Arduino Uno Parts PDF

Arduino Uno By: Ronnel C. Bialen  Introduction to Arduino UNO The Arduino Uno is a type of Arduino board that is provided as an open-source board that uses an ATmega328p microcontroller in the board. The Arduino Uno contains a set of analog and digital pins that are input and ou...

Arduino Uno By: Ronnel C. Bialen  Introduction to Arduino UNO The Arduino Uno is a type of Arduino board that is provided as an open-source board that uses an ATmega328p microcontroller in the board. The Arduino Uno contains a set of analog and digital pins that are input and output pins which are used to connect the board to other components. There are a total of fourteen I/O pins placed inboard in which six are analog input pins. The board has a USB connection that can be used to a power supply to the board. The board is used for electronics projects and used to design the circuit.  What is Arduino UNO? The Arduino UNO is categorized as a microcontroller that uses the ATmega328 as a controller in it. The Arduino UNO board is used for an electronics project and mostly preferred by the beginners. The Arduino UNO board I type of Arduino board only. The Arduino board is the most used board of all Arduino boards. The board contains 14 digital input/ output pins in which 6 are analog input pin, one power jack, USB connector, one reset button, ICSP header, and other components. All these components are attached in the Arduino UNO board to make it functioning and can be used in the project. The board is charged by USB port or can be directly charged by the DC supply to the board.  Why is Arduino UNO Used? The Arduino UNO board is mostly used by the beginners that can use in electronics project and do programming in this board. The board has regular innovation and a bug fix in the design of the board to make the board suitable for the project’s use. The Arduino UNO board is considered as the most used board and a standard board used by the rookie in their projects. The Arduino UNO board is primarily used over other Arduino products because of the following reasons. 1. As the board can be easily connected to the other computer system via USB port. The USB port fixed in the board serves two purposes. It can be used to supply the power supply to the board and can act as a serial device to connect the board to a computer system. 2. The board is capable to get the power supply from DC adaptor having a voltage of 12 V. The board can be charged from this external power supply. 3. The microcontroller used in the board I.e. ATmega328 has the flexibility provided to the board. It means the controller chip can be replaced, removed from the board in case of damage or improper functioning of the chip. This flexibility functionality is not provided in other Arduino boards. 4. The board pins are capable of functioning for constant power supply of 5 v. The digital and analog pins are used to adjust the voltage supply in the board 5. As the board design is simple it can be used by multiple users and the community support for the Arduino UNO board. 6. The Arduino UNO board has a list of several hardware components and has the capability to interact with those devices. The device includes Bluetooth, internet, motor control, and many more. 7. The main use of the Arduino UNO board over other Arduino board is the price factor. The price of this board is lowest compared to other Arduino products. This is the main reason beginners prefer this board over other boards.  Features of Arduino UNO In the below section, some of the important features of the Arduino UNO board are mentioned below: 1. The board contains the USB interface support that enables the board to act as a serial device and provide the functionality to connect the board to other interfaces. The USB interface is also used to provide power supply to the board. 2. In the Arduino UNO board, there is a chip placed that is directly plugged to the USB port and acts as a virtual type serial port for the computer system. By this, communication becomes very smooth and helps the board to connect to various types of computer systems. 3. The microcontroller used in the Arduino UNO board ATMega328 is easy to available and can be used easily. The board contains other components like PWM pins, timers, external interrupts or internal interrupts, and other types of sleep modes.  4. The board is provided as an open-source tool that has its own advantage as a large number of users use this board and help to troubleshoot other problems related to the board. By this, the debugging activities related to the project become easy steps. 5. The pins used in the board act as an oscillator that has a frequency of around 16 MHz that is beneficial for most of the applications. The speed of the microcontroller does not change by this. 6. The board has another feature of voltage regulation that helps to regulate the power supply on the board. The board can be provided power supply directly without using external power and USB port can be used for this purpose. The 12V power supply can be used as an external power supply for the board. 7. The Arduino UNO pins contain thirteen digital and six analog-type pins in it. The pins provide the functionality to the board to connect the hardware to the board. The computer capability can be increased using these pins.  8. The tool has also one ICSP connector which helps to make the USB port bypass and connect the Arduino directly and act as a serial device. 9. The board has a total of 32 KB size flash memory that is used to store the data in it. 10. The board has also one LED fitted inboard to make the debugging process easy and help to find the bugs in the code. 11. And the board has also one reset button that helps to restart the program using the board.  Parts of Arduino Uno What is the function of the USB Port of the Arduino Uno? Starting with what seems to be the most protruding piece of hardware on the Arduino board, the USB port is through where both, power and data are provided to the Arduino Uno. It is a Type B standard port, and you will need a standard A-B cable (shown below) to connect it to your computer.  Standard A-B USB cable The host computer provides 100mA of current at 5V power supply to the Arduino Uno for an unenumerated device and 500mA at 5V for an enumerated device. An enumerated device is a device that a computer recognizes properly and thus loads the appropriate drivers for it. Though this current is enough for small projects, it is not sufficient for larger loads like relays, motors, etc. Standard A-B USB cable  Power jack (Barrel connector) Supplying power via the barrel connector is one of the ways in which we can switch on the Arduino Uno. It is a circular port, 2.1mm in diameter. The center pin is positive, and the outer sleeve is ground (GND). Make sure that the AC to DC adapter you will use to plug into the barrel connector has an output in the range of 6-20V (7-12V recommended).  AC – DC adapter barrel plug In addition to powering up the Arduino Uno hardware, the power supplied via the barrel connector can be accessed at Vin to power up components on the breadboard or Arduino shields. Shields are additional boards that usually follow the form factor of the Arduino Uno and can be attached to the Arduino to add different functionalities. For example, with the Ethernet shield, you can easily hook your project to the internet. There are many shields available for the Arduino Uno. An Arduino Uno powered up via the barrel connector  What is the use of the ATmega 16U2 IC on the Arduino Uno? The ATmega 16U2 is primarily responsible for USB/Serial signal conversion. It sends the serial data to the ATmega 328P and can be thought of as a communication enabler between the host computer and the Arduino board. The ATmega 16U2 has its own set of peripherals that assist in its important task. Hence, these peripherals and the ATmega 16U2 together form an essential subsystem of the Arduino board.  The ATmega 16U2 enables the Arduino to communicate with the host computer via USB  ATmega 328P – The heart of the Arduino hardware This is the main Arduino component. All the other Arduino peripherals exist to allow us to experiment with the ATmega 328P. There is a lot that should be learned, in terms of hardware and software, about the ATmega 328P. But for now, this is what you should know. 1. It’s an 8-bit microcontroller. Not a microprocessor as most people confuse it to be. Check out this post to understand the difference between microcontrollers and microprocessors. 2. It has 32 KB of flash memory. 3. It has 2kB of SRAM. 4. It’s capable of reaching thorough-puts of 1 MIPS per MHz. 5. It lacks a USB interface. 6. It has 20 GPIO pins. 7. It’s equipped with an SPI serial port. SPI is a wired communication protocol. We will read more about these Arduino communication protocols here.  ICSP headers There are two ICSP header pins on the Arduino Uno. One for each microprocessor. ICSP is an acronym for In-Circuit-Serial-Programming. What is the use of the ICSP headers on the Arduino Uno? As you read earlier, both the microprocessors have a firmware uploaded on them. The ATmega 16U2 has a USB serial firmware that is used for USB-Serial translation, and the ATmega 328 has a firmware that intercepts serial data from the 16U2 and allocates program memory to store it. When manufacturing the board, the respective firmware is uploaded after the ICs are mounted using the ICSP pins. The ICSP pins can also be used to directly upload sketches to the ATmega 328 and change/update firmware on both the ICs. There are many firmware available that can extend the functionality of the Arduino hardware. In-Circuit-Serial-Programming pins  16MHz Oscillator The 16MHz crystal oscillator is connected to the ATmega16U2. It is essential for perfectly synchronized serial communication. The ATmega328 has it’s own oscillator as seen in the schematic. But the Arduino board uses a ceramic resonator instead of the crystal oscillator. We will take a look at the functions of both the devices in subsequent posts. What is the function of the crystal oscillator on the Arduino Uno? The function of the oscillator and the resonator are the same. They are used to time the circuit properly. But what does that mean? Suppose you need a 2-second delay between each LED blink, the 2 second time gap is calculated by the oscillator/resonator.  Digital I/O pins All the general-purpose Input-Output pins on the Arduino (analog/digital) can be used as digital I/O pins. Furthermore, these are the pins that we will be using to communicate with our external Arduino peripherals. Digital input pins read digital inputs, and digital output pins write digital outputs. The pins marked with the ∼ sign are capable of producing PWM signals. These PWM signals are important to drive motors and for other applications. Apart from the 14 Digital I/O pins, the analog pins can be used as digital I/O pins too.  Analog input pins There are six analog pins on the Arduino Uno (Eight if you are using the SMD version) that are classified as Analog input pins. Analog data is basically all the values in a particular range. The analog input pins can measure voltage (or signals) with a voltage in the range of 0-5V (we can use the AREF pin to modify this range). Digital data is either LOW or HIGH; analog data encompasses all the values between these two thresholds. Sensors usually output analog readings. The ATmega 328 cannot process analog data directly. It is equipped with a special peripheral component called the Analog to Digital Converter (ADC). The ADC is responsible for reading analog inputs and converting them into digital data for the microprocessor. There is a slight confusion in the naming convention because functionally, some of the digital pins can provide analog outputs in the form of PWM (Pulse Width Modulated) outputs. Similarly, all the analog input pins (A0-A5) can be used as digital pins as well. Let’s summarize that so it doesn’t confuse us. Analog pins summary Some Digital pins: Can give analog output All Analog pins: Can give digital output, read digital input, CANNOT give analog output. A0 -A5 are analog input pins  Power pins There is a total of seven power pins on the Arduino Uno. Each pin has its significance and is part of the power supply circuit. There are a total of 7 pins on the power rail on the Arduino Uno  Arduino Vin pin The Vin pin on the Arduino board can be used to switch the board on. Otherwise, it can be used as a power source for other components in your project. In a scenario where the Vin pin is used as an input to power up the Arduino parts, it needs a supply of 6V-12V, this subsequently gets regulated to 5V by the onboard voltage regulator. This 5V eventually powers up the Arduino board. When used as a power source, the Vin pin gets its power from the barrel connector. Remember, this voltage is accessed before it passes through the onboard voltage regulator. Therefore, if you are drawing power from the Vin pin, you will get the voltage supplied to the barrel connector. Vin (Summary) Input: 6-12V; gets regulated to 5V Output: Same as the voltage applied to the barrel connector. Vin (6-12V)  Arduino GND pin There are three ground pins available on the Arduino Uno. Two of these are on the power rail. Generally, in electronics, two circuits that are/or need to be interfaced with each other have a common voltage reference point and that is called ground (GND). Why does the Arduino Uno have multiple ground (GND) pins? This is a very common question asked by beginners and surprisingly, some experienced users too. The most simple reason is that the presence of multiple pins adds convenience while prototyping. When the number of components is high, or you want to decrease the quantity of wiring used, some extra GND pins come in handy. Another reason is that most analog devices are connected on a single GND pin and separately from the digital devices. It’s okay if you can’t remember all the specifications precisely yet. We got acquainted with the basics of the hardware in this post. In the next post, we will cast a similar look over the software. Three GND pins on the Uno