Arduino basics with the UNO R3

About this path

This is where you write your first programs. If you have never built a circuit, take Electronics basics: start here first; it shows you the breadboard, LEDs, resistors and buttons without any code. Here you install the free Arduino IDE, upload your first program and make an LED blink, then move on to real sensors, motors and gadgets.

In the first part you use the UNO R3 Starter Kit. You measure distance with an ultrasonic sensor, move a servo to an exact angle, read a 4×4 keypad, react to a push button, dim an LED with a knob, show text on the 1602 LCD screen, build a traffic light with a pedestrian button, turn a servo into a dial thermometer, aim a turret with the IR remote, light a 3D-printed lighthouse, play an ultrasonic theremin, roll an electronic dice, play a keypad piano, build an RFID jukebox, make a desk clock with an alarm, send Morse code messages, time races with a lap stopwatch and sweep the room with an ultrasonic radar.

In the second part you add the 45-in-1 Sensor Kit and explore one sensor at a time: an automatic night light, a tilt alarm, a precise thermometer with the DS18B20, colour mixing with an RGB LED, tilt angles with the MPU-6050, a laser tripwire, a melody on the passive buzzer, a rotary encoder knob, a light-seeking sunflower, a 3D-printed anemometer, a reed-switch door counter, a digital hourglass, a joystick sketch pad, a candle guard with the flame sensor and more.

Then you turn those sensors into gadgets: a clap switch, a touch lamp, a line detector, a light gate that counts objects, an obstacle alarm, a water level indicator, a coin counter, a box that opens to a secret knock, a temperature-controlled desk fan, a touch-free hand-washing timer, a sound-level bar graph, a step counter, a speed trap for toy cars, quiz buzzers for two players and a combination lock that you turn like a safe dial. Every lesson has a wiring diagram, the complete code, free 3D-printable parts for many projects and an explanation of how it works.

You need the EEMENTOR UNO R3 Starter Kit, and from the second part the 45-in-1 Sensor Kit. When you finish, continue with the Arduino capstone projects.