Electronics Projects for Beginners

Here are links to projects, tutorials, parts, and online communities to help you get started with electronics projects for beginners.

Daleks, however, probably would be a frustrating project for someone new to electronics.

Electronics projects are a great way to learn about the hardware part of computing. Obviously electronics involves electricity. But it also includes circuits, voltage, and resistance, all components used to build computer hardware. Electronics projects are also a great way for beginners to not only be consumers of electronics but, more importantly, to be able to build, change, and fix computers. You don’t have to become a computer repair expert to benefit.

Where can you get started with electronics projects for beginners? Here are a number of online resources to help you find projects, tutorials, parts, and online communities to help.

Electronics Projects for Beginners

Instructables: Electronic Projects For Beginners

Written by a thirteen year old, this article links to a number of small projects geared towards people new to electronics. Projects include a solar iPhone charger, how to solder, a solar cockroach, and a water powered calculator.
http://www.instructables.com/id/Electronic-Projects-For-Beginners/
http://www.instructables.com/id/Beginners-Electronics-Projects/

Five Beginner Projects that Work on the First Attempt

Links to videos showing simple projects, including a clap on clap off switch.
http://www.buildcircuit.com/5-beginners-projects-that-work-in-the-first-attempt/

Simple Electronics Projects for Beginners

Articles with reader comments for a number of projects, including a water level indicator, FM radio transmitter, and infrared motion detector.
http://www.circuitstoday.com/simple-electronics-projects-and-circuits

Electronics Projects for Dummies

No one who reads this magazine is a dummy, but this Dummies website has a great step-by-step set of tutorials for a coin toss circuit that also teaches the process of designing and building electronics projects.
http://www.dummies.com/how-to/consumer-electronics/electronics/Electronics-Projects.html

Makezine Electronics Projects

While most of their projects are not for beginners, this is a great site to browse to get excited about what you might do once you finish a few electronics projects for beginners. There are some really neat projects on this site.
http://makezine.com/category/electronics/

Radio Shack Beginner Electronics Projects

Really an overview article with some ideas on what they offer people who want to get started with electronics projects, for example, Engineer Mini Notebooks which sound interesting.
http://techchannel.radioshack.com/beginner-electronics-projects-1831.html

Electronics Tutorials

Ben Heck Show: Back to Basics

Key skills like how not to fry your projects.
http://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLwO8CTSLTkijrSW6DIFsQxcvjRo5fZ-y5

How to Solder

The ability to solder, using heat to fuse two soft metals, is a key skill for electronics projects.
https://learn.sparkfun.com/tutorials/how-to-solder—through-hole-soldering/all

Spark Fun Tutorials

https://learn.sparkfun.com/tutorials

Parts for Electronics Projects

Element 14

Sponsor of the Ben Heck show that features electronics projects, as well as an online community where you can get help with your projects.
http://www.element14.com/community/welcome

Adafruit

Focus on Arduino, Raspberry Pi, and Beagle Board parts and projects, with lots of tutorials.
https://www.adafruit.com/

Spark Fun

https://www.sparkfun.com/

Minibread

http://www.minibread.com/

Octoparts

A search engine to find electronic parts from many different vendors.
http://www.octopart.com/

Online Communities

Element 14

An active community built around their electronics parts business and the Ben Heck YouTube show they sponsor.
http://www.element14.com/community/welcome

Makezine

https://plus.google.com/communities/105413589856236995389


Author

  • Tim Slavin

    Tim is an award-winning writer and technologist who enjoys teaching tech to non-technical people. He has many years experience with web sites and applications in business, technical, and creative roles. He and his wife have two kids, now teenagers, who are mad about video games.

Also In The March 2014 Issue

An Interview with Ben Heck

Ben Heckendorn is a self-taught maker with high energy, an internet show on Element14 (The Ben Heck Show), and a wonderfully wicked sense of humor. He also inspired this issue of the magazine.

Circuit Diagrams

Circuit diagrams are maps used to design and build electronic devices. This article describes connections, components, history, and tools used to create circuit diagrams.

Electronics Projects for Beginners

Here are links to projects, tutorials, parts, and online communities to help you get started with electronics projects for beginners.

Zina Lahr

Meet someone who used her love of electronics to create deeply fun and personal robots, gadgets, and other cool stuff.

Version Control Software

Version control software captures an evolving snapshot of one set of code along with all changes in case older versions need to be retrieved.

Brackets, Semicolons, or Nothing, Oh My

How do programming languages know what to process? And in the correct order?

JSON

JSON, or JavaScript Object Notation, is an elegant way to organize data into key:value pairs and make web applications work like software.

I do not think there is any thrill that can go through the human heart like that felt by the inventor as he sees some creation of the brain unfolding to success.

How to Use an Electronic Breadboard

Electronic breadboards are used to prototype electronic circuit designs and projects without messy solder or hot soldering irons.

Learn More Links for March 2014

Links from the bottom of all the March 2014 articles, collected in one place for you to print, share, or bookmark.

Node.js

Node.js is a software platform to create fast, scalable web applications quickly. These applications also use JavaScript on the server and web browsers.

Non-Relational Databases

These databases are relatively new technology to store data in databases. Here are a few options to explore.

News Wire Stories for March 2014

Interesting stories about computer science, software programming, and technology for the month of February 2014.

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