Understanding microcontroller boards
A microcontroller is generally regarded as a simple processor that does a specific task. Sometimes they are referred to as microcontroller units (MCUs). The microcontroller is the brain of our project. They are small, very versatile as we’ve already seen, and usually inexpensive. Microcontrollers also allow a wide range of people with varying skillsets to program and control them, from complete novices to experts. Often, they are used for doing one job repeatedly. The name consists of “micro” because they are small and “controller” because they offer control functions. They are controllers for the physical world, sensing our actions and then using that information to have a reaction.
As we’ve seen before, they have inputs and outputs that are pins or metal sew tabs. We attach our components to those pins and the microcontroller will allow us to control them. So far we’ve mostly been using ATMEL...
