Arduino: The all-rounder among IoT platforms

No other platform offers makers such a high-quality and versatile software and hardware package as Arduino. The success story begins in 2005, when the two passionate IT people Massimo Banzi and David Cuartielles develop the first Arduino and immediately hit the bull's eye. Within three years, no less than 50,000 copies of the compact single-board computer were sold, after which dozens of other Arduino models followed and also became top sellers. Meanwhile, the platform has längst attained cult status among hobbyists.

An important reason for the success: The hardware modules prove to be incredibly versatile and flexible thanks to their numerous inputs and outputs. With the help of Serial Read, the Arduino can easily read out any desired commands. Whether you need to control displays or motors, or take measurements using sensors: Arduino always has the ideal hardware component in stock. The Arduino Uno in particular is considered a classic in Maker circles, as it offers all the advantages of a microcontroller with its 14 digital input/output pins and six analog input pins, and is also extremely inexpensive. With the powerful Arduino Due, the compact Arduino Nano and the Arduino Leonardo, further high-caliber microcontroller boards are available for a wide variety of IoT projects.

Particularly recommended for beginners are complete sets such as the practical Arduino Starter Kit, with which you can learn the most important Arduino basics in no time, or the Arduino Machine Learning Kit, which, in addition to a state-of-the-art board, also contains various sensors and a camera module. In addition, the wide range of Arduino offers various modules with which you can individually expand your microcontroller, including shields, additional boards, antennas and expansion boards. All modules from the house of Arduino score with comparatively low entry prices and höchster quality.

So that your board can be quickly and easily networked with other modules, Arduino also has the right software solution ready – or rather two: In addition to the versatile Arduino IDE, there is also the Arduino Web Editor, which basically has the same function as the IDE, but comes up with a cloud function. Both softwares are free open source products, which means that the source codes of the programs can be viewed and modified if the user has the necessary know-how. The widely used C or C++ programming language is used, and Arduino has a CPP (C precompiler) on board that processes the respective instructions in the sense of a preprocessor. With the comparatively simple and uncomplicated access to sophisticated software solutions, Arduino underlines its ambitions to reach as many Makers as possible and to animate them to tinker – even inexperienced technology novices.

Übrigens can be used Arduino boards – contrary to häufig is claimed – not as a replacement für the Raspberry Pi, because unlike the mini-computer with the raspberry, the Arduino is dependent on an external computer. However, an Arduino board – can be used in combination with a Raspberry Pi depending on the project – in question.