Arduino for Home automation | Why to choose Arduino?, Arduino UNO

What is Arduino?

Arduino is an opensource, single-board microcontroller, which has a development environment for the board to be programmed. The board contains a power supply port, USB port to communicate with PC, and an Atmel controller chip.

Arduino gains some inputs, for example, switches or sensors and controls some multiple outputs, for example, lights, motor and others. Arduino program can run on Windows, Macintosh and Linux operating systems (OS).

Arduino can be used to create interactive elements, take inputs from a varied collection of switches or sensors, and control a variety of lights, motors and other physical outputs. Arduino activities can remain solitary, or they can be associated with programs that run on your machine (for example, Flash, Processing and Maxmsp).

Arduino can be programmed by using the Arduino software IDE( Integrated Development Environment), it can be downloaded free of charge.

Why to choose Arduino?

Additionally, from other microcontrollers, the Arduino can be program can run on Windows, Macintosh and Linux operating systems (OS). Most of the other controller program can only be run in windows. Other benefits of using Arduino:

  • Easy programming: The Arduino programming environment is easy to use for beginners.

  • Open source and extensible programming: The Arduino program language is available as open source, available for development by experienced engineers. You can reach the lingo through C ++ libraries, and people who hope to understand the specific purposes of different interests can make the leap from Arduino to the programming language AVR C on which it is based.

  • Cross-platform: Arduino programming runs multiple Windows, Macintosh OSX and Linux operating systems. Then we conclude that Arduino has an advantage since most of the microcontroller frames are restricted to Windows.

  • Open source and extensible hardware: The Arduino is concentrated around the Atmega8 and Atmega168 microcontrollers from Atmel. The plans for the modules are distributed under a Creative Commons license, so that designers of experienced circuits can make their own particular interpretation of the module, expand it and improve it.

Popular Arduino boards:

  • Arduino UNO
  • Arduino Leonardo
  • Arduino Mega
  • Arduino Due
  • Arduino Micro
  • Arduino Lilypad
  • Arduino Yun

Arduino UNO board:

The Arduino Uno is a microcontroller board based on the ATmega328. This board is very simple and can be easily used, everything you need to support the microcontroller on this board, simply connect it to a computer via a USB cable and connect it with an AC to DC adapter or battery to start.

Features:

  • Microcontroller: ATmega328

  • Operational voltage: 5V

  • Input voltage (Recommended) : 7-12V

  • Input voltage(Limit): 6 to 20 Volts

  • Digital I/O Pins: 14 (of which 6 provides PWM output)

  • Analog Input Pins: 6

  • DC Current per I/O Pin: 40 mA

  • DC Current for 3.3V Pin: 50 mA

  • Flash Memory: 32 KB (ATmega328) of which 0.5 KB used by bootloader

  • SRAM: 2 KB (ATmega328)

  • EEPROM: 1 KB (ATmega328)

  • Clock Speed: 16 MHz