⚡ Digital Input and Output (I/O) Explained
When you start tinkering with electronics or Arduino projects, you’ll quickly hear about digital input and output (I/O). These are the fundamental ways your microcontroller interacts with the world—reading signals from sensors or controlling devices like LEDs, motors, and relays.
🔹 What Is Digital Input?
Digital input is how your Arduino or microcontroller reads signals from the outside world. It’s like asking a sensor a yes/no question: “Is the button pressed? Is the motion detected?” The answer is always HIGH (1) or LOW (0).
Examples of digital input devices:
- Push buttons
- Limit switches
- Motion sensors
- Hall effect sensors
🔹 What Is Digital Output?
Digital output is how your board controls devices. It’s like flipping a switch: turn an LED on or off, activate a motor, or trigger a buzzer. Just like input, output is either HIGH (on) or LOW (off).
Common digital output devices:
🚀 Getting Started
To use digital I/O, you just need to connect your device to the correct pin on your board and write a simple program. Most Arduino boards make it easy with built-in functions like digitalRead() for input and digitalWrite() for output. Once set up, you can start creating interactive projects in no time!