Parts and Pieces

Hi!

Today I am going to tell you a little bit about other parts and pieces that can be added on to an Arduino board. There are things like sensors, LED’s, buttons, switches, and even different boards that can be attached so the board can do many more things! Let me tell you more about them.

Sensors

Sensors have many cool uses, like burglar alarms, and even light shows! Here are some examples of sensors, what they do/are, and pictures!

Temperature Sensor- A temperature sensor can tell what temperature it is in the area or room around them,  and if a room gets too hot or too cold, you can program it to make a noise if you hook a noise maker up to it. Here is a picture:                              

Flex Sensor- A flex sensor tells the board if it should send a lot of power of energy to a LED or display, or just a little bit. It tells the Arduino how much power to send by how much it is being bended or pushed. It looks like this:

Light Sensor- A light sensor is used to tell how much light is in the area or room that is in, and it will tell the Arduino brain to turn on a light, make a noise, turn off a light, etc. Light sensors are often used on the little lamps that people sometimes line their walkways with and when it starts to get dark, it will turn the light on! Here is a picture of a light sensor:

Motion Sensor- Motion sensors are my favorite sensor of all. They are typically used in burglar alarms, and can also be called PIR sensors. They have a range of sight, which can be very small or very large, and this often contributes to the size. A fun way that motion sensors are used is for light shows. Around the holidays, people sometimes program light shows that are activated when cars or people go by.  They tend to look like this:

There are also buttons, switches, and potentiometers that can turn up a volume, make something on a display go faster, or turn on, off, or even dim lights or LED’s.

Buttons- Buttons are very common in everyday life. They can be seen in elevators, cash registers, doorbells, and lots of other places! When a button is pushed, it sends a signal to the Arduino to turn on a light, make a noise, etc. They look like this:

Switches- Switches are seen everywhere, and in almost every building too! They can turn on a light, which completes a circuit, turn off lights, and not just lights, switches can turn on or off just about anything! When a switch is flipped up or down, it sends a signal to the board to do something, like turn something on or off. This is what it looks like:

Potentiometers- Potentiometers are small, stick like things that can turn left or right, which dims lights displays, and other things that brightness can be changed.  They also can turn up or down volume, and even temperature. It can rise or lower anything that can be risen or lowered. It looks like this:

That’s all for now! I hope you learned more about other parts and pieces that can be added onto the Arduino microcontroller!

Over & Out!

Elise