Please make sure you've read and understood the following articles and related topics

• Embedded Systems Introduction
• Git and Github

The Arduino does tend to abstract many things - it's important to understand that the inner workings of the Arduino are not that magical. There is a deep pool of EE-related knowledge underneath that abstraction that you can understand if you take the time to carefully consider what is happening.

Refer back to the embedded systems concepts you covered earlier when you get confused conceptually.

An “Arduino” is a microcontroller platform that allows you to write programs that interact with the real world via sensors, motors etc. It's a microcontroller platform because it has more than just a microcontroller - there is a built-in programmer, voltage regulators, etc. As a 296 student, you will most likely be using the Arduino Uno as the platform for the development of your project.

An arduino is an example of an embedded system.

Now, the Arduino has gotten super popular recently because of it's ease of use. It's quick to get started and comes with a ton of libraries that people have written for it. You can find these libraries all over the internet. This article will provide you with links to pages on the arduino website. Please review these pages to further your understanding on Arduino.

To get started, please read this Arduino Introduction article.

While not completely necessary, you can review this wikipedia article and this youtube video for further information on the Arduino platform.

Answer these questions before continuing - make it concise enough to make it clear that you understand the concepts.

1. What is Arduino?
2. What is an Arduino Uno?
3. What kind of programming language does the Arduino IDE support?
4. What are the two functions that are present in an Arduino program?
5. How is it different from a regular microcontroller?
6. Why do people use the Arduino?
   1. What are some advantages?
   2. What are some disadvantages?

Make sure that you've gone through all of the material on this page before continuing.

1. Learning Arduino
   
2. Bare Arduino