Arduino Training For You!
Learn Programming at Your Own Pace!
A course developed from
the text book:
“Introduction to Arduino
A Piece of Cake!”
By Alan G. Smith
Your Instructor is:
Richard T. Vannoy II
RoboticsProfessor@gmail.com
Chapter 1
www.TeachElectronics.com
Copyright 2016, Richard T. Vannoy II
Chapter 2: Making Light Patterns
Learning Objectives
• At the completion of this lesson, the student will be
able to:
– State the use of a constant.
– Explain why setup() and loop() are required functions in
all Arduino sketches (programs).
– Explain the use of the Arduino functions/commands:
pinMode( ), digitalWrite( ) and delay( ).
– Demonstrate how to use the two types of comments
used in Arduino programming.
Text/Author Information
• Text Book used in this course:
– Title: Introduction to Arduino: A piece of Cake!
– Author: Alan G. Smith
– ISBN: 1463698348
– ISBN-13: 978-1463698348
– Email: alan@introtoarduino.com
– Purchase text: www.amazon.com
– Download the free PDF: www.introtoarduino.com
Instructor Information
• This PowerPoint presentation
– Instructor: Richard T. Vannoy II, M.S.I.T., B.S.E.E.T.
– Email: RoboticsProfessor@gmail.com
– Web Site: www.TeachElectronics.com
Instructor’s Note:
Great PowerPoint presentations are supposed to have few words
and lots of white space. A typical presentation is meant to
augment the presenter’s dialog, not contain all of the
presentation material.
I violate this rule here by maximizing the amount of information
on each slide. This allows any student who cannot attend my
presentation to view the slide show, and learn as much as he
could with me presenting.
Chapter 2: Making Light Patterns
Learning Objectives
• At the completion of this lesson, the student will
be able to:
– Explain how “if” is used to ask True/False questions.
– Explain how =, +, -, *, /, % are used.
– List the six Comparison Operators.
– Explain how to use the Comparison Operators to ask
True/False questions.
Much of the code
here is the same as
the Blink program
from Chapter 1.
Lines 1 through 7
are the same.
They set up Pin
13 as the output
Pin for our LED.
This line says:
“Give me a storage
place in memory
where I can store an
integer. I want to
name that place
delayTime, and I
want to place the
number 1000 in that
location”
We do NOT make
delayTime a
constant, because we
will be needing to
change its value in
the program.
The program starts out by subtracting 100
from delayTime. More specifically, this
command says:
1. “Go get the present value in the memory
location called “delayTime” (1000).
2. Subtract 100 from that value.
3. Return the new value (900) back to that
memory location.
And since all code inside loop()
continues to repeat over-and-over, we
will subtract 100 each time we get here.
In the next few slides, we will look at
how computers ask True/False questions.
True/False Questions
Frequently, computers need to know which of
two or more actions they should take.
They do this by asking one or more True/False
questions to decide which action to take.
Let’s take an example and walk through it.
True/False Questions
A True/False question starts with the keyword
“if” tells the computer that a True/False
question comes next.
if (age >= 18)
Print “Adult”
else
Print “Child”
True/False Questions
After the “if” the computer looks for a set of
parentheses where it can find a comparison
operator that sets up a condition that can be
either True or False.
if (age >= 18)
Print “Adult”
else
Print “Child”
These are the Comparison Operators used by
the Arduino and many other programming
languages.
The idea is to put something on either side
of one of these operators in such a way that
a comparison can be made.
True/False Questions
In this example, we are comparing age with 18.
The computer “reads” age >= 18 like this:
1. Go get the value in the memory location called age.
2. Compare that with the number 18 and ask this question:
Is age greater than or equal to 18?
3. If the answer is True, the next statement will be executed and “Adult” will
be printed.
4. If the answer is False, the next statement will be skipped and the
statement after the “else” will be executed and “Child” will be printed.
if (age >= 18)
Print “Adult”
else
Print “Child”
Several Examples
If (myScore > yourScore)
print “I win!”;
If (myScore < yourScore)
print “You win!”;
If (myScore == yourScore)
print “A Tie!”;
So, this True/False
question asks: “Is
delayTime less than or
equal to zero?”
So, this True/False
question asks: “Is
delayTime less than or
equal to zero?”
Since line 8 set it
to 1000, and line
12 reduced it to
900, the answer to
the question is no,
or “False.”
Since the answer is
“False”, line 14 is not
executed, and the
program gets to line 16
with 900 in delayTime.
So… What does this
program do?
Sample Math Operations:
int
X =
X =
X =
X =
X;
14
31
18
18
+
–
/
%
7;
4;
4;
4;
//
//
//
//
Assigns
Assigns
Assigns
Assigns
(Puts)
(Puts)
(Puts)
(Puts)
21 into X.
27 into X.
4 into X.
2 into X.
4
Sample Math Operations:
4 √18
int X;
X = 14 + 7; // Assigns (Puts) 21 into X.
16
X = 31 – 4; // Assigns (Puts) 27 into X.
X = 18 / 4; // Assigns (Puts) 4 into X.
2
X = 18 % 4; // Assigns (Puts) 2 into X.
4
Sample Math Operations:
4 √18
int X;
X = 14 + 7; // Assigns (Puts) 21 into X.
16
X = 31 – 4; // Assigns (Puts) 27 into X.
X = 18 / 4; // Assigns (Puts) 4 into X.
2
X = 18 % 4; // Assigns (Puts) 2 into X.
Division (/) stores the Quotient.
Modulo
(%)Operations:
stores the Remainder.
Sample Math
4
4 √18
int X;
X = 14 + 7; // Assigns (Puts) 21 into X.
16
X = 31 – 4; // Assigns (Puts) 27 into X.
X = 18 / 4; // Assigns (Puts) 4 into X.
2
X = 18 % 4; // Assigns (Puts) 2 into X.
…same program we just went through, with a
different True/False question format below.
Here the program resets the delayTime to
1000 or subtracts 100 from it depending on
the answer to theTrue/False question.
The “while” statement also looks for a
True/False statement in the parentheses.
Only this parentheses only has a “1” in it.
How does that work?
When the compiler sees: while (1)
There is no Comparison Operator, but the machine
knows that FALSE IS DEFINED AS 0. Since 1 (or ANY
number other than zero) is not zero, the computer
evaluates this as True.
Assignment vs. Comparison
x = 3;
sum = 14 + 16 + 3;
total = a + b + c;
if (age == 18)
if (3 == 4)
if (myAge == yourAge)
ledState = !ledState;
Is equivalent to:
if (ledState == HIGH)
ledState = LOW;
else
ledState = HIGH;
The “for” construct is a way we can do one
or more actions many times.
It does a number of things…
1. “for” says: We are going to repeat one or
more commands a number of times.
2. “int i” says: Give me a memory space to
store an integer called “i”. I want to
use it as a counter.
3. “= 0” says: …and set my counter to zero.
4. “i < 4” says: Keep repeating the actions
below as long as the value of “i” is less
than 4.
5. “i++” says: Add 1 to the memory location
“i”.
So, the code in the box will be executed 4
times.
…or…
“Turn the LED on for one-fifth of a second,
then off for one-fifth of a second, 4
times. Then go on to the next command.”
The “for loop” below will
print the numbers 0 through
10.
for (x = 0; x <= 10; x++)
Serial.print(x);
There are two ways to add 1
or subtract 1 from a number:
number = number + 1;
number++;
counter = counter - 1;
Counter--;
Let’s use these 4 LEDs
to create a pattern of
lights.
I’m hooking
up 4 LEDs to
Arduino Pins
2 through 5.
I’m hooking
up 4 LEDs to
Arduino Pins
2 through 5.
I’m telling
Arduino to
set up Pins 2
through 5 for
OUTPUT so I
can control
the state of
the 4 LEDs.
Turn on the 4
LEDs at onetenth second
intervals.
…Then, turn
them off.
This program
does the same
thing as the
previous one,
only it uses
different,
more
efficient
methods to
achieve the
same result.
kPinLeds[ ] is an array. An array lets us
store as many numbers of the same data
type as we wish. Here it is used to store
the numbers of the 4 Pins we will use to
control 4 LEDs.
Each item in the array has an index
number, starting at 0, so we can refer
to each element by its index number.
Instead of creating four different
statements to set the Pins up as OUTPUT
Pins, we use a loop to repeat the command
4 times.
The End
You Can Learn Arduino Programming!
Your Instructor is:
Richard T. Vannoy II
RoboticsProfessor@gmail.com
www.TeachElectronics.com