Tutorials

How to hook up and use the OpenSegment display shield. The OpenSegment is the big brother to the Serial 7-Segment Display. They run on the same firmware, however the OpenSegment is about twice as big.

A tutorial on all things resistors. What is a resistor, how do they behave in parallel/series, decoding the resistor color codes, and resistor applications.

A quick introduction to accelerometers, how they work, and why they're used.

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

Because some of our boards need to be re-humidified after reflow, we decided to make our own humidor. This tutorial will focus on how to model a project in 3D and then fabricate it using a CNC routing machine.

The Uncertain 7-Cube is a non-committal, less-than-helpful, but also entirely honest fortune teller. Simply ask it a yes or no question, give it a nudge, and the 7-Cube will dutifully inform you that it doesn’t have all the facts and doesn’t feel comfortable making a guess.

How SparkFun assembles SMD electronics.

An introduction to the concept of Pulse Width Modulation.

What is this 'Arduino' thing anyway? This tutorials dives into what an Arduino is and along with Arduino projects and widgets.

Here we will learn how to say how you feel with pizza. Electric pizza.

Turn a large voltage into a smaller one with voltage dividers. This tutorial covers: what a voltage divider circuit looks like and how it is used in the real world.

How to strip, crimp, and work with wire.

Light is a useful tool for the electrical engineer. Understanding how light relates to electronics is a fundamental skill for many projects.

The first experiment in the LilyPad Design Kit series. In this exercise, you will learn how a basic e-textiles circuit works, and light up a sewable LED using a coin cell battery holder and conductive thread.

A tutorial to help figure out the power requirements of your project.

The world is analog. Use analog to digital conversion to help digital devices interpret the world.

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?

This tutorial explains how common infrared (IR) communication works, as well as shows you how to set up a simple IR transmitter and receiver with an Arduino.

Every electrical project starts with a circuit. Don't know what a circuit is? We're here to help.

The basics behind the batteries used in portable electronic devices: LiPo, NiMH, coin cells, and alkaline.

Learn about Ohm's Law, one of the most fundamental equations in all electrical engineering.

A quick introduction to pull-up resistors - whey they're important, and how/when to use them.

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

Music Box Project based on the Dr. Who TARDIS.