Building the Freeduino

If you go slowly and carefully, you will successfully build your first computer. Even if you have never done this before, you can be successful. If you rush, and skip steps, and don't read everything carefully, you will screw up. When working with hardware, you don't need to be afraid, but you need to be methodical and organized. If you're new to this mode of working (reading directions until you understand them, proceeding slowly and carefully, etc.), this will be an excellent learning opportunity for you.

These instructions are most relevant to Freeduino kits purchased from NKC Electronics. We're working with v1.22 of these kits, which were received in January of 2010. Our build instructions are directly inspired by those provided by NKC Electronics.

Before the Build

1. Check that your kit has all of its pieces.
2. Set up your workspace.

You might note that the parts check has links to Wikipedia articles about each of the components. If you're fastidious, you'll read through those articles as part of your preparation, and make notes about the components in your lab notebook. Sketches of the components as well as what their common diagrammatic symbols look like would be good as well. This is one way to build knowledge and understanding about something new.

Doing the Build

Don't just dive in like a monkey that lives diving into things.

First, watch the build videos that Matt has produced. Matt isn't the worlds most accomplished soldering master, but the videos are short, cover the whole build, and will help you be prepared for your undertaking.

Second, open up the NKC instructions for the Freeduino build. Matt made his videos by following those instructions. Read through these instructions in full.

Finally, you're ready to begin. If you want to guarantee success:

1. Refresh your memory by watching the appropriate video before each step of the build.
2. Talk through what you're going to do with your partner.
3. Slowly, but confidently, carry out your assembly task.

When you're done

When you're done, you'll have a Freeduino that is ready for use. Head over to our quickstart documentation and get your new computer ready for use with Plumbing. You're now ready to begin exploring the amazing world of parallel programming!