Sensors

Getting Started with the A111 Pulsed Radar Sensor

September 26, 2019

Get started with the Acconeer A111 SDK with a Raspberry Pi! The tiny A111 pulsed coherent radar (PCR) adds high-precision, cutting-edge distance measurement for speed-, material-, motion-, or gesture-sensing projects! We’re not talking about simple ultrasonic, or even infrared sensors here, but 60GHz radar!

Getting Started with the Artemis Development Kit

September 10, 2020

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.

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...

Getting Started with the micro:bit

September 2, 2021

The BBC micro:bit is a compact, powerful programming tool that requires no software installation. Read on to learn how to use it YOUR way!

Getting Started with the MyoWare® 2.0 Muscle Sensor Ecosystem

April 1, 2022

The MyoWare® 2.0 Muscle Sensor, an Arduino-compatible, all-in-one electromyography (EMG) sensor from Advancer Technologies. In this tutorial, we will go over the features and related shields to connect the sensor to a muscle group.

Getting Started with Walabot

February 15, 2018

See through walls, track objects, monitor breathing patterns, and more using the power of radio frequency with the Walabot! In this tutorial, we will explore Walabot’s features using the Software Demo Kit (SDK) on Windows and the Application Programming Interface (API) on Linux-based distributions for embedded projects.

Gyroscope

February 1, 2013

Gyroscopes measure the speed of rotation around an axis and are an essential part in determines ones orientation in space.

H3LIS331DL Accelerometer Breakout Hookup Guide

December 21, 2017

Hookup guide and library usage details for the triple axis accelerometer H3LIS331DL high-g accelerometer.

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.

Hackers in Residence - Hacking MindWave Mobile

February 26, 2014

Review, teardown, and hacking tutorial for the MindWave Mobile, a $99 commercial grade EEG sensor.

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.

Hazardous Gas Monitor

June 17, 2016

Build a portable gas monitor to check for dangerous levels of hazardous gases.

HIH-4030 Humidity Sensor Hookup Guide

December 6, 2016

Measure relative humidity with SparkFun's HIH-4030 Humidity Sensor Breakout.

HMC6343 3-axis Compass Hookup Guide

August 7, 2014

How to hook the HMC6343 -- a high-end, tilt-compensated compass module -- up to an Arduino. Never get lost again!

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.

INA169 Breakout Board Hookup Guide

November 20, 2013

How to interface with the INA169 Breakout Board to measure current.

Interactive 3D Printed LED Diamond Prop

April 19, 2018

In this tutorial, we will learn about how to create an interactive theatrical prop for a performance by 3D printing a translucent diamond prop using a non-addressable RGB LED strip and AT42QT1011 capacitive touch sensing.

Interactive Hanging LED Array

April 10, 2014

Learn how we converted 72 lightbulbs into an interactive LED array for our conference room.

Interactive LED Music Visualizer

May 31, 2016

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

Internet of Things Experiment Guide

November 23, 2016

The SparkFun ESP8266 Thing Dev Board is a powerful development platform that lets you connect your hardware projects to the Internet. In this guide, we show you how to combine some simple components to remotely log temperature data, send yourself texts and control lights from afar.

IoT Industrial Scale

October 10, 2016

What does a baby elephant weigh? How much impact force does a jump have? Answer these questions and more by building your very own IoT industrial scale using the SparkFun OpenScale.

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.

ISL29125 RGB Light Sensor Hookup Guide

June 12, 2014

A guide to help you integrate the ISL29125 RGB light sensor breakout board into your electronic projects.

ITG-3200 Hookup Guide

October 22, 2013

Learn how to interact with the ITG-3200 Triple Axis Gyroscope.
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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.