Part 1. A JavaScripter’s introduction to hardware

This part of the book will introduce you to the fundamentals of embedded systems and electronic circuits. In chapter 1, you’ll learn what embedded systems are and how to analyze their constituent components. We’ll spend some time looking at what it means for JavaScript to “control” hardware, and we’ll examine the different ways that JavaScript and electronics can work together.

You’ll meet the Arduino Uno R3 development board in chapter 2, which we’ll use with all of the experiments through chapter 7. You’ll learn what the main parts of development boards do and how they interact with other software and hardware components. You’ll try out some basic LED experiments with the Uno using both the Arduino IDE and the Johnny-Five Node.js framework.

Chapter 3 will teach you the key fundamentals of electronic circuitry, diving into Ohm’s law and the relationships between voltage, current, and resistance. You’ll work on a breadboard, constructing series and parallel circuits that contain multiple LEDs.

When you’re finished with this part of the book, you’ll have grasp of the basic embedded-system underpinnings and core circuit concepts. You’ll be ready to start building small, JavaScript-controlled projects with different kinds of inputs and outputs.