Electronics

Microcontrollers & SBCs

Microcontrollers are special purpose PCBs [Printed Circuit Boards], while SBCs are Single Board Computers.

Single Board Computers (SBCs)

Raspberry Pi

A family of SBCs

BeagleBone

An opensource SBC platform that includes several models of varying capabilities

ZimaBoard

A crowd-funded, hackable SBC

Orange Pi

a collection of Raspberry Pi look-alikes at a cheaper price

• OrangePi website
• OrangePi GitHub

Orange Pi 4 LTS

• OrangePi 4 wiki
• OrangePi 4 LTS on Amazon

Microcontrollers (MCUs)

RP2040 Boards

In 2020, Raspberry Pi introduced their first custom chip, the RP2040, first used in the RPi Pico. It has become wildly popular as the basis for a number of devices.

Arduino

Rather than SBCs, Arduino (and Arduino-compatible) boards are microcontrollers, suitable for robotics and other embedded applications.

ESP32 & ESP8266

Arduino-compatible, but also runs on MicroPython

IDEs

Integrated Development Environments

Cloud Servers

Some applications require online resources. Here's some.

Books & References

Online Resources for Microcontrollers

articles & tutorials

Glossary

a growing collection of terminology used in the SBC/microcontroller world

Electronic Components

Resistors, Diodes, Capacitors, oh my!

Electronics Tools

Breadboard & Perfboard

How to Use Breadboards

• Breadboards for Beginners at Adafruit Learn
• Collin's Lab: Breadboards & Perfboards

Where to Buy Breadboards & Perfboards

• Adafruit Perma-Proto 1/2 size prototyping perfboard
• Adafruit Universal perf boards
• Double-sided perf boards on Amazon
• Breadboards on Amazon
• Small Breadboards on Amazon
• Mini-Breadboards on Amazon

Computer Peripherals

Keyboards

• Folding Bluetooth Keyboard

Computer Tools

USB formatting tools

• Rufus
• Balena Etcher