What is Arduino?

Arduino is a very popular open-source prototyping platform based on easy-to-use hardware and software. Arduino boards are able to read inputs – like buttons, or sensors (temperature, humidity, pressure, magnetometer, etc.) – and turn it into an output – display the values, or light LEDs, turn motors, etc.. You can tell your board what to do by sending a set of instructions to the microcontroller on the board. To do so you use the Arduino programming language, and the Arduino Software (IDE).

Check this TED video by Arduino founder Massino Banzi:

We also love this more recent presentation by Massimo at the Computer History Museum. Why because Massimo refers to one Omkar’s early Arduino videos (at 23:30).

Arduino and O Watch

O Watch uses a miniaturized version of the Arduino Zero board with the added OLED screen, battery charger and buttons. The board is called TinyScreen+ and is made by TinyCircuits. O Watch TinyScreen+ board uses Arduino programming language with the addition of the TinyScreen library that controls the buttons and the OLED screen. Omkar’s idea of O Watch is to bring an Arduino product simple and exciting for kids.

Note: The text of this Arduino introduction is derived from the Arduino Getting Started Guide.

 

Next: Arduino Software (IDE) >>