Curated Links

Many of these books will likely be available at your school or local library.

• Getting Started with Arduino
• Getting Started with the Photon
• Learning the Art of Electronics - A Hands-On Lab Course
• Arduino Cookbook by Michael Margolis
• Making Things Talk by Tom Igoe
• Getting Started with the Internet of Things by Cuno Pfister
• Make: Electronics by Charles Platt
• Make: More Electronics by Charles Platt
• Encyclopedia of Electronic Components Vol 1 by Charles Platt
• Practical Electronics for Inventors, 3rd Edition by Paul Scherz & Simon Monk
• Make: Sensors by Tero Karvinen, Kimmo Karvinen, Ville Valtokari
• Digital Circuits. An introduction to digital electronics.

Online links to other teaching repositories:

• Introduction to the Arduino
• Tinkering Project Resources - thanks Abigail!
• Adafruit Learning System
• Sparkfun Learn
• Bildr
• Jeelabs
• New Media Artist by Ken Rinaldo, who generously donated this huge online resource to artists, inventors and experimenters.
• Electrical Education: Science Lessons and Activities (Thanks Tom Coner!)

• Impedance matching
• 2D LIDAR with the VL53L1X

Circuits and movings parts need a bit of help to get mounted and/or articulated.

Here's a list of handy diagrams, images on how certain mechanical linkages and contraptions might be constructed. Many of them can be prototyped easily with a laser cutter, and could form the basis for building more robust versions.

• So I heard you like interesting mechanisms
• More interesting mechanisms
• Cams
• Living lattice hinges
• Rack and pinion articulation

Steppers can be confusing initially, due to different number of wires coming out from these things. These links should help to demystify them:

Cable colour codes (typical) for 4-wire steppers:

Seeing weird colours on your stepper? Refer to its datasheet!

• What Is The Difference Between 4-Wire, 6-Wire, and 8-Wire Stepper Motors?
• How Do I Use a 6-Wire Stepper Motor With My Stepper Motor Drive?
• Which wire is which? (covers most types)
• Which wire is which? (bipolar steppers, further reading)
• Which wire is which? (unipolar steppers, further reading)
• How To Decrease Noise on Your Stepper Motor Driver

Modifying the super-cheap 28BYJ48 5V stepper motor into a bipolar stepper (so that it works with an Easydriver or other modern bipolar stepper motor driver board):

When making things, you'll need materials, general parts, fasteners, and perhaps mechanical components such as gears, shafts, etc:

• RS Online – massive selection of ICs and other parts, you'll need to know what you are looking for
• Element14 – similar to RS Online (you'll need to know what you are looking for)
• Digi-Key – similar to RS Online (you'll need to know what you are looking for)
• McMaster-Carr – North American resource and first destination for sourcing all things mechanical (imperial units)
• Misumi – Similar to McMaster-Carr, but metric
• Carbon Fiber – carbon fiber is sometimes a handy material to work with so long as you understand it's properties. Wear proper PPE when working with carbon fiber – carbon dust is not exactly a good thing to breathe in, and be sure to clean work surfaces after you are done. Carbon fiber can be electrically conductive.

These suppliers sell interesting 'DIY-grade' components, breakout boards for sensors, sensors, actuators and other relatively affordable parts that are useful in evaluating hardware. Aussie resellers import most of their stock from the folks listed in the World section.

Australia:

• Little Bird Electronics
• Pakronics
• Core Electronics
• Freetronics
• Robotgear

World:

• Adafruit Industries
• Sparkfun
• Pololu
• Seeed Studio
• Particle
• Slim servos?
• A great hobby servo catalogue & online store