Must-Have Components, Tools and Software for Arduinoist

Being an Arduinoist myself, I need many tools or components when I do prototyping or experiments. In the list below, I have gathered the most important tools and parts for Arduinoist.

This article is also available on Jordan's Lab Notebook !

Step 1: Tools

1. Soldering Iron + Solder

Soldering iron and solder are used to attatch and fix electronic components to the prototyping board or printed circuit boards

2. Desoldering Pump

Desoldering pumps are used when you soldered something wrong, and you want to fix it. To use it, heat up the point you want to desolder with the soldering iron, then simply put the tip of the desoldering pump to the point and press the button. The point will then be desoldered.

3. Voltmeter

Voltmeter is a tool to help you check the voltage of a power source. Some also have a feature of checking the quality of a battery (just like mine:-)

4. Mini Drill

A mini drill is used to drill holes on a printed circuit board for soldering components onto them.

Step 2: Experiment Tools

1. Solderless Breadboard

A breadboard is a prototyping board with many holes on it. Each five holes in a line are interconnected. Very useful when doing experiment.

2. Jumper Wires

Jumper wires are wires that each end have a special plastic casing and a pin. It is used to connect lines together on a breadboard.

Step 3: Prototyping Materials

1. Laser Printer

A laser printer is used when you are making pcbs with the 10 mins quick-etching pcb boards.

2. 10 Minutes Quick Etching PCB Board

This is a quick pcb etching board. Available at most of the electronics hobby store.

Step 4: Microcontrollers

1. Arduino Uno

The Arduino Uno is the most commonly used arduino microcontrollers. An ideal for experiment

2. Arduino Nano

The Arduino Nano is a micro-sized arduino microcontroller. Very useful for product developing and prototyping.

3. Arduino Ethernet

The Arduino Ethernet is a special version of arduino microcontroller which includes ethernet connection. Good for building web-based projects.

Step 5: Components and Sensors

1. Resistors

Resistors are used to lower the voltage of a circuit. It comes in a variety of size, major sizes include 270ohm, 1k, 5k and 10k.

2. Potentiometer

Potentiometer is a kind of turning switch/resistor which can be easily used with arduino using the analog pins.

3. Pushbuttons and Switch

They are used to control on and off of components or circuits.

4. LEDs

LED is a kind of diode which will produce light. Very useful for using as a power indicator. Also come in different kind of colors and sizes.

5. DC Motor

DC motors is a kind of motor which will turn continuously. Mainly use for making rc cars.

6. Servo Motor

Servo motor is a kind of motor that will move by each degee. Most of them can move up to 180 degree and can be controlled by arduino directly.

7. LCD 16*2 Characters

The 16*2 LCD is a common way of displaying contents from an arduino. But it will use up most of the pins of an anduino uno.

8. PIR Motion Sensor

Passive Infared Ray, or PIR, Motion Sensor is a useful and a highly sensitive motion sensor. Often used in anti-theif security system.

9. LM35 Temperature Sensor

The LM35 temperature sensor is a precise temperature sensor which is small and can be directly recorded by Arduino analog pins.

10. Photoresistor

The Photoresistor is a kind of light sensor which comes in a variety of size. It can be easily used with Arduino analog pins.

11. Infarad Ray Transmitter and Receiver

The IR Transmitter and Receiver can be used to communicate with two arduino.

Step 6: Softwares

1. Arduino IDE

The Arduino IDE is a free software developed by Arduino LLC based on Processing. It is used to write sketches and bootloaders into the Arduino or ATmega Chip.

2. Fritzing

Fritzing is a free prototype design software. It includes a breadboard designer, a schematic designer and a pcb designer.