WELCOME TO ARDUINO!

ARDUINO MAKES IT AS EASY AS POSSIBLE TO PROGRAM TINY COMPUTERS CALLED MICROCONTROLLERS, WHICH ARE WHAT MAKE 

OBJECTS INTERACTIVE

You are surrounded by dozens of them every day: they are embedded in timers, thermostats, toys, remote controls, microwave ovens, even some toothbrushes. 

They just do one specific task, and if you hardly notice them – which is ofen the case – it’s because they are doing it well. They have been programmed to sense 

and control activity using sensors and actuators.

Sensors listen to the physical world : They convert energy that you give of when you press butons, or wave your arms, or shout, into electrical signals. Butons and knobs are sensors that you touch with your fingers, but there are many other kinds of sensors.

Actuators take action in the physical world. They convert electrical energy back into physical energy, like light and heat and movement.

Microcontrollers listen to sensors and talk to actuators: They decide what to do based on a program that you write.Microcontrollers and the electronics you atach to them are just the skeleton of your projects, though. You’ll need to bring skills you probably already have to put 

some flesh on the bones.

For example, in one of the projects we suggest, you’ll make an arrow and atach it 

to a motor, and put them both in a box with a knob, so you can make a meter to tell people whether you’re busy or not. In another, you’ll put some lights and a tilt switch on a cardboard frame to make an hourglass.

Arduino can make your projects responsive, but only you can make them 

beautiful. We’ll provide some suggestions along the way as to how you might 

do that.

Arduino was designed to help you get things done: To make that happen, we kept the background material on programming and electronics to a minimum. If you 

decide you want to know more about these aspects, there are lots of good guides available. We’ll provide a couple of references, and you can find more online at: 

arduino.cc/starterkit