Microcontrollers
- Computer and processor: generic terms for the anything that can run a program; Controller (microcontroller): reserved for a simple processor that does only one task, like listening to sensors
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<img src="/icons/question-mark_yellow.svg" alt="/icons/question-mark_yellow.svg" width="40px" /> Does microcontrollers not have the ability of operating? If so, as we can operate Arduino NANO by the laptop, this operating function belongs to the laptop, instead of NANO?
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- Bootloader: a firmware program that lives in a part of the controller’s memory, and can re-program the rest of that memory
- Firmware: bootloaders and BIOSes, cuz they’re loaded into the flash memory of the processor itself; Software: other programs live on external storage devices like disk drives, and are loaded by the BIOS
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<img src="/icons/question-mark_yellow.svg" alt="/icons/question-mark_yellow.svg" width="40px" /> difference between ‘load into’ and ‘load by’
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Pin Functions
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<img src="/icons/question-mark_yellow.svg" alt="/icons/question-mark_yellow.svg" width="40px" /> Is analog pin special?
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- General Purpose Input and Output (GPIO): most pins on a microcontroller can operate as either a digital input or digital output
Sensors
- When using a new sensor, first thing to do is to check the range it can read and deliver
- sensors convert other form of energies from the physical world into electrical energy which could be read by computer
Programming