MEMORANDUM

To:
From:
Date:
Subject:

Professor Kelly Roberts

Trent Dalton
February 22, 2015
Technical Definitions and Descriptions

This memorandum is in response to your request for an extended technical

definition and developed technical description. I have decided to do this project on
the Arduino project platform. Arduinos are used by a wide range of people
interested in electronics and mechanical components. It is used here at the
University of Idaho by the Mechanical Engineering department for a variety of class
projects and it is necessary that students of the mentioned field are familiar with
Arduino.
Audience
The audience for this technical definition and description is an entry level
mechanical engineering class being introduced to the Arduino platform. While some
of the students may have prior knowledge, it is expected that the majority while be
unfamiliar with Arduino and the terminology that accompanies it.
Purpose/Problem
Arduino is used widely in many mechanical engineering classes and students will be
expected to know how to build a circuit using one and how to write the program to
make it work. The technical definition will help students learn what the Arduino is as
well as give historical background and examples in how it can be used. The
technical description will help the students become familiar with the physical
components of the Arduino circuit and introduce them to the program coding that
goes along with it.
Placement
The technical definition and description will be attached to the class syllabus
handed out to each student at the beginning of the term and also posted on the
classs website. This way each student will have easy access to the material
whenever they might need it.
Choice of Visuals
Visuals have been included to aid in the understanding of the students reading this
document. The first visual is a picture of an Arduino circuit showing the depth and
size as well as the different components of the circuit. The second visual is a screen
capture of a simple Arduino code. Both images are referred to multiple times in the
text and provide better clarity.

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Technical Definition
Arduino is a low cost micro-controller used for building electronic projects. It
consists of a circuit board and a computer program. The Arduino circuit board can
be connected to a variety of sensors and mechanical components to create
anything from thermometers and clocks to robot arms and battery powered model
cars.
History
The Arduino was first released in 2005 at the Interaction Design Institute Ivrea (IDII)
in Italy by Massimo Banzi. Banzi was an associate professor and was presented with
the challenge of how to teach electronics to students and how to do it fast. But he
had a small budget and limited class time. Most people at the time were using a
microcontroller called the BASIC Stamp, but Banzi found it didnt have enough
computing power for many of his projects and it was a bit too expensive for his
students. So Banzi and a team of others started developing an easy to use
microcontroller using cheaper parts. The Arduino microcontroller was the results.
Popularity
Because of its low cost and the ease of which it is programed, the Arduino
microcontroller had quickly become popular to those who had interest in electronics
and design projects. Many universities and colleges have begun using them in their
curriculum because of the wide range of uses.
Attachable Components
There are many components to which the Arduino can be attached to create more
dynamic projects to fit the creative mind. The following is a short list of components
to demonstrate the wide range that Arduino can be used. There are motion
components to create movement, sensors to read the environment, digital displays,
lights or LEDs, and potentiometers to measure lengths and angles.
Projects
In this class we will be building three different projects that demonstrate the range
of which Arduino can be used. The first is a series of lights that will blink in time with
the National Anthem. The second is an inverted pendulum. Using an angular
potentiometer and a DC motor we will create a pendulum that swings to an upward
position from a downward one. And the third is a robot arm that can draw a
rectangle on a pad of paper. For that one we will be using three servo motors.

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Technical Description
The Arduino consists of two parts. The circuit board and the coding.
The Circuit Board
The circuit board, as seen on
the right, has number of
components to become
familiar with.
On the left is the USB port
and the barrel jack. Both of
which can act as a power
supply. The USB port is where
the Arduino uploads codes to
run. Once a code is uploaded,
the Arduino only needs the power source to operate.
Figure 1 Arduino Circuit Board
Along the top and bottom is a number
of pins in which to connect wires to. On the bottom left are a couple of ground
(GRD) pins, which can be used to ground a circuit. There are also a 5 and a 3.3 volt
power supply, which can be drawn upon to power the circuit. On the bottom right
are the Analog Input pins. These are used to read a signal from a sensor, like a
potentiometer or temperature sensor, and converts it to a digital value which we
can then read.

On the top are the digital pins. These are used for both input, like reading the
position of a servo motor, and output, like powering an LED. As seen in the in the
image above, some of the digital pins have a tilde (~) next to them. These pins can
also be used for Pulse-Width Modulation (PWM). These pins can be used to set
speeds of motors and fade LEDs in and out.

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There is also a reset button, as seen in

the middle on the right. This will
restart the code the Arduino is
currently running.
The Coding
The coding has two basic parts, the
setup and the loop. When the code is
run on the Arduino it first runs the
setup only once and then runs the
loop continuously until either the
power supply is removed or a new
code is uploaded. The coding that is
only desired to be run once makes up
the setup. This includes initial values
and data collection speed. The
Figure 2 Example of an Arduino code.
loop contains the meat of the
code. It contains everything that is desired to be run over and over again. This
includes the reading of sensors, movement of components, timing, output of
speeds, and equations of state.

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