Arduino for Dummies Paperback – May 28, 2013

The Arduino is a microcontroller that can be used to do anything from something as simple as causing an LED to illuminate to controlling a robot. However, if you are not all that adept at programming and/or building circuits, it can be somewhat daunting to use. I used one to build a vibration-sensing device for a class in my electrical engineering curriculum, and since I only knew the basics of programming, I got this to help figure out how to program the device. The book has a lot of good information in it and presents the information in an easily understandable way. If you have some experience and programming and know the basics of circuit design the book is easy to understand and use. The material may go over the head of a total novice, but you can definitely have beginner to intermediate skills/knowledge and easily follow along with the material.

I'm pretty conservative on giving out 5 stars but I was really excited to get into the Arduino world. Perhaps my excitement makes my review bias, but it's fair to me.I ordered a starter kit with the Arduino Uno and jumped right into the book that was provided in the kit. The book in the kit is very good as well, as it jump started my installation of everything very smoothly and had me doing a couple sketches (programs) within 15 minutes. The sketches even describe how the code works with the Arduino hardware and that was very helpful. However, it began to get deep fairly quick, so I turned to this book.I began working with the sketches the book starts with (and which the software has preloaded for you as well) and the "Dummies" part of the title began showing it's face. I'm very new to both the programming language which is based on C and electronics in general, so the holding hands essence of this book was great. It explains to you in great detail what each line of code means and how you can manipulate it to get a feel for the functions.I'm sure some seasoned electronics guys and girls as well as programmers may find it all redundant, but if you are looking at buying this book, it's probably because you feel like a "Dummie", not because you're really great at this stuff. Highly recommended as a starter! I'm about half way through, but I'm betting I will be hungry for more deeper books and this one will have given me a solid foundation to stand on!

This offering of good information from John Nussey and the Dummie Books, Arduino For Dummies [Kindle Edition] is a good starting place to learn about the Arduino hobby and some good tips and how to's for those just getting started. I like it, because it is not very complicated to read and absorb what the author is trying to get across. Simple and direct, with out skipping much of the necessary knowledge you need, that some other books just assume you have already come across. Worth having on the Kindle reader, as I have gone over to the Dark Side and am pretty much a Digital Reader now. I like it for it simplicity in explaining the material and then mentioning it again later. The price is not much of a factor at less than $14. Works for me!

Recommended for those that are curious about what you need to know to use a microprocessor.Requires you only to be interested.It has tons of pages with tons of information all covered step by step.What has to be done, with what and where to find it are all covered.I also like the author's style of writing. He knows that for you to use Arduino, or any other microprocessor, you have to figure out how to program the device to do what you actually want it to do. Programming (for those of us who were never exposed to it) is like learning to write a strictly logical foreign language. The author gives me hope that it can be done by using a cut and paste, trial and error sort of thing. At least, this is the point of the learning curve where I'm at.If you have covered the beginning Arduino material out there, or if you haven't even started, check out this book.

It is a detailed examination of all the parts of the Arduino system. The middle section is a step-by-step guide on how to: load standard code, how to customize code, and load code onto the Arduino device. In the last section, there are some easy to replicate examples. Very easy to read. With some fun sample projects.

When they say the book is for dummies, they mean it. I don't know what I expected, but there really wasn't much information in the book as it was obviously written with someone who had zero experience to anything technical in mind. I'm no electrical engineer (far from it), but after about 15 minutes I just set the book aside as the level of detail I was looking for wasn't there. This one was written for folks who are no more advanced than high school students. That's not necessarily a bad thing; it just means it's not the book I hoped I was buying.

Great starter book. One of our new products will feature an automatic sequencer through relays and we had the choice of adapting a PC or enclosing a mini computer to operate the relays and Viola! ARDUINO won and this book is one, maybe, the way to get started. I have years in IT, BUT ARDUINO has it's own names and conventions, and I was informed tastefully.... it's the Italian in it's heritage... Any IT guy worth his salt can work with it in use for commercial applications, and still have fun with 1000 gizmos you can build though many are for the kids market.