Calendar

2026 Class Calendar #

Phase 1: Circuit basics #

Class Date Class topics Hands-on What to study What’s due
01 9/9 Course overview, introductions, kit contents Breadboard basics; power an LED with wall power LEDs; Prototyping; Voltage and current
02 9/14 Voltage, current, resistors, voltage dividers Voltage dividers Multimeters; Resistors; Series vs. parallel
03 9/16 Voltage regulators, capacitors, Project 0 intro Project 1 start; labs begin Capacitors; Voltage regulators; Videos for P1
04 9/21 Voltage regulators, Project 1 Debug your voltage regulator, capacitor circuit Voltage regulators; Videos for P1; Adafruit soldering guide P1 proto
05 9/23 KiCad KiCad demo PCB design; Kicad resources
06 9/28 PCB design KiCad Q & A; Soldering demo PCB design; KiCad demo videos

Phase 2: Motors and transistors #

Class Date Class topics Hands-on What to study What’s due
07 9/30 Transistors as switches Make a switch with a BJT Low power/high power P1 PCB
08 10/5 Intro to P2 (game v1), DC motors, MOSFETs Run a motor with a MOSFET Motors
09 10/7 Microcontrollers, CircuitPython KB2040 set-up KB2040 hardware; Microcontrollers; Solder pins to your KB2040 and bring to class P0 motor hubs in labs
10/12 NO CLASS (Indigenous People’s Day)
10 10/14 Digital and analog I/O hardware De-bugging challenges; KB2040 challenges set 1 KB2040 programming; KB2040 challenges
11 10/19 H-bridges Start building an H-bridge H-bridge motor driver P2 (game v1) due Wed. in class
12 10/21 Intro to P3, More H-bridge details More H-bridge work H-bridge motor driver; Intro and video for P3 KB2040 challenge #6
13 10/26 Motor electrical power, detailed PCB design Motor measurement; Run your H-bridge with your KB2040 P3 proto
14 10/28 Intro to P4, Motor mechanical power More motor measurement; P1 PCB test Solder components to your P1 PCB and bring to class Soldered P1 PCB

Phase 3: Microcontrollers and sensors #

Class Date Class topics Hands-on What to study What’s due
15 11/2 Motor modeling, PWM KB2040 challenge #7; P4 planning P3 PCB
16 11/4 Sensors, state machines intro KB2040 challenges, set 2 KB2040 challenges; KB2040 programming
17 11/9 State machines, Stepper motors KB2040 challenges, set 2 KB2040 challenges; KB2040 programming
18 11/10 Ethical considerations for lithium batteries P4 work
11/11 NO CLASS, but notice Tuesday, 11/10 (Veteran’s Day)
19 11/16 Raspberry Pi intro Booting the Raspberry Pi Raspberry Pi programming; Raspberry Pi setup
20 11/18 P4 demo and reflection P4 demo day P4

Phase 4: Driving robots with operating systems #

Class Date Class topics Hands-on What to study What’s due
21 11/23 Raspberry Pi programming Pi challenges Raspberry Pi challenges
11/25 NO CLASS (Thanksgiving)
22 11/30 Sensor amplification; op-amps Amplify a strain gauge I2C sensors; Sensor amplification
23 12/2 Oscilloscopes Oscilloscope sim; P5 Q & A P5 sensor amp due
24 12/7 How does the internet work? P5 work time Internet; Servers and clients
25 12/9 P6 intro P5 reflection P5 due Tues. night
26 12/14 Career trajectories P6 Q & A
12/16 12 to 2 PM - P6 demo option 1 P6 showcase, noon
12/17 3:30 to 5:30 PM - P6 demo option 2 P6 showcase, 3:30 PM
12/18 12 to 2 PM - P6 demo option 3 P6 showcase, noon
12/23 3:30 to 5:30 PM - P6 demo option 4 P6 showcase, 3:30 PM

Lab Calendar #

Lab # Lab dates Lab focus
1 9/9-9/11 Voltage divider & voltage regulator circuits
2 9/16-9/18 Learn KiCad
3 9/23-9/25 Solder your KB2040 pins
4 9/30-10/2 P0 testing, Control a motor with transistors, P2 help
5 10/7-10/9 OPTIONAL: Help with KB2040 challenges set 1
6 10/14-10/16 H-bridges
7 10/21-10/23 Solder your P1 PCB, H-bridge PCB help
8 10/28-10-30 KB2040 challenges set 2
9 11/4-11/6 P4 help
10 11/10, 11/12-11/13 Raspberry Pi set-up and challenges
11 11/18-11/20
11/25-11/27 No labs (Thanksgiving week)
12 12/2-12/4 Sensor amplifier
12/9-12/11 Labs shift to drop-in help sessions open to all