Coderdojo Athlone

Microcontrollers

• A microcontroller is a small computer on a single integrated circuit. In modern terminology, it is similar to, but less sophisticated than, a system on a chip (SoC); an SoC may include a microcontroller as one of its components. A microcontroller contains one or more CPUs (processor cores) along with memory and programmable input/output peripherals.
• There are many different microcontrollers on the market, but for the purposes of CoderDojo we’ll focus on the Arduino
• There are various models of Ardunio too, for now we’ll focus on the Arduino UNO model

• We will use the Arduino to learn more about microcontrollers

  Arduino is an open-source electronics platform based on easy-to-use hardware and software. Arduino boards are able to read inputs - light on a sensor, a finger on a button, or a Twitter message - and turn it into an output - activating a motor, turning on an LED, publishing something online. 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 (based on Wiring), and the Arduino Software (IDE), based on Processing.

• For now, we will continue use Tinkercad to perform our Ardiuno experiments online

Learning about microcontrollers

The following provides useful resources when learning about Arduino:

• Arduino - “Getting started”
• Arduino - “Built in Examples”
• Arduino - “Reference”
• Instructables - “Introduction to Arduino”

Microcontroller Projects

1. Getting started
   • Arduino “Getting started” (pages 1-6)
2. Arduino Blinking LED project
   • LEDs & Breadboards With Arduino in Tinkercad
   • Coder Dojo Arduino “LED blink”
3. Arduino Traffic Lights
   • Coder Dojo Arduino “Traffic lights” (pages 7-8)
4. Controlling an LED with a Potentiometer*
   • Coder Dojo “Arduino LED with Potentiometer”
5. Temperature Sensor
   • Coder Dojo “Arduino temperature sensor”
6. Ultrasonic Range Sensor
   • “Arduino Ultrasonic Range sensor”
7. Servo motor
   • Coder Dojo “Arduino and Servo”
8. LCD (Liquid Crystal Display)
   • Coder Dojo Liquid Cyrstal Display
9. Arduino Seven Segment Display project
   • AllAboutCircuits site has a resource which describes how to interface a seven segment display with an arduino: Interface a seven segment display with an arduino

Useful resources

• The Arduino co-founder shared this video and recaps on everything you’ve learned already about electrical circuits prior to embarking on Arduino projects
• Kiddle facts about Microcontroller’s