Getting Started with Arduino (Make: Projects) (Paperback)

by Massimo Banzi (Author)
Key Phrases: interaction design, void loop, void setup, Getting Started, Arduino Example, Device Manager (more...)

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

Getting Started with Arduino, authored by Arduino co-founder Massimo Banzi, offers a brief, fun, and lucid overview of Arduino that will appeal to lots of people who've been wanting to get into physical computing and want a way in. This handy little guide should be just the ticket. To work with the introductory examples in this book, all you need is a USB Arduino, USB A-B cable, and an LED.

The Arduino Platform
Arduino is composed of two major parts: the Arduino board, which is the piece of hardware you work on when you build your objects; and the Arduino IDE, the piece of software you run on your computer. You use the IDE to create a sketch (a little computer program) that you upload to the Arduino board. The sketch tells the board what to do.
Not too long ago, working on hardware meant building circuits from scratch, using hundreds of different components with strange names like resistor, capacitor, inductor, transistor, and so on.
Every circuit was “wired” to do one specific application, and making changes required you to cut wires, solder connections, and more.
With the appearance of digital technologies and microprocessors, these functions, which were once implemented with wires, were replaced by software programs.
Software is easier to modify than hardware. With a few keypresses, you can radically change the logic of a device and try two or three versions in the same amount of time that it would take you to solder a couple of resistors.

The Arduino Hardware
The Arduino board is a small microcontroller board, which is a small circuit (the board) that contains a whole computer on a small chip (the microcontroller). This computer is at least a thousand times less powerful than the MacBook I’m using to write this, but it’s a lot cheaper and very useful to build interesting devices. Look at the Arduino board: you’ll see a black chip with 28 “legs”—that chip is the ATmega168, the heart of your board.
We (the Arduino team) have placed on this board all the components that are required for this microcontroller to work properly and to communicate with your computer. There are many versions of this board; the one we’ll use throughout this book is the Arduino Duemilanove, which is the simplest one to use and the best one for learning on. However, these instructions apply to earlier versions of the board, including the more recent Arduino Diecimila and the older Arduino NG. The figure on the left below shows the Arduino Duemilanove; The figure on the right shows the Arduino NG.

Product Description
This valuable little book offers a thorough introduction to the open-source electronics prototyping platform that's taking the design and hobbyist world by storm. Getting Started with Arduino gives you lots of ideas for Arduino projects and helps you get going on them right away. From getting organized to putting the final touches on your prototype, all the information you need is right in the book.

Inside, you'll learn about:

• Interaction design and physical computing
• The Arduino hardware and software development environment
• Basics of electricity and electronics
• Prototyping on a solderless breadboard
• Drawing a schematic diagram

And more. With inexpensive hardware and open-source software components that you can download free, getting started with Arduino is a snap. To use the introductory examples in this book, all you need is a USB Arduino, USB A-B cable, and an LED.

Join the tens of thousands of hobbyists who have discovered this incredible (and educational) platform. Written by the co-founder of the Arduino project, with illustrations by Elisa Canducci, Getting Started with Arduino gets you in on the fun! This 128-page book is a greatly expanded follow-up to the author's original short PDF that's available on the Arduino website.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 128 pages
• Publisher: Make Books; Ill edition (October 15, 2008)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0596155514
• ISBN-13: 978-0596155513
• Product Dimensions: 8.3 x 5.5 x 0.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 4.8 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars See all reviews (18 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #2,940 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

26 of 28 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A word from the Author, October 29, 2008

By	M. Banzi (Milano, Italy) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

Hello
I would like to specify that the book can't be found online for free.
There is a booklet that was written in 2006 that was 30 pages, this is 128 pages and it's up to date and correct.

The booklet had a lot of mistakes, inaccuracies and the way some things are taught is now out of date and has been removed from the site.

Having said this, Arduino is an open source project that prides itself from having a lot of documentation online so if you read the thousands of pages online you can learn about Arduino.

This book is for the complete beginner that wants to be taken by hand through the basic steps that it takes to get started.

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars High Praise For Brief Artistic Introduction to The Arduino, November 11, 2008

By	Ira Laefsky "Ira Laefsky" (Philadelphia, PA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

I cannot offer high enough praise for this brief, artistic introduction to the Arduino Microcontroller and its enthusiastic user community. In this 118 page handbook, easily stored with your electronics tools, the author a co-designer of the Arduino controller, provides everything needed for the non-technical DIYer to program, test and build simple electronic projects with the Arduino board. In addition to Massimo Banzi's clear and informal writing about experimenting with electronics, software, and even descriptions of how to get answers from the open source community online, this pamphlet contains clear but artistic illustrations of the equipment used and ancillary tools by Elisa Canducci. It is an excellent introduction for the Artist, Teacher, DIYer, Electronics Hobbyists and Software People who are afraid to assemble physical electronics. I only wish there was more content along the lines of this book--but then it wouldn't fit in your toolkit or be available for $12.99.
--Ira Laefsky

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Best book for getting started with an Arduino!, February 9, 2009

By	Jaypoc (Long Island, NY USA) - See all my reviews

If you're new to electronic circuits and micro controller programming, this book is a great introduction. It walks you through step by step creating basic circuits and programming the Arduino to activate LED's, accept input from various buttons and sensors, and even interact with data from the computer. It's a must read for any beginner!