Arduino

Introduction

Serial communication through USB can be used to communicate between a host computer (like a laptop, or Raspberry Pi), and an Arduino. Doing so allows:

• Use of the faster hardware of the host computer for calculations
• Synchronization of multiple Arduinos
• Use of other information provided by the host computer, like internet connections or larger data files
• Creation of a graphical interface using the host's display or web server

Memory Addressing

First, to understand why things are done this way, it should be known that a bool (boolean true/false) is only 1 bit. 1 for true, 0 for false. However, computers have an addressing system for memory, which cannot go directly to a single bit. An address usually goes to a 8 bit chunk of memory (a byte), which is also usually the same size as an int data type.

Think of it like trying to write a postal address to a room in a house. The address will take you to the house, but not inside. So, we can't just keep it in its own variable.

Furthermore, it would be wasteful to waste 7 bits for every bool declared. 8 bools can be put all into one integer - all next to each other in memory - to save space. How do you seperate them? How do you get just one bit out of a chunk of bits? With boolean logic!