arduino
my another old friend. I have been using arduino for a long time.
why arduino was perfect for starting
- simple IDE, just plug and code
- tons of examples and libraries
- forgiving - hard to damage
- huge community support
- cheap clones work fine
my arduino journey
started with uno blinking leds. then sensors, motors, displays. made plenty of silly projects that taught me electronics fundamentals.
the best part was how it hid the complexity. no need to understand registers or timers at first. just digitalWrite() and delay().
projects i built
- weather station with lcd display
- servo motor controller with potentiometers
- light-following robot with photoresistors
- door sensor with buzzer alarm
- temperature logger with sd card
what i learned
- digital vs analog signals
- pull-up/pull-down resistors
- pwm for controlling brightness/speed
- serial communication for debugging
- interrupt basics for responsive code
when i moved beyond arduino
eventually needed more speed, memory, or connectivity. esp32 became my new favorite. but arduino taught me the basics that transfer everywhere.
still use arduino for:
- quick prototypes
- teaching electronics to others
- simple sensor projects
- anything that needs to be bulletproof
my go-to arduino libraries
- Servo.h for motor control
- LiquidCrystal.h for displays
- SoftwareSerial.h for extra serial ports
- Wire.h for i2c sensors
- SPI.h for fast communication
arduino isn't the most powerful, but it's the most approachable. perfect stepping stone into embedded programming.