Programming

An overview of the updates made in the redesign of the LilyPad Development Board to the LilyPad ProtoSnap Plus and how to adapt code written for the old board to the new one.

How to setup extra SPI, UART, and I2C serial ports on a SAMD-based boards.

Get started with the ADXL345 Accelerometer.

We admit the Arduino IDE isn't for everyone. Here are some other options for programming your Arduino boards, including web interfaces and graphical programming languages.

How to program SAMD21 or SAMD51 boards (or other ARM processors).

With the latest Artemis DK, board, we now offer full Bluetooth support within the Arduino IDE and development with Mbed™ OS. While we have worked tirelessly to get the Artemis module supported in the next Mbed™ OS release, the next release isn't slated until after the Artemis DK becomes available to the public. Therefore, this post will provide users with a jump start for developing with Mbed™ Studio, prior to the next release (in a beta of sorts), by utilizing our fork of Mbed™ OS.

Get our powerful Artemis based boards (Artemis Nano, BlackBoard Artemis, and BlackBoard Artemis ATP) blinking in less than 5 minutes using the SparkFun Artemis Arduino Core!

This is an in-depth guide on developing in the Arduino IDE for the Artemis module and any Artemis microcontroller development board. Inside, users will find setup instructions and simple examples from blinking an LED and taking ADC measurements; to more complex features like BLE and I2C.

A brief history of how ASCII came to be, how it's useful to computers, and some helpful tables to convert numbers to characters.

This tutorial shows users how to solder their SparkFun interactive badges as well as put them to use in other projects.

Make a Breakout clone with the BadgerHack Gaming Add-On Kit.

Turn your Badger or Redstick into a temperature and soil moisture sensing display with the BadgerHack Sensor Add-On Kit

Make a tiny synth with BadgerStick.

Binary is the numeral system of electronics and programming...so it must be important to learn. But, what is binary? How does it translate to other numeral systems like decimal?

Learn how to assemble and play the Binary Blaster Game from SparkFun Electronics.

How to get your computer set up with Arduino and the Blynk Board hardware definitions -- so you can start creating Blynk projects of your own!

Make your own cackling apple head witch to scare all of the trick or treaters this Halloween!

Modify a simple desk lamp to respond to a double clap (or other sharp noise) using parts from the SparkFun Inventor's Kit v4.0.

A simple guide for configuring the PATH variable on Win 10, Mac OSX, and Linux systems.

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

Learn how to use some of the standard features of the SparkFun Cryptographic Co-processor.

Learn about the common data types and what they signify in the Arduino programming environment.

Let's chat about layout and design considerations when using the Artemis module.

A primer on digital logic concepts in hardware and software.

Let's take the same examples from the ArduBlock-based Digital Sandbox guide, and implement them using Arduino code.

Your guide to the Digital Sandbox! 16+ experiments that, using a graphical programming language, teach you to blink LEDs, monitor microphones, read temperature, and much more.

This tutorial walks through how to upload code to your Digital Sandbox to emulate the functionality of the PicoBoard with Scratch.

How to eschew the Arduino IDE for a combination of and Arduino command-line tool (Arduino CLI) and a professional code editor (Visual Studio Code).

We make a simple side-scrolling endless runner game using parts from the SparkFun Inventor's Kit v4.0.

This is a tutorial to go in-depth about the SparkFun HyperDisplay Arduino Library.

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

Connecting the Garmin LIDAR-Lite v4 to a microcontroller just got easier! Check out our hookup guide to get started.

This tutorial goes over the how to assemble the Chibitronics' Chibi Chip programmable microcontroller with the Chibi Clip to add more functionality to your paper circuits! Start programming your Chibi Chip by writing code (block-based and text-based) in a browser-based code editor and then transmit code through sound to your board!

Necto Studio is a user friendly development environment for users looking to get started with MikroElektronika's MIKROE products.

This guide covers the general design of the board, the installation of the recommended software used to program the Artemis DK, and some basic examples. For more advanced functionalities, we have separate software development guides for the AmbiqSDK, Arm® Mbed™ OS, and the Arduino IDE platforms that users can reference.

Want to get started in robotics? Look no further than the SparkFun autonomous kit for the Sphero RVR! Whether you purchased the Basic or Advanced kit, this tutorial will get you rolling...

Use matplotlib to create a real-time plot of temperature data collected from a TMP102 sensor connected to a Raspberry Pi.

How to hook-up, program, and modify your Maker Faire Badge for electronic fun.

Learn how to customize and program your Roshamglo badge.

How to interpret hex numbers, and how to convert them to/from decimal and binary.

Learn how to develop code blocks for the Micro:bit in Microsoft MakeCode!

With this, you will be able to upload Arduino sketches directly to the ATtiny84 over USB without needing to use a programming device (such as another Arduino or FTDI chip).

This tutorial will show you how to load the MicroPython interpreter onto a variety of development boards.

In this tutorial, we look at various methods for running a script or program automatically whenever your Raspberry Pi (or other Linux computer) boots up.

Fix your bootloader-less MicroView! This tutorial covers how to: disassemble the MicroView, wire it up to an assortment of programmers, program the bootloader, and test it out.

This tutorial will teach you what a bootloader is and why you would need to install or reinstall it. We will also go over the process of burning a bootloader by flashing a hex file to an Arduino microcontroller.

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

How do I install a custom Arduino board/core? It's easy! This tutorial will go over how to install an Arduino board definition using the Arduino Board Manager. We will also go over manually installing third-party cores, such as the board definitions required for many of the SparkFun development boards.

libmraa is a tool kit for interacting with various Intel single board computers.

This tutorial will teach you how to set up your Raspberry Pi as a full desktop computer and read in sensor data through the GPIO using SparkFun hardware.

Get started using the IOIO-OTG with your Android device or PC.

Learn techniques on how to use Finite Impulse Response (FIR) filters and other data-processing tools to turn data into information.

We use parts from the SparkFun Inventor's Kit v4.0 to create a light-seeking robot that mimics the behavior of single-celled organisms.

Learn how to program in Arduino with the LilyPad Development Board. This guide includes 11 example activities that use the pre-wired LilyPad boards on the LilyPad Development Board.

The LilyPad Development Board is a sewable electronics prototyping board that you can use to learn circuits and programming with Arduino, then break apart to make an interactive fabric or wearable project.

Add changing colors to your wearable projects using LilyPad Pixel Boards.

Learn how to program in Arduino with the LilyPad ProtoSnap Plus. This guide includes 10 example activities that use the pre-wired LilyPad boards on the LilyPad ProtoSnap Plus.

The LilyPad ProtoSnap Plus is a sewable electronics prototyping board that you can use to learn circuits and programming with Arduino, then break apart to make an interactive fabric or wearable project.

How to hook up the LilyPad Temperature Sensor as well as some project ideas and example code.

The LilyPad USB Plus is a sewable microcontroller that you can use with Arduino.

This carrier board takes advantage of the MicroMod, Qwiic, and the mikroBUS™ ecosystems and allows users to take advantage of the growing number of 7 MicroMod processor boards, 83 Qwiic (add-on) boards, and +1100 drop-in Click boards™, which equates to +51M different board combinations. Click to learn more.

MicroPython is an implementation and subset of the Python 3 programming language that can be used on microcontrollers. This guide will walk you through writing MicroPython programs for the ESP32 Thing development board.

Learn how to record and playback controller 'macros' for your Nintendo Switch using a Raspberry Pi, SparkFun Top pHAT, and Joycontrol.

Take your nRF52840 development to the next level -- build your applications with the nRF5 C SDK. This tutorial explains how to set up a development environment based around the GNU Arm Embedded Toolchain.

Add sound effects to your project, prop or costume with Papa Soundie Audio Player.

A guide to the online and offline Particle IDE's to help aid you in your Photon development.

In this tutorial, we will use a Raspberry Pi 3 and the Pi AVR Programmer HAT to program an ATMega328P target. We are going to first program the Arduino bootloader over SPI, and then upload an Arduino sketch over a USB serial COM port.

Build your very own retro gaming controller with a Raspberry Pi using the SparkFun PiRetrocade Kit!

Skip the bootloader and load your program directly onto an AVR with the AVR Pocket Programmer.

What is an interrupt? In a nutshell, there is a method by which a processor can execute its normal program while continuously monitoring for some kind of event, or interrupt. There are two types of interrupts: hardware and software interrupts. For the purposes of this tutorial, we will focus on hardware interrupts.

Intel's Edison module goes beyond being just another Arduino clone. Check this tutorial for advice on how to get the most out of your Edison by writing code in C++!

Running low-power machine learning examples on the SparkFun Edge can now be done using the familiar Arduino IDE. In this follow-up to the initial Edge tutorial, we'll look at how to get three examples up and running without the need to learn an entirely new SDK.

Getting started with the Pyboard using MicroPython.

Tkinter is the standard graphical user interface package that comes with Python. This tutorial will show you how to create basic windowed applications as well as complete full-screen dashboard examples complete with live graph updates from matplotlib.

This guide will show you how to write programs on your Raspberry Pi using Python to control hardware.

How to use either Python or C++ to drive the I/O lines on a Raspberry Pi.

Guide for getting going with the Raspberry Pi 3 Model B and Raspberry Pi 3 Model B+ starter kit.

Guide for hooking up your Raspberry Pi 4 Model B basic, desktop, or hardware starter kit together.

Learn how to use serial I2C and SPI buses on your Raspberry Pi using the wiringPi I/O library for C/C++ and spidev/smbus for Python.

This tutorial will show you how to use a headless Raspberry Pi to flash hex files onto AVR microcontrollers as a stand-alone programmer. It also tells the story about production programming challenges, how SparkFun came to this solution, and all the lessons learned along the way.

This tutorial covers the basic functionality of the RedBoard Plus. This tutorial also covers how to get started blinking an LED and using the Qwiic system.

This tutorial covers the basic functionality of the RedBoard Qwiic. This tutorial also covers how to get started blinking an LED and using the Qwiic system.

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

This guide will help you get the RED-V RedBoard or Thing Plus up and running for the exhaust port. Depending on personal preference, there are a few environments to get started with the boards. All wings report in... we're going in full-throttle.

A quick tutorial showing how to reprogram the ATtiny85 IC found on the LilyTiny or LilyTwinkle boards.

Want to take a stab at advancing your programming skills? Check out the Thing Plus - RP2040, with the first microcontroller from the Raspberry Pi Foundation. This guide will get you started working with the RP2040 and programming in MicroPython and C/C++.

An introduction to the Atmel ATSAMD21G18 microprocessor and our Mini and Pro R3 breakout boards. Level up your Arduino-skills with the powerful ARM Cortex M0+ processor.

This tutorial covers the basic functionality of the SAMD51 Thing Plus and highlights the features of the new ARM Cortex-M4F development board.

This tutorial will show you how setup a simple peer-to-peer connection to send and receive sensor data between two ESP32 WiFi boards.

Looking under the hood of the Servo Trigger -- using the development environment and some finer details of the firmware.

We can use the parts and concepts in the SparkFun Invetor's Kit to make a primitive keyboard instrument.

So you've built up a Simon Says kit? What next? This tutorial will get you up and running with Arduino software, guide you through a few example sketches, and send you on your way to create your own. Careful, this stuff is highly addictive. :)

The SparkFun Inventor's Kit (SIK) Experiment Guide contains all of the information needed to build all five projects, encompassing 16 circuits, in the latest version of the kit, v4.0a.

The SparkFun Inventor's Kit (SIK) Experiment Guide contains all of the information needed to build all five projects, encompassing 16 circuits, in the latest version of the kit, v4.1.2 and v4.1.

An introduction to the Qwiic Micro SAMD21E. Level up your Arduino-skills with the powerful SAMD21 ARM Cortex M0+ processor!

A how-to on the Tiny AVR Programmer. How to install drivers, hook it up, and program your favorite Tiny AVRs using AVRDUDE!

Here are a few tips in using the PicoBoard with Scratch v1.4. The PicoBoard allows us to write Scratch programs that interact with a variety of sensors on the PicoBoard. These sensors include: sound, light, a slider, a push button, and 4 external sensors (A, B, C, and D).