The DIY Maker’s toolbox: what you need
Don’t just read about making your own tech gear — do it! Darren Yates reveals the key tools and components you’ll need to get started.
There are few things in life as rewarding as making or fixing something yourself — not only do you gain new skills, but you’ll likely save money into the bargain. When it comes to electronics and making your own tech gear, it might seem pretty daunting at the beginning, but getting yourself a toolkit and learning how and when to use it is a good place to start. What’s more, it won’t cost you a fortune. Here’s what you need.
DIGITAL MULTIMETER
No electronics toolbox can do without a digital multimeter or ‘DMM’ for short. A DMM is used primarily to measure voltage across a component, the current in series with a component and the resistance of a component. Almost every DMM will do this much, but what separates them is the extras they can include. Ideally, you want one that’s auto-ranging — that means it automatically adjusts the scale to read the correct voltage, current or resistance you’re trying to measure (cheaper units rely on you setting the correct range). Get bonus points if it can read ‘true RMS’ voltage (many budget DMMs can’t) — this will be useful if you plan on doing audio projects, less important for robots. The ability to read frequency and capacitance is good to have whatever you do and if it has a backlit display, even better. Jaycar’s budget QM1321 is worth a look at $34.95.
HAND TOOLS
You’ll find you won’t get far without the right hand tools either. At minimum, you should have a pair of needle-nose pliers for bending and straightening component wires and component legs, plus a pair of sidecutters for cutting wire, component legs and whatever else. A pair of wire strippers for removing the insulation around wire cabling without cutting the inner wire conductors can also be useful. Jaycar has a basic five-piece pliers/cutters set for $30 (Cat. TH1812).
Screwdrivers are also incredibly useful to have on hand — for beginners, Bunnings has a 19-piece set by Craftright for $10 that includes flat-blade, Phillips-head and small precision screwdrivers. For basic hobby work, it should be fine.
BREADBOARD AND WIRES
You’ll notice that many of the projects we build in our Arduino Masterclass (and sometimes in our Raspberry Pi Masterclass) are made on breadboards, plastic boards with holes spaced on a 0.1-inch grid. They’re great for prototyping (first-time builds), as well as learning because, provided your components are all pre-soldered, you don’t need to solder anything. There are three sizes I use all the time — the tiny 170-point breadboards are perfect for DigiSpark and Arduino Nano projects, the 400-point boards for adding more components, while the larger 830-point breadboards give you plenty of space to add and experiment. What’s more, they’re cheap enough to be a viable alternative to making circuit boards yourself.
To make connections, grab some ‘dupont wires’ — these are wires with breadboard pins on either end, known as ‘male to male’. They come in lengths of 10, 20 and 40cm. Grab some 10cm male-to-male wires on eBay for around $2 for 40 pieces.
POWER
If you’re coding your own microcontroller boards like the Arduino, ESP8266 or STM32 series, these can be powered directly by USB, which can come from your laptop or PC. But when your project is finished, external power is the go. Assuming your project is complete and working, you can choose USB phone chargers or battery power banks — you’ll generally find these at retailers starting for around $10 each. Just be sure to understand your project’s power needs and don’t overload your power source.
MODULES
However, the fun really starts with the mass of pre-built modules you can find on eBay — everything from voltage regulators to digital-to-analog converters to environmental sensors for anything and everything. Think of a project idea and chances are there’s a module that can help bring it to fruition. Think of it as the electronics version of Lego.
An easy way to start is with an ‘Arduino Sensor Starter Kit’. These sell on eBay for around $40 and include up to 40 different sensors for measuring and recording light, sound, magnetic fields, flame, heartbeat and more. Remember, these need an Arduino microcontroller board, as well as library code to make work, but they can be a lot of fun.
BOOKS
If you’re learning electronics only from the internet, take extreme care. There is some good stuff online, but there’s also a good amount of rubbish and it can be difficult to pick the difference if you’re not experienced. That’s why I still recommend good old-fashioned books — a good reference text will guide your learning in a systematic way and help everything come together and make sense.
If you are a genuine newbie, Charles Platt’s Make: Electronics is a good start — you can get the first 49 pages free as a sampler online from tinyurl.com/ybd835bw (PDF). It may look a little quaint these days with its handwritten style, but Forrest Mims III’s Getting Started in Electronics sparked many an engineering career in the 1980s and ‘90s. It’s still a fun read and available online.
If you’re after some deep learning, The Art of Electronics by Paul Horowitz and Winfield Hill is an excellent practical textbook — you can get an idea of its depth by reading Chapter 9 free from the publisher’s website at tinyurl.com/ycm8gdyv (PDF). However, for some serious mind bending, try Microelectronic Circuits by Sedra and Smith. This was one of the core textbooks during my electronics degree and is now in its 7th edition. It’s one of the most popular electrical engineering textbooks written, but it’s pretty heavy on the maths and theory, so if that’s not your bag, go with The Art of Electronics instead.
THE ARDUINO IDE
Finally, if you’re planning on making your projects ‘smart’, you’ll need the Arduino integrated development environment (IDE) software. It comes loaded with examples, so provided you have a basic Arduino Nano or Uno board, you’ll be able to get started and learn to code. Grab it free for Windows, macOS and Linux from arduino.cc/downloads.
LIFE-LONG LEARNING
Technology today is driven by electronics, software development and AI. Grab any combinations of those skills and chances are you’ll never be short of job offers. Still, the key to long-term success is being a life-long learner — technology development never stops, so your learning can’t either.