Powering Up:

When you buy an Arduino board, it is usually preloaded with a sample Blink sketch (for a program) that will make the little built-in LED flash. Below shows an Arduino board with the LED lit the light-emitting diode (LED) is wired up to one of the digital input-output terminals on board. It is connected to digital pin 13. This really limits pin 13 to being used as an output, but this LED is very useful in debugging any program without connecting any extra gears to the board. And also the LED only uses a small amount of current, so we can still connect other things to that terminal. All you need to do to get your Arduino powered up and running.. The easiest way to do is to plug in it into the Universal Serial Bus (USB) port on your computer. In order to  do this we need a USB type A-to-type B USB Cable.

This is the same type of cord that is normally used to connect a computer to a printer. If you are using the older Arduino Diecimila or any equivalent like me, make sure that the power jumper is in the USB position. The newer Arduinos do not have this jumper they select the power source automatically. If everything is working okay, the LED should blink once every two seconds. The reason that new Arduinos have this Blink sketch already installed is to verify that the board works. If your board does not start to blink when connected, check the position of the power jumper (if it has one) and try a different USB socket, possibly on a different computer, as some USB sockets are capable of supplying more power than others Also, clicking the Reset button should cause the LED to flicker just for a moment. If this is the case, but the LED does not flash, then it may just be that the board has not been programmed with the Flash sketch; but do not despair, as once everything is installed, we are going to modify and install that sketch anyway as our first project. Installing the IDE (integrated Development Environment) Software is  provided for free of cost at Arduino's official site get the latest version by clicking the box below which will take you to the Arduino's site for downloading.

Standard Arduino Boards

These are the different standard Arduinos that can be used for building models and debugging complex designs, these are cheap, and can be brought easily. 

Arduino UNO 

Arduino Mega

One of the available version of Freeduino the Arduino clone

More different varieties of Arduinos  can be found  here...

Why to select Arduino?

• Great for newcomers to get things working quickly.
• It can run on Windows, Macintosh and Linux.
• It´s based on the Processing programming IDE.
• It´s programmed via a USB cable not a serial port.
• Its Open Source hardware and software (If you wish you can download the circuit diagram,   buy all the components, and make your own, without paying anything to the makers of Arduino).
• Arduino hardware is cheap.
• There is an active community of users so there are plenty of people who can help you. 

What exactly is an Arduino?

Arduino is an open source physical computing platform   based   on   a simple   input/output (I/O) board and an integrated development environment (IDE) that implements   the   Processing   language.

                                  In its simplest form, an Arduino is a tiny computer that you can program to process inputs and outputs. For example, a  simple use of the Arduino would be to turn  a  light  on  for  a  set  period  of  time,  let’s  say  30 seconds,  after  a  button  has  been  pressed  The Arduino would sit  patiently waiting for  the button  to be pressed. When  you  press the  button  it  would  then  turn  the  lamp   on  and  start counting.  Once  it  had  counted  30  seconds  it  would then  turn  the  lamp  off and then  carry  on  sitting there waiting  for  another  button  press.  You  could  use  this set-up  to  control  a  lamp  in  an  under-stairs,cupboard,porch etc.. for  example.  You  could extend this example to sense when  the  cupboard  door  was  opened  and automatically  turn the light on, turning it off after a set period of time. The  Arduino  can  be  used  to  develop   stand-alone interactive  objects  or  it  can  be  connected  to  a computer  to  retrieve or  send  data  to the Arduino and then act on  that data  (e.g. Send sensor data  out to the internet).The Arduino  can  be  connected  to  LEDs.  Dot  Matrix displays,  LED  displays,  buttons, switches,  motors, temperature  sensors,  pressure  sensors,  distance sensors,  webcams,  printers,  GPS receivers,  Ethernet  modules, etc..etc..

                                     The  Arduino  hardware  and  software   are  both  "Open Source",  which  means  the  code,  the  schematics, design, etc. are all open  for  anyone to take freely and do what they like with it.

My Arduino

This is my first Arduino:

 Actually its not the original one but just a clone of it. Got it from a nearest retailer for 999 INR

And as usually like everyone I was eager and anxious to try and program it.

So I started my programming with all the rituals of any programming language “The Hello World”

Before that, let's see how to perform all the rituals of it.