Tutorials
How to Install FTDI Drivers
June 4, 2013
How to install drivers for the FTDI Basic on Windows, Mac OS X, and Linux.
Si4707 Hookup Guide
May 29, 2013
Instructions on hooking up to and communicating with the Si4707 Weather Band Radio Breakout using an Arduino.
Mario the Magician's Magical Lapel Flower
May 23, 2013
A guest tutorial from the astonishingly talented Mario the Magician showing how to put together your own servo-controlled lapel flower.
How to Use a Breadboard
May 14, 2013
Welcome to the wonderful world of breadboards. Here we will learn what a breadboard is and how to use one to build your very first circuit.
Firefly Jar Assembly Guide
May 14, 2013
Make a soft circuit firefly jar with conductive thread, LEDs, and the LilyTwinkle!
Getting Started with the LilyPad MP3 Player
May 8, 2013
The LilyPad MP3 Player is an amazing little board that contains almost everything you need to play audio files. You can use it to create all kinds of noisy projects, from MP3 hoodies to talking teddy bears. Your imagination is the only limit! This tutorial will help you get started.
Button and Switch Basics
May 7, 2013
A tutorial on electronics' most overlooked and underappreciated component: the switch! Here we explain the difference between momentary and maintained switches and what all those acronyms (NO, NC, SPDT, SPST, ...) stand for.
Connecting Arduino to Processing
April 25, 2013
Send serial data from Arduino to Processing and back - even at the same time!
Resistors
April 1, 2013
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.
Using OpenSegment
April 1, 2013
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.
Accelerometer Basics
March 28, 2013
A quick introduction to accelerometers, how they work, and why they're used.
Installing Arduino IDE
March 26, 2013
A step-by-step guide to installing and testing the Arduino software on Windows, Mac, and Linux.
Creating a Humidor Control Box
March 13, 2013
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
March 8, 2013
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.
What is an Arduino?
February 26, 2013
What is this 'Arduino' thing anyway? This tutorials dives into what an Arduino is and along with Arduino projects and widgets.
Soft Circuits: LED Feelings Pizza
February 13, 2013
Here we will learn how to say how you feel with pizza. Electric pizza.
Voltage Dividers
February 8, 2013
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.
Light
February 7, 2013
Light is a useful tool for the electrical engineer. Understanding how light relates to electronics is a fundamental skill for many projects.
LDK Experiment 1: Lighting Up a Basic Circuit
February 7, 2013
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.
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.