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.
Hackers in Residence: The Sound Visualizer
March 23, 2015
A fun project that uses a Raspberry Pi and a custom Java app to create your own sound visualizer using a RGB LED matrix.
LilyTiny Plush Monster
January 27, 2015
Craft a stuffed monster while exploring the LilyTiny preprogrammed microcontroller. This is a project based on the Plush Monster Activity created at MIT's High-Low Tech Lab by Emily Lovell, Jie Qi, and Natalie Freed.
Light-Up Valentine Cards
January 27, 2015
Light up your love with paper circuits - no soldering required!
Hacker in Residence: The Harmonic Skew Zoetrope
January 27, 2015
Check out Hacker in Residence, Jesse's awesome Harmonic Skew Zoetrope in this project tutorial.
Alphanumeric GPS Wall Clock
January 26, 2015
This is a GPS controlled clock - a clock you truly never have to set! Using GPS and some formulas, we figure out what day of the week and if we are in or out of daylight savings time.
RedBoard Santa Trap
December 25, 2014
A fun holiday project to try for anyone looking to catch Santa on Christmas!
Actobotics Basic Differential Platform
December 22, 2014
Get started with Actobotics with this simple vehicle. Then expand and customize it for your own evil robot empire.
21st Century Fashion Kit: Inflation
December 10, 2014
Learn how to use a blower and thin sheet plastic to create designs that change shape and volume!
Let It Glow Holiday Cards
November 20, 2014
Craft a glowing card for friends and family this holiday season with paper circuits - no soldering required!
21st Century Fashion Kit: Electrochromatic Circuits
November 5, 2014
Diana Eng walks you through a magically appearing design made with an thermochromatic pigment.
Cackling Apple Head Witch
October 30, 2014
Make your own cackling apple head witch to scare all of the trick or treaters this Halloween!
Humidity-sensing LED Flower
October 28, 2014
How about that humidity? This tutorial shows how to add sensing capability to the 21st Century Fashion Kit's RGB flower project.
Hackers in Residence - Sound and Motion Reactivity for Wearables
October 3, 2014
How to consciously wear light-up and and sound reactive clothing.
Twinkling Trick or Treat Bag
October 2, 2014
Make a light up goodie bag with conductive thread, LEDs, and the LilyTwinkle!
Hacking Your Maker Faire Badge
September 18, 2014
How to hook-up, program, and modify your Maker Faire Badge for electronic fun.
Hackers in Residence - Cosmic Ray Detector
August 11, 2014
Learn how to detect cosmic rays with this simple and cheap detector, built by Hacker in Residence Pete Marchetto.
RGB Panel Jumbotron
August 5, 2014
This tutorial will show you how to combine a webcam, a 32x32 RGB LED panel, and a Teensy 3.1 to stream video from the webcam, pixelate it, and display it on the LED panel - LIVE.
Hackers in Residence - The ElectricBone
June 25, 2014
Drum machines and keyboards have been the standard for making digital music, but how do you make electronic music if you're trained to play the trombone? One of our Hackers in Residence, Carlos Mello, took it upon himself to find a solution to that very question.
Soil moisture-sensing by hacking a solar light
June 19, 2014
How to take a solar powered pathway light from a hardware store and make it into a crude soil moisture sensor.
Are You Okay? Widget
May 23, 2014
Use an Electric Imp and accelerometer to create an "Are You OK" widget. A cozy piece of technology your friend or loved one can nudge to let you know they're OK from half-a-world away.
Customizing LilyPad LED Colors
May 19, 2014
A short guide to creating a rainbow of new LilyPad LED colors at home!
Interactive Hanging LED Array
April 10, 2014
Learn how we converted 72 lightbulbs into an interactive LED array for our conference room.
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.