Projects

Need inspiration? Find it here! These tutorials feature special projects broken down into steps to illustrate how you can use various concepts, skills, and technologies to build awesome stuff.

RFID Beginners Tutorial

June 15, 2020
Make a remote work logger using an RFID reader and a GPS module. Scan a card and get ID, location, and time. All the perfect data to punch in and punch out from the middle of Nowhere!

Wireless Remote Weather Station with micro:bit

May 11, 2020
Monitor the weather without being exposed to it through wireless communication between two micro:bits using the radio blocks! This is useful if your weather station is installed in a location that is difficult to retrieve data from the OpenLog. We will also explore a few different ways to send and receive data.

Jetson Nano + Sphero RVR Mash-up (PART 1)

April 23, 2020
We took two of our biggest robotics partnerships from the previous year and shazamed them together into one robot to rule them all!

Raspberry Pi Safe Reboot and Shutdown Button

April 20, 2020
Safely reboot or shutdown your Raspberry Pi to avoid corrupting the microSD card using the built-in general purpose button on the Qwiic pHAT v2.0!

Temperature Sensor Comparison

March 18, 2020
A comparison of analog and digital temperature sensors. Which is better?

Secure DIY Garage Door Opener

January 16, 2020
Did you know that most garage doors are at risk of a roll jam attack? Here we make a DIY garage door remote-control system that is much more secure than most commercial-ready products using the latest in ECC cryptography.

Getting Started with the Autonomous Kit for the Sphero RVR

December 13, 2019
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...

Magnetic Levitation

November 20, 2019
This tutorial will show you how to build a magnetic levitation circuit using common parts.

Qwiic Pro Kit Project Guide

November 7, 2019
The Qwiic Pro Kit was designed to allow users to get started with Arduino without the need for soldering or a breadboard. We've included three inputs (a joystick, accelerometer, and proximity sensor) and one display that can be daisy chained to the RedBoard Turbo (SAMD21) Development Board.

Wireless Controlled Wearable EL Wire Dance Suit

October 31, 2019
In this tutorial, we will build an EL wire dance suit that can be controlled by a wireless glove controller!

Fuse Breakout Board Hookup Guide

October 3, 2019
Protect your project by adding a fuse in your circuit to save it from molten destruction.

GPS Geo-Mapping at the Push of a Button

September 27, 2019
Let's ramp up our GPS tracking skills with KML files and Google Earth. We'll make a tracker that logs location and allows us to visualize our steps with Google Earth.

ESP32 Relay Web Server

September 10, 2019
The goal of this project is to have a website hosted on an ESP32 that controls any relay controlled device connected to a local network and keeps a dynamically updated state of those devices.

EL Wire Pants

July 18, 2019
In this tutorial, we will sew standard electroluminescent (EL) wire to a pair of pants.

Modifying Your EL Wire Inverter

July 18, 2019
In this tutorial, we will modify the 12V EL wire inverter to power the EL Sequencer/EL Escudo Dos off a single power supply.

Using Home Assistant to Expand Your Home Automations

May 9, 2019
An introduction to Home Assistant, an open source home automation hub.

Displaying Your Coordinates with a GPS Module

April 30, 2019
This Arduino tutorial will teach you how to pinpoint and display your GPS coordinates with a press of a button using hardware from our Qwiic Connect System (I2C).

Keyboard Shortcut, Qwiic Keypad

April 25, 2019
A simple project using the Qwiic Keypad and the RedBoard Turbo to create your own custom hotkey-pad.

Wireless Gesture Controlled Robot

April 25, 2019
Control the RedBot wirelessly based on the movement of your hand using an accelerometer, Arduino, and XBees!

Wireless Glove Controller

April 24, 2019
Build a wireless glove controller with Arduinos to trigger an LED using XBees!

LED Gumball Machine

April 24, 2019
Hacking gumball machines to make the world a happier, blinkier place.

Build a Qwiic Jukebox that is Toddler Approved!

March 29, 2019
Follow this tutorial to build your own custom jukebox. Note, this is designed simple and tough for use primarily with toddlers. It's also a great introduction to SparkFun's Qwiic products!

Wireless RC Robot with Arduino and XBees

March 12, 2019
In this tutorial, we will expand on the SIK for RedBot to control the robot wirelessly with XBee radios! We'll explore a different microcontroller and wirelessly control the RedBot at a distance.

Computer Vision and Projection Mapping in Python

February 6, 2019
Use computer vision to detect faces and project images on top of them.
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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.