured on digital media
– Sample rate
– Word length
• Resolution: the number of different
Arduino voltage levels (i.e., states) used to
discretize an input signal
Analog • Resolution values range from 256 states
(8 bits) to 4,294,967,296 states (32 bits)
•
Input
The Arduino uses 1024 states (10 bits)
• Smallest measurable voltage change is
5V/1024 or 4.8 mV
• Maximum sample rate is 10,000 times a
second
Image credit: Tod Kurt
Image from Theory and Practice of Tangible User Interfaces
at UC Berkley
Topic 3: Analog Output
• Can a digital devise produce analog output?
• Analog output can be simulated using pulse width
modulation (PWM)
Pulse Width Modulation
• Can’t use digital pins
to directly supply say
2.5V, but can pulse
the output on and off
really fast to produce
the same effect
• The on-off pulsing
happens so quickly,
the connected output
device “sees” the
result as a reduction
in the voltage
Image from Theory and Practice of Tangible User Interfaces at UC Berkley
PWM Duty Cycle
output voltage = (on_time / cycle_time) * 5V
Image credit: Tod Kurt
Fixed cycle length; constant
number of cycles/sec
PMW Pins
Command:
analogWrite(pin,value)
value is duty cycle: between 0
and 255
Examples:
• analogWrite(9, 128) for a
50% duty cycle
• analogWrite(11, 64) for a 25%
duty cycle
Topic 4: Serial Communication
Image from http://www.ladyada.net/learn/arduino/lesson4.html
• Compiling turns your program into binary data (ones and zeros)
• Uploading sends the bits through USB cable to the Arduino
Serial • The two LEDs near the USB connector blink when data is
transmitted
Communication • RX blinks when the Arduino is receiving data
• TX blinks when the Arduino is transmitting data
Open the Serial Monitor
and Upload the Program
• Serial.begin()
• Serial.begin(9600)
• Serial.print() or Serial.println()
Some • Serial.print(value)
Commands • Serial.read()
• Serial.available()
• Serial.write()
• Serial.parseInt()
• Modify your program from in-
class exercise 2-part 2 to
control the intensity of the
LED attached to pin 9 based
on keyboard input.
Lab Exercise:
Serial • Use the Serial.parseInt()
method to read numeric
Communication keyboard input as an integer.
• An input of 9 should produce
full intensity and an input of 0
should turn the LED off.
