Tutorials

What is Electricity?

June 13, 2013

We can see electricity in action on our computers, lighting our houses, as lightning strikes in thunderstorms, but what is it? This is not an easy question, but this tutorial will shed some light on it!

How to Install FTDI Drivers

June 4, 2013

How to install drivers for the FTDI Basic on Windows, Mac OS X, and Linux.

Logic Levels

June 3, 2013

Learn the difference between 3.3V and 5V devices and logic levels.

Si4707 Hookup Guide

May 29, 2013

Instructions on hooking up to and communicating with the Si4707 Weather Band Radio Breakout using an Arduino.

Mario the Magician's Magical Lapel Flower

May 23, 2013

A guest tutorial from the astonishingly talented Mario the Magician showing how to put together your own servo-controlled lapel flower.

How to Use a Breadboard

May 14, 2013

Welcome to the wonderful world of breadboards. Here we will learn what a breadboard is and how to use one to build your very first circuit.

Firefly Jar Assembly Guide

May 14, 2013

Make a soft circuit firefly jar with conductive thread, LEDs, and the LilyTwinkle!

Diodes

May 9, 2013

A diode primer! Diode properties, types of diodes, and diode applications.

Getting Started with the LilyPad MP3 Player

May 8, 2013

The LilyPad MP3 Player is an amazing little board that contains almost everything you need to play audio files. You can use it to create all kinds of noisy projects, from MP3 hoodies to talking teddy bears. Your imagination is the only limit! This tutorial will help you get started.

Button and Switch Basics

May 7, 2013

A tutorial on electronics' most overlooked and underappreciated component: the switch! Here we explain the difference between momentary and maintained switches and what all those acronyms (NO, NC, SPDT, SPST, ...) stand for.

Connecting Arduino to Processing

April 25, 2013

Send serial data from Arduino to Processing and back - even at the same time!

Resistors

April 1, 2013

A tutorial on all things resistors. What is a resistor, how do they behave in parallel/series, decoding the resistor color codes, and resistor applications.

Using OpenSegment

April 1, 2013

How to hook up and use the OpenSegment display shield. The OpenSegment is the big brother to the Serial 7-Segment Display. They run on the same firmware, however the OpenSegment is about twice as big.

Accelerometer Basics

March 28, 2013

A quick introduction to accelerometers, how they work, and why they're used.

Installing Arduino IDE

March 26, 2013

A step-by-step guide to installing and testing the Arduino software on Windows, Mac, and Linux.

Creating a Humidor Control Box

March 13, 2013

Because some of our boards need to be re-humidified after reflow, we decided to make our own humidor. This tutorial will focus on how to model a project in 3D and then fabricate it using a CNC routing machine.

The Uncertain 7-Cube

March 8, 2013

The Uncertain 7-Cube is a non-committal, less-than-helpful, but also entirely honest fortune teller. Simply ask it a yes or no question, give it a nudge, and the 7-Cube will dutifully inform you that it doesn’t have all the facts and doesn’t feel comfortable making a guess.

Electronics Assembly

March 1, 2013

How SparkFun assembles SMD electronics.

Pulse Width Modulation

February 27, 2013

An introduction to the concept of Pulse Width Modulation.

What is an Arduino?

February 26, 2013

What is this 'Arduino' thing anyway? This tutorials dives into what an Arduino is and along with Arduino projects and widgets.

Soft Circuits: LED Feelings Pizza

February 13, 2013

Here we will learn how to say how you feel with pizza. Electric pizza.

Voltage Dividers

February 8, 2013

Turn a large voltage into a smaller one with voltage dividers. This tutorial covers: what a voltage divider circuit looks like and how it is used in the real world.

Working with Wire

February 8, 2013

How to strip, crimp, and work with wire.

Light

February 7, 2013

Light is a useful tool for the electrical engineer. Understanding how light relates to electronics is a fundamental skill for many projects.
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Old Tutorials

Looking for the old, archived tutorials? Head on over to the archived tutorials on the main SparkFun site.
Please be aware that the tutorials you find there are no longer actively maintained.