What is in the box
The box holds four families of part and no program. Here is what each kind does, how to spot it by eye, which ones have a way round, and what you have to bring.
Kinds of part, not a count
This chapter names the kinds of part in the box and does not count them. The store listing's picture and its text disagree on the number of some parts, and a box that has been used for a month holds fewer than either. Every experiment says what kind of part it needs, and never more than a handful.
The parts come in four families. Pick one below, then pick a part inside it: the drawing is the size you hold it at, and the line under it says what it does and how to spot it.
The loop every circuit is
A circuit is a closed loop, and every part in the box has one of four jobs in it. The power module supplies. A resistor limits how much current flows. An LED, or a motor, or a buzzer, does the work. A button, or later a transistor, controls whether the loop is closed.
Press the button in the drawing and release it. With the loop open there is no current anywhere in it, even though the supply is still on and every wire still touches its neighbour. That is the whole idea of a switch, and it is why a wire left off a breadboard hole leaves a circuit dead rather than half-working.
Which way round
Some parts work the same whichever way they are connected. Others have a plus and a minus, or three legs with three different jobs, and put in backwards they do nothing at best and fail at worst.
The rule is to look for a mark. A stripe, a band, a flat cut, a long leg, or the word plus or minus printed beside a pin is the part telling you it has a way round. A part with no mark and two identical legs, like a resistor, does not. The next article is about finding the marks.
What is not in the box
Four things people expect to find are not in it. The first three matter because the handbook assumes you have them or can do without.
The power module takes its power from USB-C, so the handbook never needs a battery. It is the standard breadboard power adapter, and its own handbook explains the fuse, the diode and which way round it plugs into the breadboard. Power from the adapter says only what the first experiments need.
When it does not work
Go by what is in your box. The listing's picture and its text give different counts for some parts, and a box that has been used for a month has fewer again. No circuit in this handbook needs more than a handful of any one kind, so a half-empty compartment is not a problem.
The transistor and the MOSFET are the same small black half-round with three legs, and only the print on the flat face tells them apart. If the print has worn off, the meter does it in six touches: the next chapters show how.
No. Everything in this handbook runs from the power module, and every circuit is checked with a meter. A microcontroller comes later, and these parts work with any 3.3 V or 5 V board, including Arduino-compatible and ESP32 boards.
Resistors, LEDs, diodes and the two sensors often carry nothing readable. That is normal, and it is why the third article in this chapter is about identifying a part with the meter.
The bands on a resistor, the code on a capacitor and the stripe, flat or band that says which way round.
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Electronics Starter Kit, Breadboard, Power Module and Components
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