Electrical Engineering

These tutorials help form some of the fundamentals you would learn in an Electrical Engineering course of study.

Battery Technologies

February 6, 2013

The basics behind the batteries used in portable electronic devices: LiPo, NiMH, coin cells, and alkaline.

Working with Wire

February 8, 2013

How to strip, crimp, and work with wire.

Understanding Thermal Resistance

May 14, 2020

Discussing what thermal resistance is, how it’s used for thermal management, and how to maximize the life of your project.

How to Power a Project

February 7, 2013

A tutorial to help figure out the power requirements of your project.

Logic Levels

June 3, 2013

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

Transistors

July 1, 2014

A crash course in bi-polar junction transistors. Learn how transistors work and in which circuits we use them.

Diodes

May 9, 2013

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

What is a Circuit?

February 6, 2013

Every electrical project starts with a circuit. Don't know what a circuit is? We're here to help.

Voltage, Current, Resistance, and Ohm's Law

February 6, 2013

Learn about Ohm's Law, one of the most fundamental equations in all electrical engineering.

Pulse Width Modulation

February 27, 2013

An introduction to the concept of Pulse Width Modulation.

Analog vs. Digital

July 18, 2013

This tutorial covers the concept of analog and digital signals, as they relate to electronics.

PCB Basics

December 14, 2012

What exactly IS a PCB? This tutorial will breakdown what makes up a PCB and some of the common terms used in the PCB world.

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.

Beginner Parts Kit Identification Guide

March 22, 2019

The essential parts for beginning (or even experienced) hobbyists that gives you all of the basic through-hole components you will need to get started playing with embedded projects. We'll identify a few parts in the kit and provide a few basic circuits to get started!

8-Pin SOIC to DIP Adapter Hookup Guide

August 13, 2015

Assembly and application of the 8-pin SOIC-to-DIP adapter.

What is a Battery?

May 3, 2016

An overview of the inner workings of a battery and how it was invented.

Light-Emitting Diodes (LEDs)

August 12, 2013

Learn the basics about LEDs as well as some more advanced topics to help you calculate requirements for projects containing many LEDs.

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.

How to Use an Oscilloscope

February 25, 2014

How to work the dials and buttons on an oscilloscope, and a glossary of the o-scope lexicon.

Multiplexer Breakout Hookup Guide

August 18, 2016

How to use the 74HC4051 multiplexer breakout to drive eight LEDs, read eight button inputs, or monitor eight potentiometers.

Integrated Circuits

July 15, 2013

An introduction to integrated circuits (ICs). Electronics' ubiquitous black chips. Includes a focus on the variety of IC packages.

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.

Boss Alarm

March 30, 2016

Build a Boss Alarm that alerts you of anyone walking into your office and automatically changes your computer screen.

Proto Pedal Example: Programmable Digital Pedal

September 22, 2016

Building a pedal around the Teensy 3.2 and Teensy Audio shield. Changing the effect in the pedal is as easy as uploading a new sketch!
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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.