Page 3
Single-board Microcontroller
In a nutshell, a single-board microcontroller is a small computer built onto a single printed circuit board (PCB).
There are many single-board microcontrollers in the market, such as the Groboards Giant Board, the Seeeduino XIAO, the BBC micro:bit, the Adafruit Gemma M0 or the many different Arduino boards. It is not easy to decide on which one to use for a given project. However, Arduino has become one of the most popular systems, and it is perhaps the simplest and approachable for non-experts.
This tutorial will use the Arduino MKR WiFi 1010, which is straightforward for basic IoT projects. We will call it either microcontroller or Arduino board.
Give yourself a pause.
Find the Arduino MKR WiFi 1010 in the box of components.
Would you mind opening it and familiarising yourself with it? Have a good look at the construction of the board. You will see a series of female (at the top) and male (metal legs coming at the bottom) connectors on the sides. Most of them are used as an analogue or digital input (to get data in) and output (to get data out). Through them, you can connect the microcontroller to other devices (e.g., sensors).
Continue to Page 4 – Distance Sensor.