Arduino
Arduino is a low-cost open-source electronics prototyping platform based on flexible hardware and software. It's intended for artists, designers, hobbyists, and anyone interested in creating interactive objects or environments.

Arduino has several microcontroller boards. A board has in- and output pins for connecting external hardware like sensors, switches, LEDs, displays, (stepper) motors and other electronics hardware. It is programmed with software uploaded to it. After that it is running as an independent unit with it's functions defined by the software.

All sorts of applications can be made with it, measuring instruments, controllers for energy management and conditioning, data acquisition, production machines, timers, to name a few, but also robots, data-driven and computer art and installations.



 The Arduino Uno microcontroller board has digital and analog in- and outputs (top, bottom connector) and a USB interface (top left) for connecting to the development environment on a host PC.


Several board types are available with different hardware configurations. One of them is the Duemilanove ('9000'). This is a small board with size 70x53 mm. It has in- and output pins for attaching controls and a USB connector for talking to the host PC with the development environment. The board functions are programmed with software uploaded via USB. After that it can run as a stand-alone controller or it can be connected to a PC for data acquisition and control.

The software for the Arduino board is written in a subset of C++ using the Arduino development environment and a number of external libraries. When the board is connected to a host PC extra software can be written to control the board from a Windows application. This can be done in other IDEs, including Visual Studio, with C++, C# or Visual Basic.

The pages linked from this index contain basic information how to create software for the Arduino Duemilanove using the Arduino and Visual Studio development environments. For the latter, C# is used as language. Our focus is mainly on design principles, not to create specific applications.


Articles
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Introducing Arduino.
An overview of the Arduino Duemilanove microcontroller board and the required software.

Installation of the Arduino IDE.
Installation of the Arduino development environment and the drivers.

Communication between Arduino and PC.
A simple communication protocol for data-acquisition and control.

How to use the SerialPort class in WPF.
The SerialPort class in WPF for communication between a PC and an Arduino board.


Links

[1] Arduino
Arduino is an open-source electronics prototyping platform based on flexible, easy-to-use hardware and software.
http://www.arduino.cc/

[2] Netduino
An Open Source electronics platform using the .NET Micro Framework.
http://www.netduino.com/

[3] .NET Gadgeteer
Microsoft .NET Gadgeteer is an open-source toolkit for building small electronic devices using the .NET Micro Framework and Visual Studio/Visual C# Express.
http://netmf.com/gadgeteer/
http://gadgeteer.codeplex.com/

[4] .NET Micro Framework
.NET Micro Framework is an open source platform for small embedded applications.
http://www.netmf.com/Home.aspx