Basic Prototyping

Prototyping is where all of our ideas come to life. When I started working with microcontrollers I really wanted to design and build my whole project and watch it magically work. I realized that all I was doing was overwhelming myself and quickly learned how to break the larger projects into much smaller projects. I could then create prototypes for each of these smaller projects to verify they worked before incorporating them into the larger project.

In this chapter, we will learn:

• Where to set up a work area
• All about breadboards
• What Dupont (jumper) cables are
• How to prototype a project

Prototypes are used to prove the specifications for a working concept or process rather than theoretical ones. Prototypes, as we are referring to it in this book, is a model to test a concept or process. Prototyping is the process of creating and testing the prototypes.

When working with the Arduino and other microcontrollers, it is important to understand how to prototype especially when working with larger projects. These larger projects can usually be broken up into multiple smaller projects. We can then prototype each of these smaller projects to make sure they work as expected before incorporating them into the larger project. Before we look at how to prototype, we need to set up a good work area to do prototyping in.