What is an Arduino Uno

An Arduino (Uno) is a small board with programmable electronics. With an Arduino you can control various electrical components. Think of lights, switches, motors and various sensors.

The Arduino Uno Revision 3 – often called Arduino Uno r3 or Arduino Uno rev3 – is the most widely used Arduino board. This board is suitable for beginners and advanced users. This is one of the reasons why the Arduino Uno is so popular. In addition to the Arduino Uno there are many more Arduino boards. Read more about the different Arduino Board s here.

The Uno is based on the ATmega328 chip and has 14 digital input/output pins. 6 of these pins can be used for PWM. There are also 6 analog input pins, a 16 MHz resonator, a USB connection, a power jack, an ICSP header and a reset button. The board contains everything needed to support the ATmega328 microcontroller.

With the Arduino development software you can have your first Arduino project up and running within minutes! Choose one of our fun projects, connect the Arduino Uno to your computer with a USB cable, a DC power supply (or use a battery) and you can start.

In the video below we briefly explain what Arduino is and what you can do with it.

What is Arduino

What does the Arduino Uno look like?

Below you see a picture of an Arduino Uno R3. In the picture we show a number of important components of the board with numbers. Below the picture we explain per component what it is and what you can do with it.

You can connect the Uno to the computer via the USB A/B port so that you can program the board.
The Uno features a 9V DC Barrel Jack connection that can be used to power the board/project.
If you are not using an external power supply for your project you can connect your components to the 3.3V or 5V Power Pins.
The Uno has 6 Analog Pins, each providing 10 Bits of resolution, or 1024 different values. The Pins can be used as inputs.
The ATmega328 is the core component of the Uno. This microcontroller chip is responsible for executing code when the board is booted.
The Digital Pins on the Uno can be set as input or output. The first 6 Pins can also be used as PWM (pulse with modulation) output.

Possibilities of the Arduino Uno

The Arduino Uno is ideal for getting into the world of electronics and programming. Read sensors and control motors, lights or other components. Make your own autonomous robot or make a musical instrument. You can't think of anything that crazy and you can make it with an Arduino. The most important reasons to start with Arduino are:

Learn to program
Learn to handle electronics
Create cool projects

Make cool projects Supplies Arduino Uno

To get started with the Arduino Uno you will need a few other things besides the board. The basic requirements are:

Arduino Uno
Computer/ Laptop
USB A/B cable

With these parts you can start programming the Arduino. Unfortunately, with just the Uno you won't get much further than the Blink project . In this project you will learn how to blink the LED on Pin 13 load. This is the best project to start with.

Want to flash more than just one LED? We recommend the following components:

Of course there are many more parts and components, depending on the project you want to make you can choose which one you need. If you want to start without any hassle, we recommend one of our Arduino starter kits to take.

Arduino Uno Starter Kit

The Arduino starter kit is the ultimate kit to get acquainted with Arduino, programming and electronics.

With this kit you will learn to work with the Arduino platform. This kit contains the popular Arduino Uno R3 board, a collection of sensors and actuators and a book (English). This book helps the real beginners from their first step with electronics into the world of interactive and detecting objects.

The Arduino starter kit is a great gift for anyone aged 9 to 99.
In addition to the projects in the booklet, there are also thousands of projects available on the Internet.

Other Arduino Uno's

Arduino Uno WiFi Rev2

The Arduino Uno WiFi is functionally the same as the Arduino Uno R3, but with the addition of WiFi and some other improvements. It contains a brand new 8-bit microprocessor from Microchip and has a built-in IMU (inertial measurement unit).

The Wi-Fi module is a standalone SoC with integrated TCP/IP protocol stack that can provide access to a Wi-Fi network or act as an access point.

Arduino Uno SMD

The Arduino Uno SMD R3 is a microcontroller board based on the ATmega328.
It has 14 digital input/output pins (6 of which can be used as PWM output), 6 analog inputs, a 16 MHz crystal oscillator, a USB connection, a power jack, an ICSP header, and a reset button.
It includes everything needed to support the microcontroller; simply connect it to a computer with a USB cable or power it with an AC-to-DC adapter or battery to get started.