Thursday, April 5, 2018

How to learn Arduino when you don’t have an Arduino?

That happens all the time doesn’t it?

You want to learn something but you can’t have easily. For some people Arduino board can be an expensive option to start learning Arduino programming.

Or even when you have an Arduino, you may not be able to use it all the time right?

When you go to college or to work you may have some spare time to spend learning programming but you don’t actually have the Arduino board to practice all your skills on.

So how can you solve this problem?

Simulation and emulation are beautiful fruits of the modern technology we have.

Simulation has been used for many fields to train people on doing tasks that may require long hours of practice while there is no time, equipment are available. And also in fields where mistakes can be fatal if done by a novice.

Here is how simulation can be both practical and useful to practice on some field of expertise without working in the actual field. In other words, it may seem like an offline practicing mode.

In critical fields like surgery, aviation and space simulation has been proven to be as efficient as working on the job.

Even in training, simulation can build a solid foundation for the trainee. Simulation training can as efficient as real job training.

When it comes to fields of technology itself like programming and Arduino, simulation is effectively resembles the real world of practice.

For example, if you want to learn coding, all you have to do is to get your computer, install your favorite IDE and start coding with your favorite programing language.

In Arduino, this may require real hardware stuff like Arduino board, electronics, motors and all other hardware components.

But you may not be able to buy all those things before you start to learn Arduino. Or you may not be able to use them for some time.

Also you may want to test something as a concept before you start actually building it.

All that can accomplished using simulation tools that make you build virtual circuits and systems inside simulated environment without spending money on real stuff. But learning can be as real as the real thing.

This can be easily done using Tinkerpad.

This website is used to simulate Arduino circuits and projects.

Tinkercad.com

You can build any Arduino project, connect all the components to Arduino board, write the code, compile it and then run it on Arduino to get the results before you build anything in real world.