Course Content
The Arduino UNO
In the following three lessons, you will get to know your microcontroller - the Arduino UNO. You will learn more about its history, its functions, and most importantly: how to power it.
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Overview
Power Supply
The Arduino UNO Rev4
The Arduino IDE
For beginners, the Arduino IDE (Integrated Development Environment) is usually the first choice – and for good reason. You can program all Arduino boards with it and manage libraries for sensors, displays, etc. It also features the "Serial Monitor," where you can output data and troubleshoot.
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Installation
Get to Know the IDE
Your first sketch
In the following lessons, you'll get to know the basic structure of an Arduino sketch and write your own programs. Let's get started!
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Setup and Loop
Make the LED on your Arduino Blink
The Serial Monitor
Now let's turn our attention to the Serial Monitor – a feature of the Arduino IDE that you will use in virtually every one of your projects.
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Overview
Hello, World!
Variables
No programmer can avoid variables. In the following lessons, you'll learn what types there are and what you can do with them.
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What are variables good for?
What Types Are There?
Variables in Action
Controlling an LED
Now it's time for more hardware! In the next lessons, you'll connect an LED to your Arduino. You'll first turn it on and off with a button. After that, you'll build a dimmer to control the brightness of the LED.
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How to Connect an LED
The Prototyping Shield
Controlling the LED with a Sketch
Conditional Statements, Comparison Operators & Modulo
Connecting a Potentiometer
Controlling the LED’s Brightness
Lie Detector
Discover the entertaining side of electronics by building your own simple lie detector with your Arduino. This fun project uses basic components to measure skin resistance changes when someone might be telling a fib, perfect for adding some playful suspense to your next gathering with friends.
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How to build this project
There’s music inside!
Your Arduino can do much more than "just" make LEDs shine at different brightness levels. For example, it can make music. In the following lesson, you'll learn how to use a piezo buzzer and coax some charming tones out of it.
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Connecting a passive piezo
Your First Arduino Instrument
A Music Box with Loops
A Theremin with Ultrasound
Do you want to make a bit more music? In this lesson, you'll build a theremin that you operate with your HC-SR04 ultrasonic sensor. You move your hand toward and away from the sensor - your Arduino calculates the pitch of the tones from the distance, which are then played through your piezo buzzer.
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Connecting the HC-SR04
Measuring Distances
Setup of the Theremin and the Sketch
Arrays
A Fixed Scale for the Theremin
The Sound Sensor
Ready to explore how your Arduino can respond to sounds? In this lesson, we'll connect a sound sensor to your Arduino and learn how to make it respond to both digital noise detection and analog volume levels.
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Using the Sound Sensor
Build an Alarm System
In this project, you will build your own alarm system. It consists of three components: the sound sensor, which you have just learned about, the active piezo buzzer, and the RGB LED.
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Connecting the active piezo and the RGB LED
The Sketch for the Alarm System
The DHT11 Temperature Sensor
Let's move on to another component that you'll certainly use in many projects: the temperature sensor. In this case, the popular DHT11, which can measure not only temperature but also humidity.
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Connecting the DHT11
Installing and Using Libraries
Measuring Temperature & Humidity
Arduino Course for Beginners

Libraries are helpers that you’ll soon find indispensable. They handle many tasks in the background that you would otherwise have to program manually. This includes, for example, measuring temperature and humidity with the DHT11 sensor.

You can install and update most libraries directly in your Arduino IDE. Once installed, you include them at the beginning of your sketch and can then access their functions. But let’s take it one step at a time. 🙂

The Library Manager

You’ll find the entry “Manage Libraries” in the Tools menu of your Arduino IDE – or in its sidebar (the pile of books)

Let’s take a quick look at the contents of this window:

 

At the very top, you’ll find the search field where you can search for libraries. More on that in a moment. Below that is the ‘Type’ dropdown menu: Here you can set various filters. You’ll rarely use the ‘Topic’ menu – here the libraries are sorted by subject. In most cases, however, you’ll simply use the search field.

The Library for the DHT11

Enter “Adafruit Unified Sensor” in the search field – the search results will appear automatically after a short time. In case the right library is not at the top, scroll down a bit until you find the right entry:

 

To the left of the Install button, you can select the version you want to install. In most cases, this is the current version – so you don’t need to change anything here. Click “Install”.

For the DHT11 sensor, however, you need two libraries. Next, search for “DHT11”. In the results, the entry “DHT sensor library” now appears (maybe a bit further down).

Now also click on “Install” to download the latest version.

Notes: You may be asked by the Library Manager if you want to install additional required libraries. Confirm this with “Yes”. Please also don’t be confused by the version numbers in the screenshots above: Libraries are constantly being updated, so the number may already be higher for you.

You now have all the libraries you need for your measurement. Next, you’ll learn how to include them in your sketch and use them to output temperature and humidity in the Serial Monitor.

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