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.
Vox Imperium: Stormtrooper Voice Changer
October 25, 2016
Add some flair to your Imperial uniform by changing your voice using a Teensy 3.2 and Prop Shield.
Pokémon Go Patches with EL Panels
August 3, 2016
Add a cloth stencil over EL panels to create glowing logos and designs.
IoT Weight Logging Scale
May 9, 2018
This tutorial will show you how to make a scale that logs your weight to a custom website on the Internet. The principles can be extrapolated to any type of data.
Graph Sensor Data with Python and Matplotlib
July 23, 2018
Use matplotlib to create a real-time plot of temperature data collected from a TMP102 sensor connected to a Raspberry Pi.
Python GUI Guide: Introduction to Tkinter
August 13, 2018
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.
Measuring Internal Resistance of Batteries
May 5, 2016
Classroom STEM activity that has students build a battery from a lemon, measure the open and closed circuit voltages, and determine the battery's internal resistance.
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.
TB6612FNG Hookup Guide
September 29, 2016
Basic hookup guide for the TB6612FNG H-bridge motor driver to get your robot to start moving!
Wireless Audio Bluetooth Adapter w/ BC127
December 14, 2017
Build a custom wireless audio Bluetooth adapter using BlueCreation's BC127 and add it to your old speaker system!
Hackers in Residence - Hacking MindWave Mobile
February 26, 2014
Review, teardown, and hacking tutorial for the MindWave Mobile, a $99 commercial grade EEG sensor.
Prototype Wearable LED Dance Harness
February 8, 2018
A project tutorial to add an extra effect for dancers performing a choreographed piece. The harness can be added quickly under a costume.
WiFi Controlled Robot
May 2, 2018
This tutorial will show you how to make a robot that streams a webcam to a custom website that can be remotely controlled.
Sound Reactive EL Wire Costume
December 31, 2015
Learn how to make your EL wire costumes sound reactive in this project tutorial.
EL Wire Light-Up Dog Harness
October 30, 2015
Learn how to create a light-up dog harness using EL wire for when you need to take your four-legged friend for a walk in the dark.
Planning a Wearable Electronics Project
August 13, 2015
Tips and tricks for brainstorming and creating a wearables project.
Light Up Your 3D Printer's Bed
June 27, 2018
Having issues viewing your print in a dark lit room? In this tutorial, we will be using LED strips to light up a print bed's area on a LulzBot 3D printer!
Building an Autonomous Vehicle: The Batmobile
December 6, 2016
Documenting a six-month project to race autonomous Power Wheels at the SparkFun Autonomous Vehicle Competition (AVC) in 2016.
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.
Interactive LED Music Visualizer
May 31, 2016
Use an Arduino and the SparkFun Sound Detector to create visualizations on Addressable RGB LED strips.
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!
Using Artnet DMX and the ESP32 to Drive Pixels
March 29, 2018
In this tutorial, we'll find out how to use Resolume Arena, a popular video jockey software, to control custom-made ArtNet DMX fixtures.
Headless Raspberry Pi Setup
April 23, 2018
Configure a Raspberry Pi without a keyboard, mouse, or monitor.
Setting up a Raspberry Pi 3 as an Access Point
April 23, 2018
This guide will show you how to configure a Raspberry Pi as an access point and connect it to your local Ethernet network to share Internet to other WiFi devices.
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.