Concepts
These are the various concepts that people may need to know while learning a technology tutorial and could be required to complete a ‘hookup’ tutorial. Concepts are most often a general building block that may be built upon other concepts. Concepts can generally be learned without physical objects but are reinforced with a hookup tutorial.
Accelerometer Basics
March 28, 2013
A quick introduction to accelerometers, how they work, and why they're used.
Alternating Current (AC) vs. Direct Current (DC)
September 5, 2013
Learn the differences between AC and DC, the history, different ways to generate AC and DC, and examples of applications.
Analog to Digital Conversion
February 7, 2013
The world is analog. Use analog to digital conversion to help digital devices interpret the world.
Analog vs. Digital
July 18, 2013
This tutorial covers the concept of analog and digital signals, as they relate to electronics.
ASCII
June 13, 2016
A brief history of how ASCII came to be, how it's useful to computers, and some helpful tables to convert numbers to characters.
AST-CAN485 Hookup Guide
March 1, 2018
The AST CAN485 is a miniature Arduino in the compact form factor of the ProMini. In addition to all the usual features it has on-board CAN and RS485 ports enabling quick and easy interfacing to a multitude of industrial devices.
Basic LED Animations for Beginners (Arduino)
December 3, 2019
Let's have some fun with LEDs! We'll explore LEDs once again with the SparkFun RedBoard Qwiic, making cool effects, and putting those effects to work using a sensor.
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.
Configuring the PATH System Variable
March 23, 2021
A simple guide for configuring the PATH variable on Win 10, Mac OSX, and Linux systems.
Connectivity of the Internet of Things
July 27, 2016
An overview of the different protocols that can be used for the development of Internet of Things (IoT)-based projects.
Data Types in Arduino
November 6, 2013
Learn about the common data types and what they signify in the Arduino programming environment.
Electric Power
June 26, 2013
An overview of electric power, the rate of energy transfer. We'll talk definition of power, watts, equations, and power ratings. 1.21 gigawatts of tutorial fun!
External IO and Metastability
July 30, 2020
Why external signals can cause metastability and how to use constraint files to manage this
First FPGA Project - Getting Fancy with PWM
July 30, 2020
An initial project using Alchitry's onboard FPGA to manipulate PWM
Fuse Breakout Board Hookup Guide
October 3, 2019
Protect your project by adding a fuse in your circuit to save it from molten destruction.
Getting Started with LTspice
March 1, 2017
LTspice is a high performance SPICE simulator, schematic capture and waveform viewer with an impressive library of passive devices. Over 1000 models are included in the download but you can also add third party models.
Getting Started with OBD-II
October 8, 2015
A general guide to the OBD-II protocols used for communication in automotive and industrial applications.
Gyroscope
February 1, 2013
Gyroscopes measure the speed of rotation around an axis and are an essential part in determines ones orientation in space.
Hexadecimal
March 20, 2014
How to interpret hex numbers, and how to convert them to/from decimal and binary.
How Does an FPGA Work?
July 30, 2020
The What, How, Why, and When of Field Programmable Gate Arrays, aka FPGAs
How to Use Remote Desktop on the Raspberry Pi with VNC
July 9, 2018
Use RealVNC to connect to your Raspberry Pi to control the graphical desktop remotely across the network.
I2C
July 8, 2013
An introduction to I2C, one of the main embedded communications protocols in use today.
Introduction to DMX
November 14, 2018
DMX512 is an industry standard in lighting and stage design, whether it be controlling lights, motors, or lasers, DMX512 has many uses. In this tutorial we’ll cover DMX512 (Digital Multiplex with 512 pieces of information).
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.