Build Your Own Autonomous NERF Blaster

4Arduino Crash Course

Now that we have a little bit of Processing under our belts, let’s look at getting our feet wet with some electronic components and microcontrollers. In this chapter, we’ll also tackle some standalone projects that will teach you skills that will have important applications later when we build the awesome autonomous NERF blaster.

What’s a Microcontroller?

A microcontroller’s closest likeness is to that of a weak computer. It’s got a processor, memory (RAM), and the ability to talk to peripherals, just as the almighty USB port does. But a microcontroller is much smaller and lower-powered than your desktop, laptop, tablet, or smart phone. Waaaaaay more puny. The power of microprocessors is more like that of a calculator, but ...