What can Arduino do? Part 1 (Arduino MASTERCLASS)

TRANSCRIPT:

Are you looking for the perfect series of videos to get started with Arduino? Well, you are in luck, because in this series of videos, you are going to learn everything you need to get started with Arduino. By the time you’re done here, you’re gonna know exactly what hardware to get and why, you’ll know the ins and outs of an Arduino board, you’ll know which software to get, you’ll know the key Arduino programming functions to control tons of electronic stuff. And if you’ve never programmed before, you’re gonna know the coding structures found in all programming languages. But do you wanna know the best part? This core workshop that you’re gonna walk through is only gonna take about an hour of your time. So let’s go. Before we start, please do subscribe to our YouTube channel. It doesn’t cost you anything but a click, but it really helps us bring you great content like this Arduino workshop. Thanks a ton. I really appreciate that. Okay. So what the heck is this thing called Arduino? Well, Arduino is a tool that helps you control electronic stuff with code. So if you’re building a house, you’d probably go grab a hammer. Well, if you’re gonna build a project using electronic stuff, grab yourself an Arduino. But what do I mean exactly by electronic stuff? Well, let’s make two big general groups. Inputs and outputs. Inputs are devices that gather information, and outputs are devices that have some action in the world. So for inputs, think of things, like temperature sensors, light sensors, touch sensors, flex sensors, humidity sensors, infrared sensor, distance sensors. Just to name a few. Then you have things like outputs. DC motors, stepper motors, servo motors, LEDs, LED strips, buzzers, speakers, LCD displays, OLED displays. The list goes on. What Arduino can do is stand in the middle of these input and output devices and control them with some cool logic that you get to create. So Arduino can be used to read inputs and control outputs. Okay. So now you have a general idea of what Arduino is. It’s a tool to control electronic stuff. Great! Okay. But how do you actually get started using Arduino? What do you have to do? So here’s what you’re gonna need. We’re gonna talk about the big three. It’s what I like to call the Arduino trifecta. You’ve got Arduino hardware, the Arduino IDE, and the actual Arduino code that you’re gonna need to write. So first, we have the physical component of Arduino, which is called an Arduino board. There’s a bunch of different types of Arduino boards out there. When someone says Arduino board, it could mean a number of these different circuit boards. In just a little bit, I’m gonna tell you exactly which one to go by if you haven’t purchased one yet. And here’s some quick good news. If you have bought one already, it’s probably gonna work just fine. Now, all Arduino boards share one thing in common. They have a microcontroller on them. A microcontroller is basically a really small computer. So when you use an Arduino, you’re really just using a microcontroller. The microcontroller is what enables us to read those different inputs and control those outputs. So again, when somebody says Arduino board, they’re talking about something physical. It’s this printed circuit board, and it’s got some electrical components on it. We’ll dive into this in a little bit. Okay. So you’re gonna need an Arduino board. The next thing you’re gonna need is the Arduino IDE. That is the software that you’ll use to actually write the code that is then gonna get loaded onto the Arduino board itself. IDE stands for integrated development environment. In just a moment, we’re gonna walk through downloading the Arduino IDE to your computer. It’s totally free. It’s pretty darn easy to use. And it’s an amazing tool that’s gonna get you up and running super fast. All right. The third part of this Arduino trifecta is the Arduino code itself. You’re gonna need to write some code inside the Arduino IDE that is ultimately gonna get loaded onto the microcontroller that’s on the Arduino board you’re using. So the Arduino code that you write is called a sketch. So that’s like a little bit of jargon there, right? So normally you write a program. Well, Arduino, they call it a sketch. And this Arduino code itself is basically C and C++ programming languages. But it’s got some Arduino specific functions and structure. So when you program in Arduino, you’re basically programming in C and C++ programming languages. Now C code is blazingly fast. It is used all over the place, from mission critical code on spaceships to GPUs running machine learning algorithms. If you are planning on learning to program Arduino, and this is your first programming language, you should be super stoked, because everything you learn in Arduino is going to help you understand other programming languages. It’s not like Arduino is some weird esoteric coding language that has nothing similar to other languages. And it’s gonna give you a step up on learning to code other languages, like Python, Java, or whatever you want to take on. So those are the three things you’re gonna need. An Arduino board, you’re gonna need the Arduino IDE, and then you’ll have to figure out how to write the code that’s gonna control this electronic stuff. So we are gonna be diving into all three of those things. I hoped you’re pumped and excited to start learning a ton. Now would be a great time to subscribe to the YouTube channel. It doesn’t cost you anything but a click, but it really helps us bring you the best content like this workshop, and it’s gonna let you know when we drop these new videos. So if you could subscribe now and like the video if you enjoyed it, super appreciate it. Also, feel free to leave questions in the comments. I will do my very best to answer those. All right. So what’s up next? We’re gonna be talking about the Arduino hardware you’re gonna need to buy to get started. Or if you don’t have any cash right now, we’ll be talking about a great Arduino simulator you could use until you get some cash.