Understanding the analog inputs

In Chapter 1, Understanding and Setting up the Base IoT Hardware, we learned that the Intel Galileo Gen 2 board provides six analog input pins numbered from A0 to A5 and located in the lower-right corner of the front-side of the board. It is possible to measure from 0V (ground) to the value configured with the IOREF jumper position (5V by default) and the board provides 12 bits of resolution for the analog to digital converter. Thus, we can detect 4096 different values (212 = 4096), or 4096 units, with values ranging from zero to 4095 (inclusive), where 0 represents 0V and 4095 means 5V.

Tip

In case you have an experience with other Arduino boards, you must take into account that the Intel Galileo Gen 2 board does not use the pin labeled AREF. In other Arduino boards, you can use this pin to set the analog reference voltage for the analog to digital conversion process. When we work with the Intel Galileo Gen 2 board, the maximum value for the analog pins is...