Arduino Programming in 24 Hours by Richard Blum

Arduino Programming in 24 Hours, Sams Teach Yourself by Richard Blum

Arduino boards are gaining popularity in the DIY community, and with good reason. Whether you’re learning electronics, programming, or just want to do something cool, these kits are easy to work with and can be used to create projects ranging from simple to sophisticated.

However, before you can dive into the fun stuff, you have to learn the basics of Arduino programming; that’s where this guide comes in. Written by Arduino expert Richard Blum and published by SAMS Teach Yourself , this book provides everything you need to get started with Arduino.

Programming an Arduino can seem intimidating, but with the right guidance and the right Arduino guide, you can become an Arduino pro in no time at all. Richard Blum’s new book, Arduino Programming in 24 Hours, teaches you everything you need to know about Arduino programming and how to program your own Arduino projects!

Follow along with Richard as he guides you through 24 hours of content that will teach you what each part of an Arduino does, how to control the different parts of your Arduino, and how to connect your own circuits to your Arduino!

Arduino is an open-source electronics platform that’s taken the DIY community by storm and now you can learn to program it in less than 24 hours! If you already have the Arduino hardware, this book will help you get up and running with your first project in minutes, whether it’s blinking an LED or adding speech recognition capabilities to your computer.

You’ll master Arduino programming basics and then dive into advanced topics such as connecting multiple Arduino boards together or interacting with sensors such as infrared distance sensors, accelerometers, and touch sensors.

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An Arduino Primer

What is Arduino? The Arduino microcontroller platform is one of a kind. It’s an amazing invention that has allowed hobbyists to implement their ideas and inventions with relative ease. In recent years, it has gained huge popularity due to how easy it is to use and program.

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Installing Your Development Environment

The Arduino integrated development environment (IDE) is open source and available for all major operating systems. The IDE consists of a few different pieces: a text editor and compiler, as well as a configuration application. You can use whatever development tools you are most comfortable with; however, we recommend using one of these three options: Notepad++ (Windows), TextWrangler (Mac OS X), or gedit (Linux). Of course, these options are completely free. Downloading and installing them is just a matter of visiting their respective web sites and following any on-screen instructions.

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Basic Arduino Projects

The Arduino Starter Kit isn’t just a piece of hardware, it’s also a full curriculum that teaches you how to use your new microcontroller kit to build exciting projects. Each Arduino project is graded based on its complexity and how many components are required for completion. As you get more comfortable with basic programming techniques and coding skills, you can progress to more advanced projects that require building circuit boards from scratch or working with a wide range of electronic components. The basic tutorial (chapter 3) takes roughly three hours; however if you choose to explore other topics in addition to those presented in step-by-step tutorials, you could spend up to two weeks completing all modules of the course.

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Variables and Math Functions

In Arduino programming you must use variables. A variable is a temporary storage area that can change as your program runs. Without variables your Arduino would do exactly what it was told but nothing more. For example: Add 2 and 2 and you’d get 4 each time. With variables, there are many ways to add 2 and 2 depending on what you need it to do.

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Strings and Serial Communication

In Arduino programming, strings are used to store text data. Strings can be stored inside variables or they can be displayed on an LCD screen through Serial Communication. Either way strings are represented using a set of characters that are surrounded by double quotes (text). String variables are called String Objects and contain methods that manipulate character data stored within them.

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The if Statement

Use if statements to execute a piece of code if a certain condition is met. If you have used other programming languages like PHP or Python, then you will find that if statements look very similar to those.

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Input from Sensors

One of the challenges facing an Arduino programmer is integrating information from external sensors. Although a program can read inputs directly from a sensor such as a pushbutton, other sensors produce analog signals that must be converted to digital form before they can be processed by an Arduino controller. This conversion process is commonly called sampling. The real-world procedure of converting an analog signal to digital form is known as analog-to-digital conversion (ADC).

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Learn more on Arduino’s website.

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Related Product: Check

Arduino: A Technical Reference by J. M. Hughes

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