What not to do to an Arduino I may have been working with my Arduino UNO board improperly,
because now it fails to upload sketches (says some programmer is not responding)
and when I press the cute little restart button, the green LED doesn't do its blink anymore. I am aware what that means, but what I really wonder is how should I properly care the board. I probably will have no other chances to buy more arduinos so this information follows to be of a great importance.



As an example I would give, is touching the arduino board with bare hands risky, how much shock-tolerant it is, what if I mistake some pins, are there pins that cannot be mistaken, what will happen if I declare a pin as an output, but use it for input and the contrary, is loading a PWM program onto TFT touch screen shield unhealthy and so forth and briefly - how should I properly care the arduino board.
it is okay to use for simple experiments directly. But while you choose to opt for a complex tasks read the details about all the components and their wiring techniques.
specifically try to check soldering is done correctly or not while connecting the wires to any component or to other wire. wrong soldering may damage your parts and arduino as well.
Be careful while using power supply, more when it comes to use multiple sources.
read carefully before you do anything. Dont be afraid just be careful.