Getting into the Arduino environment is a lot of fun but with so many acronyms and slang terms its easy to get confused. Knowing this first hand, I have put together a glossary of sorts for terms relating to Arduino, if you are new to the Arduino platform or just want a quick refresher on whats what, we have you covered.
IDE - Integrated Development Environment, A GUI including a code editor, a compiler, and a debugger. Runs as a standalone application.
ARDUINO - An open source, prototyping platform for people interested in electronics and DIY projects.
VARIABLE - A known or unknown quantity of information, usually stored under a variable name.
FUNCTION - A set of instructions that are applied to given inputs in a computer program. Can be user defined functions or built in functions.
OPERATORS - A type of function; usually referring to arithmetic and logical ways of manipulating data.
DATATYPES - A set of values in computer programming with pre-defined characteristics. Each programming language can support a variety of datatypes. The user decides which datatype is most appropriate for the data they wish to store.
DEBUGGING or DEBUG- The act of correcting errors in computer programming code.
SKETCH - The name of an Arduino Program, must contain void setup and void loop structures to be recognized by the IDE.
POLARISED - A physical property of electrical components that only allows electrical current to flow in one direction.
LED - Light Emitting Diode
I/O - Input/Output
SRAM - Static Random Access Memory, faster and more expensive than normal DRAM. Used for caches in CPUs as the read/write speed is much higher.
EEPROM - This is a type of storage that is utilized by our Arduino boards to maintain memory in storage when power is turned off.
FLASH MEMORY - Another type of non-volatile memory on Arduino boards. This is used to store the sketch data for our purposes.
MIPS - Millions of Instructions Per Second. This is a measurement used for CPUs and microcontrollers.
CLOCK - This is how many cycles per second a CPU can do measure in Hertz (Hz). Usually, a good way to compare CPUs from the same family of CPU.
BREADBOARD - A prototyping tool for Electronics. It has metal clips in horizontal lines that components and jumper cables can be plugged in and out of easily. You can build a whole circuit on a breadboard and it makes fault finding hardware problems relatively easy.
FORM FACTOR - The way we measure physical dimensions of major computer hardware.
AC/DC - Alternating Current / Direct Current. AC will oscillate from negative to positive whereas digital is either positive On or off.
SHIELD - These are purpose built boards that can be plugged into the Arduino I/O pins. All different types of Shields are manufactured to add a functionality to Arduino that the original board lacked.
PIN VOLTAGE - The voltage a pin is able to output.
OPERATING VOLTAGE - The voltage requirement of a component
RESISTOR - A non-polarised component that resists the flow of current in a circuit.
FRITZING - An open-source computer program used to make schematics and circuit diagrams easily
GND - Ground, the reference point for electrical circuits. This is our zero measurement when we are looking at Voltages around a circuit.
Void setup() - A function inbuilt into Arduino sketches that runs once only when a board is powered up for the first time, or the board is reset.
Void loop() - Another inbuilt function in Arduino sketches. This however will loop consecutively whilst power is connected to the board.
pinMode() - this is a digital function in the Arduino coding language. It configures a specified pin to behave a certain way. We pass our pin number and behaviour to the board using pinMode(2, HIGH) for example.
digitalWrite() - this is a digital function in the Arduino Coding language. This will allow us to tell a certain pin to output a high or low signal.
digitalRead() - this is a digital function in the Arduino Coding Language. This allows us to read what signal a component is putting out.