Hackster Classroom for Teachers and Parents: Getting Started with Electronics

We know the electronics and maker tech universe can be overwhelming, and it can feel like it’s impossible to figure out where to get started. If you are a teacher or parent new to this space who would love to explore projects with young friends, it might be hard to see which ones are suitable. Many either look like masterpieces or are extremely simple projects that really do not lead anywhere. Where can you make a meaningful start and work your way up without trying to learn too much all at once?

Today we are inaugurating our Hackster Classroom periodic column. We (Joan Horvath and Rich Cameron) are the founders of Nonscriptum LLC, authors of the Make: math series of books, 3D printing books for Apress, and courses on LinkedIn Learning (all linked on our site). Joan is a recovering rocket scientist with past aerospace engineering stints, and Rich is a 3D printing hacker who created the RepRap Wallace and Bukito.

We work with many teachers, students and homeschool parents, and we know that it can be hard to figure out how to get started with electronics and making. We will look into topics both practical and philosophical, and hope to get good discussions going.

In this first column, let’s start with some basics on getting started with electronics, from total beginner ideas through computer vision and AI applications.

Entry points

When learning something new, consider your goals. Do you want to understand a bit about the physics of how circuits work, or to increase your coding skills? Or do you have a fashion tech wearable project or backyard science data collection endeavor in mind? Is this a project for you, or to try out with your classroom or family?

Most electronics projects require compute power for controlling sensors and doing something based on what those sensors see. If you want to interact with the real world, you will probably want a microcontroller of some kind, a small circuit board that is designed to take data inputs from distance sensors, gyroscopes and so on and then use a response programming into it to control other real-world things, like turning robot wheels or lighting up LEDs.

A first decision is whether or not you want to learn about how to wire up these inputs and outputs, versus using microcontrollers that hide some of that detail from you. There are some products like the BBC micro:bit and Adafruit Circuit Playground Express that have, all on one small circuit board, a microcontroller, sensors, and several ways to interact with it. (We have another article about these two boards and their applications for educators.) This means that you most likely will not need to learn to solder or learn much about voltage, current, resistance and all that to try out simple projects. Many cheap processors even have built-in wifi now.

It is possible to do many projects with just the sensors and outputs built into a micro:bit or Circuit Playground. For example, these sensor-integrated boards are good to create wearable electronics, like a hat that lights up when you move a certain way, or perhaps one that makes a beeping noise when you point north. We have written lesson plans for creating a “wizard’s familiar” that will react to its “wizard’s” movements at nonscriptum.com/projects (and in our piece, “Wizard’s Familiar” in Make: magazine v.91).

Next, consider how much coding experience you have (or want to get). It is challenging to do very much beyond lighting up an LED with a battery without at least some programming. At the most basic level, there are drag-and-drop coding languages (based on the open source Scratch coding language for kids) that can let you do a surprising amount. Make Code is a web-based program that has variants available to allow block coding of the micro:bit and Circuit Playground boards. You can see examples respectively at makecode.microbit.org and makecode.adafruit.com. Both of these processors can also be programmed in Python, so one can transition reasonably seamlessly from blocks to text coding. A new tool called Microblocks was designed to make code run somewhat transparently on any of several different processors.

To skip coding entirely, you can also explore creating circuits out of a few components like an LED and a battery with conductive tape. Chibitronics has kits and projects that allow you to make circuits without having to go too far into thinking about voltage and current (but will get you started with that and coding). For kids, there is always making simple circuits out of dough (Squishy Circuits)!

Adding capability

The next step up from these entry-level projects is to look at the microcontrollers that have no or few sensors and output devices built-in. You are expected to build your own projects from components to accomplish what you want to do. For some applications, such as robots that move, you may also need to connect smaller, specialty boards with things like sensors or displays. Other add-ons interface with motors, or otherwise allow connecting more things than the board can do by itself.

There are some “ecosystems” of controller boards that have these daughter boards designed specifically for them, like the "shield" boards designed to fit over an Arduino board. These work with the Arduino Uno, and other boards using the original Arduino layout, but not newer, more compact Arduino boards. There are other ecosystems too, like the Adafruit Feather with its "FeatherWing" add-ons, and "HATs" or "crusts" designed to work with a Raspberry Pi (more on those in a bit).

However, if you do not happen to want to do something for which the peripherals already exist, you may not be able to do your project within an ecosystem. In this case, you can often find the component you want on a breakout board. Breakout boards typically have one central component that otherwise would be difficult to connect to your main board without designing it into the board to start with. This component can be an integrated circuit, or a port for connecting to a cable like USB or Ethernet. A breakout board often also has a few basic supporting components like resistors, capacitors, and a set of header pins, screw terminals, or similar connectors for wiring it up to other components. Larger breakout boards also often feature holes for screws to mount the board, because unlike the typical daughterboard, their electrical connections do not double as a mounting solution.

Arduino and friends

For more general applications, you may want to start with a microcontroller in the Arduino family. These open source boards have a large user community. There are many variations of Arduino. For example, some have wifi connectivity, some are faster or have more memory and ways to connect other things, and you will need to define your project’s requirements to decide what type you will need.

There is an Arduino integrated development environment (IDE) for writing code. The IDE runs on Mac, Windows, and Linux computers, and there is also a cloud version that can be used to program certain models from a Chromebook. Coding is typically done in the C programming language, although there are some block coding tools like Blockly. You can get started with Arduino by following the instructions on arduino.cc. However, you will need to understand how to assemble a circuit and the basics of circuit design, since you will be connecting up the Arduino to various other components, breakout boards, power sources, and so on. If you need to learn a bit of circuit theory first, you might check out the Khan Academy’s “Electrical Engineering” series of videos, or Charles Platt’s book Make: Electronics (currently in its third edition).

You can connect up your Arduino circuit in various ways. Some beginners start with alligator clips to connect things up, but these are tedious to use and tend to fall out or connect in unplanned ways and short out the project. Jumper wires and a breadboard are more convenient, but can become a thicket quickly. You can see many examples on the Arduino Project Hub. For some applications and peripherals, you may need to learn to solder as well. As a rule, components that need to be soldered will be a lot cheaper than ones that can be connected without it. The recently-introduced Modulino line of devices and software libraries make this a bit simpler for beginners.

Typically an Arduino will get its power from a computer over USB during development, but might switch to battery or wall power when it is being used (say, to collect rain data in a backyard). This might require some power management hardware and wifi or another means for getting data from the processor.

Raspberry Pi

What if the problem you are trying to solve needs a lot of processing power? Then you might need to step up from a microcontroller, which is really designed to take sensor input and manage output behavior, but not so much to do heavy processing onboard. For example, if you want to take a video stream and process it in real time, or take data and crunch it in a complicated way, a single-board computer (SBC) like a Raspberry Pi might be appropriate.

A Raspberry Pi is a tiny computer running the Linux operating system. A common application is to run a compute-intensive task in a hard-to-access location, like the OctoPrint software that runs on a Pi to help run a remote 3D printer. Or, a camera can feed into the Pi, which can then do vision processing with software like OpenCV or start looking into AI applications. Setting up a Pi is trickier than a microcontroller, since you need to load an operating system and otherwise set up a small but full-blown computer.

Safety

As a final note, particularly if you are developing electronics projects with kids, you will want to be as sure as possible that the boards and components they are handling are free of lead and other toxic materials. (And, if you are soldering, learn to use lead-free solder.) Look for “RoHS” or “CE” markings on components, which means they have passed European restrictions on toxic materials. Regardless, it is always prudent to keep food away from electronics projects and to wash hands when done working with components.

Now what?

In this piece we have given a high-level view of the processors available. In summary:

• The micro:bit and Circuit Playground Express are good for getting started and wearables, and can be coded with block code or Python.
• The Adafruit Feather is good for projects supported by its ecosystem, and need to be programmed in C (some models also support Python).
• Arduino boards are good for general projects integrating a wide variety of components, and also are programmed in C (some models also support Python).
• Raspberry Pi boards are good for compute-intensive projects, like vision or AI, and the language will depend on the application.
• If you are trying to avoid needing to design circuits or solder, you probably will be okay for most systems except with Arduino boards or specialized applications.

Of course, this only skims the surface and points out popular categories. To decide what you really need, you will need to think about what your project requires. Start small so you can see what is possible even with the simple and cheap processors, and go from there. Stay tuned and watch for our upcoming Hackster Classroom columns for more ideas as we get into details on hardware specifics, teaching tips, and more!