- Arduino IDE (That's it!) 😉
- Not quite. You'll need an Arduino Board and a USB cable too.
- You might also want some input-output devices such as sensors and LEDs too.
You can think of Arduino as a small computer which you can program to do small tasks. It can read inputs and control various external electronic/electrical components connected to it. In slightly more technical terms, it is a microcontroller.
The official website says:
Arduino is an open-source electronics prototyping platform based on flexible, easy-to-use hardware and software. It’s intended for artists, designers, hobbyists, and anyone interested in creating interactive objects or environments.
For the philosophy behind Arduino watch this video.
For ease in programming the folks at Arduino have created an Integrated Development Environment. It can be used to write and upload programs to the board. The installation instructions can be found here.
###TinkerCAD If you do not have access to an Arduino, you can simulate the basic stuff using TinkerCAD.
###Contents 0. Introduction