Arduino Projects Book

by Scott Fitzgerald, Michael Shiloh, Tom Igoe (Editor)

Librarian note: This book cannot be sold separately from The Arduino Starter Kit.

Arduino helps you make things that interact with you. Whether you're a rocket scientist or a poet, whether you're ten years old or ninety, we want to make it possible for you to build great projects using computers and electronics.

The parts in this kit and the projects explained here form the skeleton of your projects. Arduino can make your projects responsive. It's up to you to make them beautiful.

Genres: Programming, Nonfiction, Technical, Computer Science

171 pages, Paperback

First published September 1, 2012

Reviews

[Rich · Rating 4 out of 5]

A good introductory book on how to set up basic Arduino functions and use breadboards and basic electronic components. The book doesn't deal a lot with the why's of component selection nor does it deal build on basic designs in order to develop more sophisticated circuitry, but I doubt that these were the intent of this book anyway.

As a book that is included in a basic Arduino kit, it was just about perfect at whetting my appetite to look more deeply into electronics and Arduino programming. I have gone on to purchase and begin working my way through Simon Monk's "Programming Arduino: Getting Started with Sketches" as well as John Boxall's "Arduino Workshop: A Hands-On Introduction with 65 Projects". These books are a next logical step for those interested in more than a mere introduction to the ideas presented here.

Overall, I would give this a solid 4 to 4.5 stars with the caveat that it is aimed directly and unapologetically at beginnings who want to delve into Arduino and have some fun, which I would definitely fall into as a category. I felt both interested and eager to know more after finishing this book, which I believe is its aim, so it a successful book, in my opinion.

[Vladimir Ananiev · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book is for you if you want to get started with arduino with no prior knowledge. It comes bundled with the Arduino starter kit and includes all the components needed to build the 15 projects.

The actual projects though quite simple do a great job of showing you how to connect different kinds of circuits and work with a few sensors. Even though some projects were too childish for my taste, they still do a great job in showing you how the different components work together.
I didn't like that sometimes they just tell you how to connect the circuit but its not clear why some of the components are needed.. All of my questions had already been asked and answered in the Arduino forums, though.

The book also looks great visually - one of the best looking book on a tech topic I've seen.
All in all, a great starting point to familiarize yourself with the arduino but look elsewhere for more in-depth knowledge.
I'd say any high-school student with interest in computers/electronics can pick this up and play around. No prior programming knowledge is needed but it helps.


Time to automate the garage door now..

[Ryan · Rating 5 out of 5]

Very useful content in here for electronics enthusiasts. I intend to use this book for its useful diagrams to connect up components from the Arduino to the breadboard. This book is very useful for prototyping and I also intend to see how I can use this to develop an application using Node-RED for my university research project :)

[Dreamer · Rating 3 out of 5]

A really good book to help you understand the arduino world. It has many intresting projects, which can be very easily done. I suggest it for everyone who wants to get started with arduino.

[Kevin McDonagh · Rating 4 out of 5]

An excellent collection of recipes intended to take a novice through to the point of randomly ripping apart remote controls and triggering buttons. Like others mentioned, I wrapped up the last project with a little sadness that my guided tinkering had came to an end.

The book's fundamentals are strong, and the explanations are well-tested. However, it is aging, and some of the resources it references have changed slightly. In 2025, I was able to get all the way through to the last chapter, going off script and following some forum post solutions a handful of times near the end. Overall this book serves as an excellent primer and deserves an authoritative edition update.

[Kadri · Rating 4 out of 5]

I'm slightly sad that I'm finished with this book. I've now made all the projects, tested out the code, had things flying at me at high speeds, things beeping at me at a high pitch and all the other lovely things you can make Arduino control in the projects in this book. I think it's great to the extent that it introduces the basics of how to control Arduino and how to build a circuit.

[Sarah · Rating 4 out of 5]

Overall a great book. A few of the examples had bugs and minor tweaks that should have been included in the text, but it covered a lot of the sensors and basics of programming for the arduino, I really enjoyed it.

[Mikifriki · Rating 4 out of 5]

As it comes with the Arduino starter kit I found it a great introduction book into arduino programming and to all of it's sensors. Also I like way the book builds up and gets more complex with its projects as you go

[Joeri Biebuyck · Rating 4 out of 5]

Excellent starters book but could use more details how some circuits work.

[Kuba Svoboda · Rating 5 out of 5]

super

[Elies · Rating 4 out of 5]

All the projects were great, enjoyable introduction. I read the book in Spanish, but there's no Spanish version in the editions, so I put this one which has the same amount of pages.

[حسين علاء]

..

[Fabrizio Bianchi · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is the best introduction to the Arduino Open Hardware platform, much better than Getting Started with Arduino by Arduino co-founder Massimo Banzi.

It also represents a great introduction to electronics in general by explaining most of the concepts involved in the 15 projects of the book in a simple and concise way.

Doesn't get 5 stars only because the schematic representations of the circuits is often not exactly replicable with the components provided in the starter kit, making it a hassle or plain impossible for beginners to obtain a good final result.

[Elie De Brauwer · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book came with the Arduino Uno starter kit and contains 15 projects to do with the Arduino starter kit and explains Arduino along the way. I had fun reading this, personally I found it a bit too easy (which is good since I don't think I belong to the starter age and/or competence level). But nevertheless I had great fun working through this book.

[Mohammed Mahgoub · Rating 5 out of 5]

The book is well designed in fact it is one of the best book designs I come across and it is well printed too, while you are working on projects you may abuse the book, it can take the beating.
The book helped me a lot in understanding electronics, concepts and components and before I reach the last project I was able to do something on my own.