If you're anything like us, tinkering with electronics is something you'd like to do—in theory, at least. Maybe you like dissecting broken gadgets, but never do anything with the bits you find other than stash them away for a rainy day (a drawer full of microwave parts? Check!). But who has the time to learn such a complex topic?

Arduino is the answer to all that: an open-source microcontroller board that's a fun and easy way to start learning electronics. And you can get started for less than $5 in hardware.

What Is Arduino?

Arduino is many things: it's a brand, a piece of hardware, a programming language, and an entire ecosystem of products. But broadly speaking, when discussing Arduino, we're referring to an open-source electronics prototyping platform. But what does that actually mean?