What is an Arduino?

Arduino is a mini computer and also an open-source platform used for building electronics projects. Arduino consists of both a physical programmable circuit board (often referred to as a micro-controller as well as a piece of software or IDE (Integrated Development Environment) that runs on your regular computer, that's used to create and write then upload that computer code to the physical board.

The Arduino platform has become very popular over the last 10 years because the code is quite easy to learn, plus you do not need a separate piece of hardware (called a programmer) in order to load new code onto the board - you simply use a USB cable to connect the Arduino board to your PC, and transfer the files directly onto the board. 

Differences in Arduino Boards.

You will notice there are different Arduino boards available here.  The differences are simply add-ons. For example if you want to drive an Electric motor or Linear Actuator then you need the Motor Driver module.  Each add on has a different function depending on what you want to achieve. We have a collection of Arduino Microcontrollers boards and shields and related sensors and controllers that are specifically related to functions to run either a Motor or Linear Actuator. Arduino's are extremely versatile and can be used for programming a wide range of applications and projects. Get in touch if you need help deciding on what it is you need. 

Arduino resources 

On our Blog and Tutorials pages we have several projects that we have written about to guide you on how an Arduino can be used to connect to Motors and Actuators to perform different functions. For example we created an article to "show you how to synchronize 2 linear Actuators using an Arduino". This article that includes the code for you would be especially useful for people who need to control 2 Actuators at once, and keep both Actuators running at exactly the same speed. This is just one of millions of ways an Arduino can be extremely useful.