Arduino tutorial I

                                               

Last time, I made an introduction about the little almighty ARDUINO microcontroller board. I want to take time to iterate some things.

1.      Arduino is a MICROCONTROLLER BOARD. It is a BOARD, not a microcontroller itself. Arduino has a microcontroller inside. “Err, Dekatron, I am now confused. What on earth do you mean?” Good. Just read on.

IS ARDUINO A MICROCONTROLLER OR A MICROCONTROLLER BOARD OR A DEVELOPMENT BOARD?

Be cheerful bro, its all simple. I know it looks confusing- it really is, else I wouldn’t be writing. Before we can arrive at a judgment, let us look at what all these terms stand for.

                                    What is a microcontroller?

A microcontroller is a piece of really small electronic chip that can be programmed, uses a low power, has its memories (RAM and ROM) built in, does a particular thing, is cheap and smart. Think of a really smart electronic device in your house. Let us use the microwave oven in your house as an example. You open the oven, drop the food in, close, power on, and possibly set a timer.

                        The microwave, as it’s called colloquially (fact: microwave is an electromagnetic wave. The oven works with the wave. We will still talk about how that works) turns the food, and when the time set is reached, its rings and or if a preferred temperature is reached, it also chimes. Now lemme break it down. First, as you put the food and close the oven and then power on, the microcontroller kicks in. the wave that the oven use in cooking your food (microwave) is released from a tube called MAGNETRON TUBE. A microcontroller ensure that it is released the proper amount, time and intensity. A microcontroller is also responsible for the turning and the timer counter/sounding. I would love to add, however that not always are microcontroller used for all those types of types of tasks. Integrated Circuits (ICs) like 555 timer can also do some of the above but takes a whole lot more of electronic circuits and wiring which can be cumbersome for the engineer on a large scale.

                        The digital alarm in your room also uses a microcontroller. A microcontroller is programmable and uses very little power (as low as 3V). It does cool stuffs in that precious Samsung electronic product of yours. The reason a microprocessor isn’t used in such scenarios as stated above is that it uses way higher power, is more expensive, requires a lot of other peripherals like RAM, ROM, cooling system (Heat sinks/ fans), may require an OS (Operating System). That is exactly why you cannot compare a microprocessor with a microcontroller.

                        A microcontroller has all it needs packed inside or built in- it can carry its own weight, it always do. A microprocessor on the other hand cannot carry its own weight. It needs RAM attached, ROM added and cooling system present. You may ask, why? Excellent!! It is because it uses way more power and is consequently smarter and stronger. Example of a microprocessor is: Intel cores i7, i5, i3, Pentium, AMD Athlon, AMD FX 7500, etc. a microprocessor is also capable of Graphics and sound, hence have these attached to them too. Example of a microcontroller is: 8051, Atmega 328P (which Arduino uses). SUMMARY is: a microcontroller is suited for lower and electronic tasks while a microprocessor is better for high power and multitasks like computing and very advanced robotics.