We conceived of this book as an introduction to electronics and the Arduino platform for the complete beginner. We have written and illustrated it assuming that the reader has no prior knowledge of either electronics or programming. As the reader progresses through the book, electronics and programming concepts are thoroughly explained, in text and with images. After the reader has completed the book, they will be able to use it as a reference for basic electronics and Arduino programming.

This book should be the jumping-off point for creative projects. When finished reading the book and completing all the exercises in it, readers should be equipped to start developing their own projects. We haven’t covered everything that the Arduino can do, but we have set readers on their way to finding that out for themselves.

Many of the code sketches used in this book are taken from the examples in the Arduino IDE. The other sketches are available here: github.com/arduinotogo/LEA.