CHAPTER 2
Creating Bigger Projects with the Arduino
For simple applications, what you learned about the Arduino IDE in the pre-
ceding chapter is sufficient. But soon your projects will get more ambitious,
and then it will be handy to split them into separate files that you can manage
as a whole. So in this chapter, you’ll learn how to stay in control of bigger
projects with the Arduino IDE.
Usually, bigger projects need not only more software, but also more hard-
ware—you will rarely use the Arduino board in isolation. You will use many
more sensors than you might imagine, and you’ll have to transmit the data
they measure back to your computer. To exchange data with the Arduino,
you’ll use its serial port. This chapter explains everything you need to know
about serial communication. To make things more tangible, you’ll learn how
to turn your computer into a very expensive light switch that lets you control
an LED using the keyboard.
What You Need
To try this chapter’s examples, you need only a few things:
1. An Arduino board, such as the Uno, Duemilanove, or Diecimila
2. A USB cable to connect the Arduino to your computer
3. An LED (optional)
4. A software serial terminal such as PuTTY (for Windows users) or
screen
for
Linux and Mac OS X users (optional)
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