This book was written by Michael Margolis with Nick Weldin to help you explore the amazing things you can do with Arduino.
Arduino is a family of microcontrollers (tiny computers) and a software creation environment that makes it easy for you to create programs (called sketches) that can interact with the physical world. Things you make with Arduino can sense and respond to touch, sound, position, heat, and light. This type of technology, often referred to as physical computing, is used in all kinds of things, from the iPhone to automobile electronics systems. Arduino makes it possible for anyone—even people with no programming or electronics experience—to use this rich and complex technology.
Who This Book Is For
Unlike in most technical cookbooks, experience with software and hardware is not assumed. This book is aimed at a broad range of readers interested in using computer technology to interact with the environment. It is for people who want to quickly find the solution to hardware and software problems.
You may have no programming experience—perhaps you have a great idea for an interactive project but don’t have the skills to develop it. This book will help you learn what you need to know to write code that works, using examples that cover the kinds of tasks you want to perform.
If you have some programming experience but are new to Arduino, the book will help you become productive quickly by demonstrating how to implement specific Arduino capabilities for your project.
People already using Arduino should find the content helpful for quickly learning new techniques, which are explained using practical examples. This will help you to embark on more complex projects by showing how to solve problems and use capabilities that may be new to you.
Experienced C/C++ programmers will find examples of how to use the low-level AVR resources (interrupts, timers, I2C, Ethernet, etc.) to build applications using the Arduino environment.