TEST: 1on1 w/Martin - Electronics, Arduino, & More

How It Works

Schedule your 1-on-1 session to learn how to get Hacker Lab certified, grow your electronics knowledge, or just build something cool!

Martin offers a wide range of electronics based classes and projects, for both beginners and those wanting a bit more. When selecting your ticket, simply choose which class you'd like to take.

Please be aware: While we don't have any hard prerequisites for this series, we've left some notes where we think attendees might benefit from taking one class before another.

Martin can teach you (click to jump to description):

• Electronics & Electricity Basics
• Basic Soldering for Electronics
• Intro to Arduino and Microcontroller Programming
• Voltage Regulators: Adding Power to your Projects
• Project Class: Upcycled Bluetooth Speaker (2 parts)

Please be aware: due to the nature of the 1-on-1 sessions, we have a 48 hour cut-off for scheduling - you must schedule your session at least 48 hours ahead of the session. Our normal cancellation policy of 48 hours advanced notice also applies.

New in May: Double Trouble Twosome-Tickets! We've added tickets for twosomes! Parent + child (15yo+), partners, couples, or BFFs that just live together. Sign up for a Twosome-Ticket if you and someone in your bubble want to take the class together. Please, no unaccompanied minors.

See below for the overviews of what each class covers:

If you are an absolute beginner to the wonderful world of electronics projects, start here.

Interested in creating an electronics or microcontroller project but have no idea how electricity works? This class is for you.

We'll cover the basic concepts associated with electronics and electricity: what a circuit is, what voltage, current, and resistance are, and how they relate to each other. We'll give you a primer in the basics for making electricity work for you.

This course is a fantastic first step prior to taking our electronics based courses, and an ideal baseline for anyone who wants to get into Arduino/Raspberry Pi projects.

We'll Cover:

• Build a circuit on a breadboard (and explain what those things are!)
• Learn about current, voltage, resistance, power, and how they relate to each other
• Cover the design considerations involved in creating basic circuits and using passive circuit elements.

What to bring & important information

• All equiment and materials needed for this class will be provided for you.
• This class serves as the certification class for the basic equipment (variable DC power supplies, oscilloscopes, multimeters, and components) in our electronics lab.

Made an electronics project but want it to be a bit more permanent? Breadboard starting to look like a bird's nest? Solder is your friend.

Take this class to learn the basics of through-hole soldering. Beginners are welcome! This class is for adults, but children aged 15 and older are welcome to accompany their parents.

This class covers the basics of through-hole soldering including setup, using solder wick and solder suckers, and preventing cold-joints.

This is a hands on class: attendees will assemble a small PCB based project by soldering on through-hole components.

We'll Cover:

• Safety when soldering
• What a soldering iron is
• What solder wick is, solder suckers are, and why you'll definitely need them at some point

What to bring & important info

• All equiment and materials needed for this class will be provided for you.
• This class serves as the certification class for the soldering stations in our electronics lab.

Arduino is a microcontroller (small computer) platform that makes it easy for users to give their electronics projects a brain! Arduino is also a great starting point for those wishing to learn embedded systems programming. It offers a near infinite variety of uses including robotics, game controllers, and IoT.

you will write, compile, upload, and run a simple Arduino sketch to control the blinking rate of an LED. There is a focus on understanding the structure of the code rather than simply copying and pasting premade examples. You will learn how Arduino Sketches (code) are structured, how to read values using the serial monitor, how to control the IO pins, & more. By the end of the class, you should be comfortable enough with an Arduino to develop more advanced circuits on your own.

We'll Cover:

• The various types of the most popular Arduino boards, their features, similarities, and differences.
• How to write, compile, and upload a sketch to an Arduino board.
• Arduino programming code structure and basic syntax.
• How to monitor values in the sketch using the serial monitor.

What to bring:

• Hacker Lab has Arduino UNOs, Breadboards, & component kits, however you may bring your own if you like/have one
• A basic knowledge of programming concepts and electronics is helpful, but not necessary. Consider taking our Electronics & Electricity Basics class prior to this class if you are completely new.
• If possible please bring a laptop with the Arduino IDE installed.
• We do have a small number of laptops on hand to loan out, but have found attendees are more likely to continue their Arduino journey if they use their own computer.

We recommend you take Electronics & Electricity Basics or have at least some electronics knowledge (you understand what Ohm's Law & the power equations are, and are familiar with resistors, capacitors, and inductors) prior to taking this class.

A standard USB 2.0 host port is only required to provide 500mA. If you want to go much higher than that, you'll need to stop using a laptop as your power source.

Almost all electronic projects include a voltage regulator of some sort. What are they, how they work, and which one is right for your project? This class will answer those questions while building a simple USB charger capable of charging a phone, powering an arduino, Raspberry Pi, or a similar device.

We'll Cover:

• What are voltage regulators and what types are available.
• What power considerations need to be taken.
• Designing with voltage regulators in mind.
• Building of a very simple USB charger.

What to bring

• Yourself!
• We recommend you take Electronics & Electricity Basics or have at least some electronics knowledge (You understand what Ohm's Law & The power equations are, and are familiar with resistors, capacitors, and inductors) prior to taking this class.

This class assumes you have some electronics knowledge prior to attending. Consider taking Intro to Electronics instead if you are brand new to electronics projects.

Do you have a broken tape player, speakers you've salvaged from an old TV, computers, etc? Bring them to learn how to characterize the speakers, then design & build the perfect speaker box for them on our laser cutter.

We're going to leverage a lot of the tools of the makerspace to make this happen:

• Oscilloscope & signal generator use for characterizing the speaker(s)
• Soldering to put it all together
• Fusion 360 to customize & design
• Laser cutter for cutting the enclosure pieces
• Yourself to assemble it all

Important Info & What to Bring:

• This project is really cool but fairly involved, so we've split it up into two parts. Part I focuses on characterizing the speakers & configuring the enclosure design, and part II focuses on the actual assembly & building. Sign up for both parts separately.
• We recommend at least some familiarity with electronics prior to taking this class. Consider taking Electronics & Electricity Basics first.
• We recommend at least some familiarity with soldering prior to taking this class. Consider taking Basic Soldering for Electronics first.
• Familiarity with Fusion 360 (we have a free class on this!) will help you get more out of the class but is not required, the class will use a pre-made template that can be easily customized
• YOU supply the speakers!. Grab an old boombox, clock radio, or hit up the local thrift store to find something with 2 speakers. Goodwill, Eco-Thrift, & Deseret Industries are 3 local thrift stores with decent electronics departments.
• Common upcycle-able devices include: laptops with stereo speakers, old clock radios, old boomboxes, generally anything with 2 portable-sized speakers can be used.
• Please note: the listed ticket price covers one part of this two part class only, you must signup & pay for the 2nd part seperately
• This class does not certify members to use Hacker Lab's laser cutter for there own projects. Please take the Intro to Lasercutting class if you goal is to get certified on the lasers

Important information for all classes:

• Please make sure to arrive 10-15 minutes early and sign our general release of liability agreement.
• Masks must be worn correctly while inside the facility.
• Do not come into the Lab if you have a cough, fever, or feel sick in the past 14 days.
• While electronics projects aren't particularly messy, the makerspace is a shop and thus full of wonderful ways to get stains and dirt on your clothes. Please dress appropriately, wear closed-toed shoes, tie back loose or long hair, and don't wear anything you don't mind getting a bit dirty.