LEDs

Light-Emitting Diodes (LEDs) are small, powerful lights that are used in many different applications. Blinking an LED is the classic starting point for learning how to program embedded electronics. It's the "Hello, World!" of microcontrollers. We recommend looking at the LED tutorial and SIK experiment guide to get started.

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.

Interactive LED Music Visualizer

May 31, 2016

Use an Arduino and the SparkFun Sound Detector to create visualizations on Addressable RGB LED strips.

SX1509 I/O Expander Breakout Hookup Guide

September 24, 2015

Learn how you can use the SX1509 to control 16 LEDs or up to 64 buttons with just two pins.

Qwiic Digital Desk Sign with MicroMod

June 30, 2022

Make a Qwiic-enabled digital desk sign with a MicroMod SAMD51 Processor Board's USB Host and a USB keyboard!

WS2812 Breakout Hookup Guide

July 24, 2013

How to create a pixel string with the WS2812 and WS2812B addressable LEDs!

LED Light Bar Hookup

September 24, 2013

A quick overview of SparkFun's LED light bars, and some examples to show how to hook them up.

Vibe-O-Matic 3000

November 28, 2017

We attempt to emulate a car seat to ease a baby to sleep.

QuickLogic Thing Plus (EOS S3) Hookup Guide

July 22, 2021

This guide provides users with functional descriptions, configuration options for the QuickLogic Thing Plus EOS S3. It also serves as a “Getting Started” and “How To” guide.

SparkFun Top pHAT Hookup Guide

April 16, 2020

The pHAT to sit above your other HATs. Does that make it the "king" of the pHATs? This guide will help you get started using the Top pHAT with the Raspberry Pi.

Getting Started with the SmartLED Shield for Teensy

November 9, 2018

In this tutorial, we will connect different RGB LED matrix panels to PixelMatix's SmartLED shield and Teensy.

SparkFun Qwiic Alphanumeric Display Hookup Guide

October 21, 2021

A Hookup Guide to get you started with the Qwiic Alphanumeric Display.

Experiment Guide for the Johnny-Five Inventor's Kit

June 28, 2016

Use the Tessel 2 and the Johnny Five Inventors kit to explore the world of JavaScript enabled hardware through 14 awesome experiments!

FemtoBuck Constant Current LED Driver Hookup Guide v13

December 10, 2015

The FemtoBuck board is a high-efficiency, single-channel constant-current LED driver.

PicoBuck Hookup Guide v12

February 18, 2016

The PicoBuck board is a high-efficiency three-channel constant-current LED driver.

Getting Started with the Teensy

June 18, 2015

Basic intro to the Teensy line of products, with soldering and programming suggestions.

Tinker Kit Circuit Guide

September 16, 2021

This guide takes you through the basics of building 11 different circuits with the SparkFun Tinker Kit and how to program them using the Arduino IDE.

Basic Character LCD Hookup Guide

May 28, 2019

Liquid crystal displays (LCDs) are a great way to output a string of words or sensor data to a display for visual feedback. In this tutorial, we'll learn about LCDs, how to print a string of words to a 16x2 basic character LCD and create custom characters.

Qwiic LED Stick - APA102C Hookup Guide

July 15, 2021

Add some I2C RGB to your project with the SparkFun Qwiic LED Stick - APA102C

SparkFun ESP32 DMX to LED Shield

March 28, 2019

Learn how to utilize your DMX to LED Shield in a variety of different ways.

Qwiic SHIM Kit for Raspberry Pi Hookup Guide

February 16, 2021

Get started with the Serial LCD with RGB backlight and 9DoF IMU (ICM-20948) via I2C using the Qwiic system and Python on a Raspberry Pi! Take sensor readings and display them in the serial terminal or SerLCD.

SparkFun Photodetector (MAX30101) Hookup Guide

June 25, 2020

The SparkFun Photodetector - MAX30101 (Qwiic) is the successor to the MAX30105 particle sensor, a highly sensitive optical sensor. This tutorial will get you started on retrieving the raw data from the MAX30101 sensor.

Spectral Triad (AS7265x) Hookup Guide

November 8, 2018

Learn how to wield the power of 18 channels of UV to NIR spectroscopy with AS72651 (UV), AS72652 (VIS), and AS72653 (NIR) sensors!

Flashlight Kit

October 11, 2018

This is an assembly guide for the SparkFun Flashlight Kit, a basic learn to solder kit.

RedBoard Turbo Hookup Guide

January 24, 2019

An introduction to the RedBoard Turbo. Level up your Arduino-skills with the powerful SAMD21 ARM Cortex M0+ processor!
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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.