Let's Learn About Microcontrollers

Microcontrollers are computers that have the bulk of their components all on one chip. A microcontroller can also be called a System on a Chip or SoC. What's so great about putting everything on a chip? You end up with a small, inexpensive computer that can do great things.

Can we hook up...

Press button

Joystick

Distance sensor

Motor driver

LED

Seven segment display

Rainbow strip

Dot matrix display

Speaker that beeps

Speaker that plays songs

This is the ATmega328P processor that lives in the middle of an Arduino Pro Mini compatible circuit board. This processor can be programmed using the Arduino IDE described here.