We will have a comparison of the specifications of Arduino Uno and the Arduino Due BoardArduino UnoArduino DueUnoDueGeneralDimensions2.7¨ x 2.1¨4¨ x 2.1¨Pricing$20-23$40-42ConnectivityI/O Pins1454PWM Pins612Analog Pins612Analog Out Pins (DAC)-2ComputingProcessorATMega328PAT91SAM3X8EFlash Memory32 kB512 kBSRAM2 kB96 kB (split in two banks of 64 kB and 32 kB)EEPROM1 kB-Clock speed16 MHz84 MHzVoltage Level5V3.3VUSB ConnectivityStandard A/B USBMicro USBCommunicationHardware Serial Ports14SPI SupportYesYesI2C SupportYesYesNote that the Due board differs from other Arduino boards in terms of voltage level. The microcontroller in Arduino due runs at 3.3 V instead of 5 V (common in most other boards). If you connect a higher voltage to the pins, you may end ... Read More

A hardware serial, as the name suggests, denotes that a dedicated piece of hardware (UART) enables Serial communication. In Arduino Uno, for instance, pins 0 and 1 have UART support, and they are connected to the USB via a USB-to-UART converter. That facilitates communication between your computer/laptop and the Arduino. While Arduino Uno has a single Hardware Serial, other boards like Mega have multiple. They are accessed using Serial, Serial1, Serial2, and so on.You can have a look at an example of using Multiple Hardware Serials by going to File → Examples → Communication → MultiSerialSoftware serial is a library ... Read More

If you are starting off with Arduino, then the following 5 projects can be taken up by you −7-segment display using ArduinoInterface a 7-segment display with Arduino and count from 0 to 9 on that display. This will help you get a good understanding of GPIOsAs a next step, you can interface Arduino with a potentiometer, and display the truncated voltage value (read using ADC) on the 7 segment display.Fire Alarm SystemInterface the Arduino with a smoke detector or a flame sensor and a buzzer to give a warning as soon as the readings from the smoke detector cross a ... Read More

Here are some popular boards that can be programmed using Arduino IDE −ESP8266This board is used primarily for IoT applicationsIt has WiFi and BlueTooth capabilitiesTo make this compatible with Arduino IDE, the following JSON has to be added to File → Preferences → Additional Boards Manager URLs −Next, you need to go to Tools → Boards Manager, search for ESP8266 and install this board.ESP32This is an upgrade over ESP8266It comes with two cores (supporting dual core operation) and in general has superior specs over ESP32There are various variants of this board, some like the TTGO Board even having OLED, LoRa ... Read More

The word() function converts a variable of any data type to the word data type. It is essentially a cast function.SyntaxThe syntax is −word(var)Where var is a variable of any datatype.Alternatively, you can also construct a word by specifying two bytes, the higher byte and the lower byte.SyntaxThe syntax is −word(highByte, lowByte)For instance, word(2,5) will return 517 (2 is 0b00000010 and 5 is 0b00000101; word(2,5) will return 0b0000001000000101, which equals 517).You can try out other combinations of characters and data types. You can read more about the word function from Arduino’s official documentation here.

A word, very simply put, is an unsigned number of 2 bytes (or 16 bits). Thus, it can take in values from 0 to 65535.Note that this definition is very microcontroller specific. In pure terms, a word is the amount of data a machine can process at a time, and it depends on the specifications of the machine.For example, instead of Arduino Uno, if you use the ESP32 board, the word becomes a 32-bit unsigned int instead of 16-bit. This is because ESP32 has different specifications compared to Arduino Uno. int sizes on ESP32 are also larger than Arduino.So, the ... Read More

You can define a class in Arduino just like in C, with public and private variables and methods.The example below demonstrates the definition of a Student class, which has the constructor, two methods (add_science_marks and get_roll_no) and 3 private variables, _division, _roll_no and _science_marks.Exampleclass Student {    public:       Student(char division, int roll_no);       void add_science_marks(int marks);       int get_roll_no();    private:       char _division;       int _roll_no;       int _science_marks; }; Student::Student(char division, int roll_no){    _division = division;    _roll_no = roll_no; } void ... Read More

Arduino IoT Cloud is a service that tries to make it seamless to convert your Arduino devices into IoT devices.Any IoT device typically gathers data from sensors, does some processing onboard, and transmits either the raw or the processed data to a server. Arduino IoT Cloud allows you to generate a digital twin of your device (called as a thing), add variables and settings to that digital twin, and then generates the Arduino Sketch automatically which you can upload to the device. Thus, you essentially don’t need to write the Arduino Sketch yourself.What’s more, it also provides dashboards and widgets ... Read More

In order to use WiFi with Arduino Uno, or any other board, you may need to get a WiFi shield(unless you are using a board with built-in WiFi capabilities, like Arduino Uno WiFi). The WiFi shield, like any other shield, stacks up on your board, and provides access to the pins of Arduino on the shield itself.You can read more about the WiFi shield here −www.arduino.cc/en/pmwiki.php?n=Main/ArduinoWiFiShieldhttps://www.arduino.cc/en/Guide/ArduinoWiFiShieldAssuming you have a WiFi shield with you, you will need the WiFi library to get started. You don’t need to download it separately; it will be built-in in your IDE. If you don’t get ... Read More

In order to use WiFi with Arduino Uno, or any other board, you may need to get a WiFi shield(unless you are using a board with built-in WiFi capabilities, like Arduino Uno WiFi). The WiFi shield, like any other shield, stacks up on your board, and provides access to the pins of Arduino on the shield itself.You can read more about the WiFi shield here −www.arduino.cc/en/pmwiki.php?n=Main/ArduinoWiFiShieldhttps://www.arduino.cc/en/Guide/ArduinoWiFiShieldAssuming you have a WiFi shield with you, you will need the WiFi library to get started. You don’t need to download it separately; it will be built-in in your IDE. If you don’t get ... Read More