Learn Arduino Using Maker UNO - Lesson 1

The biggest problem I faced when I wanted to learn Arduino was there are too many documents, learning guides, tutorials flooding around the internet and I had no idea which one to refer to.

Most of the learning guides that claim they were crafted for the beginners are just too surface while most of the time they only show you the schematics, give you the sample codes and tell you what to expect but they do not explain how it works. It is very frustrating for people like me who do not have C-programming background. Although I can achieve the expected results by following the schematic and codes given but I am pretty sure I can’t create my own project after I completed the lessons.

Another problem that I observed was most of the learning guides are created by the techies where things are assumed to be understood.

There is nothing special with the projects that I covered in this learning guide, I just added some notes and reminders on things that I did not understand. I try to simplify the technical part and I hope that at least the beginners benefit from this and enjoy learning with Arduino.

This beginner guide covers 7 lessons. Each lesson comes with several projects and one open-ended challenge.

Lesson 0 - Setting Up The Hardware & Software

Lesson 1 - Digital Output

Lesson 2 - Digital Input

Lesson 3 - Analog Output

Lesson 4 - Melody Tone

Lesson 5 - Analog Input

Lesson 6 - DC Motor

Lesson 7 - Ultrasonic Sensor

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Lesson 1 > Project 1: Turn On An LED

Step 1. Connect your Maker UNO with your PC with a USB cable.

Step 2. Launch Arduino IDE.

Step 3. Write these code into your sketch.

Step 4. Click 'compile', wait for a few seconds until you see “Done Compiling” appear at the bottom of the sketch.

Step 5. Then click 'upload'. Wait for a few seconds and you will see “Done Uploading” appear at the bottom of the sketch.

Step 6. Check your result: You will see LED 7 is on while the rest of the LEDs are off.

************************************** End of Project 1 **************************************

Lesson 1 > Project 2: Blink An LED

Step 1. Modify your previous codes into this.

Step 2. Click 'compile', wait for a few seconds until you see “Done Compiling” appear at the bottom of the sketch.

Step 3. Then click 'upload'. Wait for a few seconds and you will see “Done uploading” appear at the bottom of the sketch.

Step 4. Check your result.

Step 5. Change the delay value to 1000 then upload it to your board again.

Step 6. Observe the result and compare with the previous program. Can you tell the difference?

************************************** End of Project 2 **************************************

Lesson 1 > Project 3: Blink the LEDs in Sequence

In this project, we want to blink LED 2, LED 3, LED 4, LED 5, LED 6and LED 7 in sequence.

Step 1. Modify your previous code into this.

Step 2. Click 'compile' and then 'upload'.

Step 3. Check your result.

LED 2- LED 7 go on and off together which is not the consequence that we want. Why?

Step 4. Modify your previous code into this.

Step 5. Check your result: The LED will go on one by one then off one by one.

************************************** End of Project 3 **************************************

Q: Program LED 2 - LED 13 to execute the blinking pattern as shown at the demo video below.

Proceed to Lesson 2 >>