Arduino, Learn the Lingo

Updated 22 April 2022

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. 

jargon-splashIDE - 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.

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