Description
Is Soldering Required?
When I’ve talked to teachers and students about electronic projects, I often get asked the question of whether soldering is required. Unfortunately, I think that this is something that puts some people off from learning electronics. I don’t think it should.
First, a lot can be learned through creating circuits that don’t need any soldering. Many of the projects in the first few chapters, and in some of the subsequent chapters, are designed to be made without any soldering. These are typically using solderless breadboards, but some can also be made using crocodile clips or with an inexpensive crimp tool.
There are, however, some components that are not suitable for use on
a breadboard, or that need a small amount of soldering so that they can be used with a breadboard. In fact many “breadboard friendly” components may need headers to be soldered on to them first.
The second point I’d like to make is that soldering is not as hard, expensive, or dangerous as some people have been led to believe. Chapter 10 explains soldering and will hopefully dispel some of the myths surrounding it. If you are still uncertain, see if you have a local maker club or Hackspace where you can speak to someone experienced in soldering.
Buying a Raspberry Pi
If you are reading this book then there is a good chance that you already have a Raspberry Pi. Since the Raspberry Pi was first released in 2012 there have been several versions. Some have had only minor changes, but one of the bigger changes was increasing the size of the GPIO connectors from 26 to 40. This was introduced in the Raspberry Pi B+ and the larger connector has been used on all new models since, including the Pi Zero and Raspberry Pi 2 and 3 models. While most of the projects in this book use only the first 26 pins, some of them do need the additional pins. If you don’t have a Raspberry Pi or only have an original version with 26 pins on the connector, I recommend buying a Raspberry Pi 2, which includes a quad-core processor, or a Raspberry Pi 3 with the 64-bit processor and built-in Wi-Fi and Bluetooth. You don’t need the extra processor power for the projects in this book, but it does make it possible to use the computer for other things. After all, nobody ever says, “This computer is too fast!”
The official Raspberry Pi suppliers are listed on the Raspberry Pi web site, but they are also widely
stocked by various electronics and hobbyist suppliers, so you shouldn’t have a problem finding a supplier.
Buying the Components
In order to follow the instructions, you will need some electronic components. There is no single kit that will provide all the items required; it will depend on which circuits you decide to make as well as the suggested variations. Details of the main components required for each project are listed in Appendix A. One thing that is worth stocking up on is a variety of different resistors. You may want to buy either an E6 or E12 series resistor multi-pack (see Appendix C for an explanation of the resistor series).
Most of the components are fairly common and can be bought from any good electronics retailer. There are several retailers that are specifically geared toward makers. In the United States, there are companies such as Adafruit and Sparkfun, and in the UK, two popular suppliers are Maplin and CPC Farnell. You may also want to look at Raspberry Pi retailers, many of whom have an increasing range of electronic sensors and other components. In particular, Pimoroni has created several add-on boards and HATs specifically for the Raspberry Pi. There are also international electronic retailers such as RS and Farnell or many smaller independent suppliers located around the world.
One thing about electronic components in particular is that a device with an almost identical name may work differently. It may be possible to substitute a similar product, but when a specific component is required, I’ve tried to list the specific part number to help find the correct one. Watch out for codes that are almost the same but have different electrical properties.