Arduino: Blinking LED

First up blinking LED! Blinking LED is the basic and the first thing you should learn.First let us connect the Arduino to the computer.

Then start the arduino IDE. if you do not have the IDE, then visit the Arduino Website and download it.when you open the arduino IDE you will see the following window.

Arduino IDE

Now go to tools, boards and then select the board you are using. I am using a Arduino duemilanove.

Arduino Duemilanove

Now go to tools, Serial port and select the port to which you have connected. If you dont know the port just select one port and upload the program. If you get an error then change the port until the program gets uploaded.

now let us write a program to blink the LED. By default, there is an LED connected to Pin 13 on the board. So for testing we do not require any other peripherals.

Start typing the following lines of code. The following code is in C language.

Code:

void setup(){    // What ever is written within these brackets are executed once.

pinMode(13, OUTPUT); // We are declaring that pin 13 is output.

}

void loop(){ // What ever is written within these brackets are executed again and again.

digitalWrite(13, HIGH); // We are declaring that pin 13 is ON.

delay(1000); // Wait for 1000ms

digitalWrite(13, LOW); // We are declaring that pin 13 is OFF.

delay(1000); // Wait for 1000ms

}

After typing the above code click on upload. The compiler will compile and uploads it to the micro-controller. After a few secconds the program will execute and the led on the arduino board will start to blink. My board takes three seconds after switching on to execute the program.