DIY hardware/Arduino
Arduino
Arduino is an open-source electronics platform based on easy-to-use hardware and software. Arduino boards are able to read inputs - light on a sensor, a finger on a button, or a Twitter message - and turn it into an output - activating a motor, turning on an LED, publishing something online. You can tell your board what to do by sending a set of instructions to the microcontroller on the board. To do so you use the Arduino programming language (based on Wiring), and the Arduino Software (IDE), based on Processing.
A bit more complicated and offering confusion for what it does is the Arduino.
This board is more or less the easiest way for a DIYer to get microcontroller powers!
It's frequently used in tandem with a Raspberry Pi, or the only computer in the project.
It controls other hardware!
It has it's own scripting language and IDE, available for Linux, Mac, and Windows.
From this IDE, you can program your board!
Full and official documentation available at: https://www.arduino.cc/
If any significant voltage runs though that hardware though, you'll need a "shield".
The IO pins shouldn't really be used directly by anything that used more energy than an LED...
As little more than a fancy way to program a microcontroller, it's use all by it's self are limited.
Visit https://create.arduino.cc/projecthub to get an idea of the capabilities
