Getting Started With Arduino Uno for Led Blinking

Getting Started with Arduino

Let's we are getting started with Arduino to run our first program. As we use it with different machines e, g. windows, apple, Ubuntu, mobile, etc. but here, I will discuss for Windows operating system and also a little another operating system. First, I discuss how to interface with the Windows operating system.

What you Needs

Arduino Uno

USB Cable A-B male (usually used for printers)

Laptop/Desktop with Windows 7, 8, 10

The IDE Software

Led (can choose any color)

Resistance (value of 230 Ω)

Download the Software (IDE)

Get the latest version from the official Arduino website and install it on your system. An integrated development environment (IDE) can work on Windows, Linux (both 32 and 64 bits), and Mac.

LED any color

Resistance 230 ohm

Jumper wires

Arduino IDE

Let's start after downloading the software IDE and installing it on your system. The icon will show on the desktop. Now just plug in a USB terminal with the standard B USB cable and the status led will light up on the board.

We use the USB cable to communicate between the board and the computer. To upload the program, the Arduino board. We use it for a power supply purpose.

Now, you need to check driver availability in your system. For that, please follow these steps and go to My Computer → properties → Device manager. a pop-up window will be open, as shown 

Highlighted in the picture. If you found a USB-serial device under Port (COM & LPT) then ok else check in other devices and found unknown devices. Right-click to update the driver or need to check the USB Serial port IC chip at your UNO board.

Mostly Windows XP, Vista, 7, or 10 will auto-detect drivers. For the communication, some boards used the Atmega16/FTDI 232 chip/CH 340 chip. In my case, it was CH340 and automatically detected.

After it does a successful installation, open the development environment to start your first program. When you open the integrated development environment (IDE), it will be similar to the figure shown below.

Some buttons are inside the menu bar, it's important to understand first the functions 

New - It starts a new program/Writes a new code.

Open - By this option, you can open the existing program.

Save  - It will save the program.

Verify- To verify before, upload the program/Compiling the code (Some time found we could correct an error issue)

Upload-It uploads the program to the chip.

Start your first program blinking, led by File → Example → 01. Basics → Blink will launch a blinking-led program.

Now you need to go to the tool menu. Then select your board on the drop-down list. If you are using another board, e.g. Nano, Mega, or Uno. In my case, I selected the Arduino Uno. 

After that, once again in the tool menu and select port, it will show on the bottom side along with COM Port, as in fig. In my case, it is COM7.

Before uploading the program, we should verify it by compiling it. Then upload the first led blinking program.

You will see after a few seconds that Led near pin # 13 will blink if every step is as per instruction, 

Congratulations! and now arrange the led circuit on the board. Between negative supply and Led pin, put 230-ohm resistance in series.

You can change the led blinking time to change the code. I define the delay time as:

(1000); 1000 = 01 Second

You can change the ON/OFF time by changing the value.

The serial monitor button is located at the right corner of the Ide menu bar. You can use it to observe after running the program. There are a lot of examples of Led-related and Arduino sensor projects in the Ide environment. 

This short Arduino programming guide well indicates for getting started with Arduino UNO. Arduino coding tutorial is a healthy startup for simple robot projects.