Hey guys,
can someone please explain me the use of analog pins, digital pins and power pins?
~ Kennold
Begin by browsing the "Learning" tab on the Arduino homepage.
Download the instructions for some "Arduino starter kit" or buy some starter kit for learning by doing
Thats not very helpfull ...
Kennold:
Thats not very helpfull ...
Your question is so basic and the subject is so deep that you will not get a sufficient answer in the space of a forum post. You need to educate yourself about the nature of electrical signals (analog vs digital). The response you got points you in the right direction.
You might look here...
https://learn.sparkfun.com/tutorials/analog-vs-digital
You'll need to do some more study and research but maybe this will get you started:
The power (and ground) pins are what "power" the Arduino. This is where you connect a battery or power supply unless you are powering it via USB. The electronics run from 5V, but there is a voltage regulator in-line with the barrel jack if you want to power it from higher voltage.
The digital pins can be configured as inputs or outputs (this is not always the case with digital chips). These are digital signal lines That is, they carry "information" rather than electrical power/energy. For example, you can connect a switch to an input or an LED to an output. There is a small amount of power/current available from a digital output, and it's just about enough to power a regular LED.
A digital signal is either high (a digital 1) which is about 5V or low (a digital 0) which is about zero volts (or ground potential).
The analog inputs go to an analog-to-digital converter (ADC). The Arduino DAC has 10 bits of resolution, which means it counts from 0 to 1111111111 in binary (base 2) or 0 - 1023 in decimal. You'll normally use regular-old decimal numbers. I just mention binary so you can understand what 10-bits means.
The analog inputs are referenced to 5V by default. If you apply zero volts you'll read zero. If you apply 5V you'll read 1023. If you apply 2.5V, you'll read 512.
There is no true analog output. The some outputs are PWM which can simulate analog (such as dimming an LED). PWM switches on & off rapidly so for example at 50% PWM the average voltage is 2.5V. The Arduino's PWM is 8-bits (0-255 decimal). So, a PWM value of 128 is about 50%.