How to Blink a LED - Lesson #1

Welcome to the first lesson of the Arduino for Beginners series - a complete, beginner-friendly journey into the world of electronics and programming. In this first tutorial, I'll explain what Arduino is, why you should learn it and, in the end, we'll set up our first project: blink the built-in LED of an Arduino UNO.

For this project, you'll need:

1. Arduino Cloud Editor
2. MindPlus Arduino Coding Kit

I've recently posted a video on YouTube explaining everything you can read in this article. You can watch it right above.

Have you ever wished your lights could turn on automatically when you enter a room? Or imagined a device that waters your plants when the soil gets dry?

That kind of magic is absolutely possible - and the secret behind it is a tiny but powerful tool called Arduino.

Welcome to the first lesson of a brand-new series called Arduino for Beginners .

My name’s Lucas, and I’ll be your teacher throughout this exciting journey where we’ll learn how to bring electronics and programming together to create real-world projects.

This free course is designed especially for beginners. No prior experience with electronics or coding? No problem. Everything is explained clearly, just like a casual conversation between you and me.

I've planned 24 classes and divided them into 5 modules. Each module builds on what we learned in the previous one. You can read the classes planning here or download from the Supplies section above.

So by the end, you’ll have a complete understanding of Arduino - not just the theory, but how to actually use it to build your own projects.

You can follow the lessons in order, or, if you prefer, you can jump directly to the topics you’re interested in.

Either way, you’ll find extra materials like articles, scripts, and resources linked in this GitHub repository. And don’t worry - everything’s free.

Arduino is an open-source ecosystem of hardware and software tools built to help people like you make projects that interact with the real world.

At the center is a small programmable board (hardware) you can connect to:

1. Sensors
2. Motors
3. LEDs
4. Displays
5. And much more

To bring it to life, you’ll write simple programs using tools (software) like:

1. Arduino IDE: Write and upload code from your computer
2. Mind+: A block-based visual programming tool (great for beginners)

With these tools, even complete beginners can quickly start building smart, interactive devices.

Here’s just a taste of what’s possible with Arduino:

1. An automatic plant watering system using a soil moisture sensor and water pump
2. A motion-sensing light that turns on when you walk into a room
3. A weather display showing real-time temperature and humidity
4. A basic home alarm system to detect doors opening
5. A smart home model or mini weather station right from your desk

And that’s just the beginning.

Originally, Arduino was created to help students learn electronics and coding.But it grew so fast that today it’s used by hobbyists, engineers, and even companies for prototyping and testing ideas.

There are even advanced boards, like the Arduino Opta, made for industrial projects - though we won’t get into that in this course.

Here, we’ll focus on learning the fundamentals and building practical, beginner-friendly projects.

For this course, I’m using the MindPlus Arduino Coding Kit provided by DFRobot - one of the top global suppliers of electronics kits and educational tools.

Big thanks to DFRobot for sponsoring this series and providing the kit. Their support helps make this course possible, and I genuinely think their products are some of the best out there for learning electronics.

But you may be wondering: why did I choose this kit?

Well...

1. Comes with 18 different sensors and modules
2. Compatible with both block-based and text-based coding
3. Designed specifically for beginners
4. Allows IoT applications (Bluetooth and Wi-Fi connectivity)

Each lesson will focus on different components in the kit, so you’ll gain experience with every piece by the time we’re done.

If you want to get the most out of this course, I highly recommend picking up one of these kits. It’ll make following along much easier and give you everything you need to start building real projects.

Now that you know what Arduino is and why you should study this platform, it's time to get our hands dirty and create our first project: making the built-in LED blink.

If you have a MindPlus Arduino Coding kit, get the Arduino board that comes with it (or any other one you may have). Pay close attention to it, and you'll see a small built-in LED, similar to the first image above.

To make it blink, let's upload some code using the Arduino IDE on cloud. So first of all, connect the board to your computer using a USB cable.

Then visit the Arduino IDE page and click on "go to cloud editor". If you don't have an account, create one and sign in to the tool.

1. After that, click on "create sketch" and the coding tab will be opened.
2. In the new page, click on "select device".
3. If you see the message "Arduino Cloud Agent not found", download the Arduino Agent and install it on your computer. It allows communication between the Arduino IDE (on the cloud) and your local board through your computer. After that, the IDE will recognize your board automatically.

Now we're finally upload the program that makes the LED to blink.

1. To create the Blink LED program, first go to Examples => Basics => Blink (side-bar on the left).
2. The Blink.ino file contains the code that makes the built-in LED to blink, as you can see on the screenshot above.
3. If you can't find this code on your IDE, I put it on the Supplies section. Just copy the code and paste on Arduino Cloud Editor, and it'll work as well.
4. After that, click on the "upload" button (arrow icon) and see what will happen to your board.
5. If everything was set up right, the built-in LED will blink every second.

Congratulations - you just created your first Arduino program! In the next lessons, we'll go deeper into this topic, so you can understand how Arduino sketches are structured and, therefore, code your own programs.

Here’s a quick recap of what we covered in this first lesson:

1. What Arduino is, and how it blends hardware and software to solve real-world problems
2. How the course is structured into 5 modules and 24 project-based classes
3. What tools and kits you’ll use (like the MindPlus Arduino Coding Kit and the Arduino IDE or Mind+ software)
4. Why Arduino is the perfect platform to begin your journey into electronics

In the next article, we’ll dive into the story of Arduino, and explore real inventions people have built using this incredible platform.

By the way, you can access the articles here as well the videos here (each article will come up with a tutorial, so don't forget to check them out on YouTube).

If you’re ready to start learning, grab your kit and join me in lesson #2.