Student prerequisites are some computer programming skills, and a Windows or Mac laptop.

Preliminary Session Schedule 

Week 1 – Introduction to Arduino. What is a circuit. Basic components LEDS, Switches, Resistors. How to wire circuits on solderless breadboards. Load the Arduino IDE on students MACs or Windows PCs. Upload a sample C program ( sketch ) to blink an LED and modify the blink duration. Sense a push-button switch input. Demonstrate how we can use pulse-width-modulation to control LED brightness. Show how to use a multimeter to measure resistance and voltage.

Week 2 – Focus on controlling LEDs. Introduction to Neopixels. Introduction to Arduino libraries, example sketches, driving a single neopixel, a neopixel ring, various types of LED strings and tapes.  Understanding current and power consumption and the use of external power supplies.

Week 3 – More input and output devices.  Ultrasonic distance sensor, stepper motor, LCD displays. Discussion if I2C and SPI buses. Or possibly topics requested by class participants.

Week 4 – Soldering. Thru-hole components, surface mount devices on printed circuit boards. Desoldering components to salvage components or make a repair.  Solder-suckers, desoldering braid. Using heat-shrink tubing.
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Possible future sessions:
-ESP32 using the Arduino IDE, WiFi Connectivity, running a webserver on the ESP32
-How to design printed circuit boards and order them from China.