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 −https://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 −https://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

I2C stands for Inter-Integrated Circuit. It is a popular communication protocol used by several peripherals like accelerometer and gyroscopes, OLED Displays, etc. Arduino refers to I2C as Wire, which is a shorter form of the term Atmel uses (Two Wire Interface or TWI). Here are some salient features of I2C −It uses only two lines: One for data (SDA) and one for clock (SCL). I2C is synchronous because it uses a clock.The slaves are not selected via a slave select line, but via address bits.The first byte sent by the master contains a seven-bit address and a read/ write bit ... Read More

SPI stands for Serial Peripheral Interface. It is a common protocol used for communication between microcontrollers and peripherals. SD Card is a popular peripheral that uses SPI for communication. Here are some salient features of SPI −It uses four lines −Clock line (SCK), Master Input, Slave Output(MISO) for master to receive and slave to transmit, Master Output, Slave Input(MOSI) for master to transmit and slave to receiveSlave Select(SS) for selecting one among multiple slave with which communication is desired.Note that master is defined as the micro-controller which sends the clock signalIt operates in full duplex mode, meaning the master and ... Read More

The SoftwareSerial library was developed to ensure that any pins of Arduino can exchange Serial data with other peripherals, like GNSS receivers, using software. Arduino Uno, for example, has only one HardwareSerial port (pins 0 and 1), which is connected to the USB via the USB to UART conversion chip. Thus, if you have any other peripheral that requires serial communication, in the absence of SoftwareSerial, you’d have to do away with USB Serial communication.SoftwareSerial has some limitations −If you are using multiple SoftwareSerial ports, only one can receive data at a timeSpeeds can be up to a maximum of ... Read More

Don’t have Arduino IDE installed on your machine, but still want to write Arduino code? Alternatively, don’t have access to your machine, but still want to program boards with your code? Come in Arduino Online Editor. Head on to https://create.arduino.cc/editorYou will be asked to Sign Up if you are visiting this page for the first time. Complete the Sign Up formalities, and login.You will be greeted with a screen like this one −As you can see, this is very similar to the offline Arduino IDE. You can select the board and port (more on the port later), you can write ... Read More

Arduino Uno uses ATmega328P as the microcontroller. Its specifications are given below −Operating Voltage2.7-5.5VTemperature Range( C)-40 to 85Number of Pins32Programmable I/O pins23Number of PWM Pins6ADC8 channel, 10-bit resolutionFlash Memory32 kBSRAM2 kBEEPROM1 kBFlash Read/Write Cycles10000EEPROM Read/Write Cycles100000UART1SPI2I2C1Timers2 8-bit timers and 1 16-bit timerReal Time CounterYesThroughputUp to 16 MIPS at 16 MHzAdditionally, you can get information on the current and power consumption of ATmega328P here.