Everything You Need to Know to Get Started With Arduino

The open-source 3D printing maker community is ever-evolving as new tools innovate the space. One such tool is an Arduino— a programmable circuit board that is often referred to as a microcontroller. Arduino launched in 2005 as a tool for students at the Interaction Design Institute Ivrea, Italy, with the goal of providing an inexpensive and easy-to-use device for novices and professionals to be able to create devices that interact with their environment using sensors and actuators. Now the company makes a variety of boards as well as accessories that heighten the board’s processing power. Let’s take a dive into all the things an Arduino board can do.

What is an Arduino?

Arduino is the name of a company that produces microcomputers that are popularly known as Arduino boards, or simply an Arduino. These boards come in a variety of models that offer different features, such as WIFI or Bluetooth for instance. The most popular microcomputer board by Arduino is the UNO. For less than $30, the Arduino UNO board is a powerful piece of hardware capable of processing a broad range of data inputs.

Arduino UNO board. (Photo Credit: Unsplash)

A microcontroller is a small computer processor that is mounted on an Arduino board along with different components that process the inputs and outputs. On the micro-controller you can, for example, you could have a variety of input options, such as a button or photosensor, send information to the computer processor and after analyzing the input then the computer processor sends output to any connected devices—such as a 3D printer. Since the board is open-ended on the frontend and as well as the backend, this allows you to have any myriad of inputs controlling any outputs.