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@harrisonqian / Young Builder Resources / wiki/hardware-projects.md
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--- visibility: public-edit --- # hardware projects you can build physical things, not just software. hardware is harder — debugging is slower, iteration costs money, and you can't ctrl-Z a burnt component — but it's more impressive because fewer people do it. and the satisfaction of holding something you designed and built is different from anything in software. ## my hardware journey each project taught me something the previous one didn't. ### mug warmer circuit - MOSFETs, RC timing circuit for auto-shutoff - ~6 hours of debugging: dead transistor, dead LED, dead capacitor (three separate dead components in one project) - also built a taser from a capacitor and helicopters from motors during this period - **the lesson:** hardware debugging means swapping components one at a time and testing. there's no stack trace. patience is mandatory. ### red/green LED status board - 3x5 multiplexed LED matrix on perfboard - first time using perfboard, first real C++ for hardware - **the lesson:** multiplexing is elegant — control 15 LEDs with 8 pins. understanding how hardware tricks reduce pin count gives you intuition for why chips are designed the way they are. ### ESP32 audio (INMP441 I2S mic) - **30 hours of debugging.** thirty. - the key bug: `setFollowRedirects` was silently dropping the POST body on a Google redirect. one line fix unblocked everything. - **the lesson:** hardware bugs that are actually software bugs are the worst kind. the I2S mic hardware was fine the whole time — it was an HTTP client behavior that was wrong. you have to be willing to question every layer of the stack. ### KiCad PCB design - learned the schematic → PCB layout workflow - figured out the correct ESP32-DevKit-V1-DOIT schematics (there are multiple versions floating around with subtle differences) - **the lesson:** PCB design is surprisingly accessible. KiCad is free, and fabrication costs $2-5 per board. ### Databox - full ESP32 PCB → Google Sheets data pipeline - sensor data flows from hardware to the cloud via Apps Script - made a project video + timelapse of the entire build - **the lesson:** end-to-end projects (hardware + firmware + cloud) are rare and impressive. most people can do one layer. doing all three is a differentiator. ## design engineering at school my school's makerspace gave me access to serious fabrication tools. not every school has a professional-level shop, but makerspaces are increasingly common — and community makerspaces exist everywhere. projects I built: - **magnetic chess set** as a gift — custom woodwork + embedded magnets - **wolf toys for a local zoo** — designed and fabricated toys for actual wolves - **circuits + micro:bits + servos** — small electronics projects that built my foundation - **Rube Goldberg machine** — the classic engineering exercise. teaches you to think about systems. - **soap box derby racer** — full-scale vehicle design and fabrication - **Boop boardgame** — game design + physical fabrication - **triangle puzzle, pen holder, puzzle box** — smaller projects that each taught a specific technique see [[design-engineering]] for more on the fabrication side. ## getting started with hardware the path I'd recommend: ### stage 1: Arduino - buy an Arduino Uno starter kit (~$30). it comes with LEDs, resistors, sensors, a breadboard. - build the example projects: blink an LED, read a sensor, control a servo. - this takes a weekend. you'll know within days if hardware excites you. ### stage 2: ESP32 - upgrade to an ESP32 dev board (~$8). it has WiFi and Bluetooth built in. - connect to the internet. send sensor data somewhere. control things remotely. - the jump from Arduino to ESP32 is where projects become "real" — they can talk to the internet. ### stage 3: PCB design - learn KiCad (free, open source). design a simple board — even just an LED circuit. - order it from JLCPCB ($2 for 5 boards, ships in a week) or PCBWay. - holding a PCB you designed is a special feeling. it's also a concrete artifact you can show people. ### stage 4: integrated projects - combine hardware + firmware + software. sensor → microcontroller → cloud → dashboard. - this is where you start building things that could be [[shipping-products|products]]. ## auditing CS140E I'm auditing CS140E (Winter 2026) — a university embedded OS course where you write OS components from scratch on a Raspberry Pi/ARM. you don't need to be enrolled to learn this material. the course materials and assignments are often publicly available. writing your own bootloader, your own memory allocator, your own interrupt handler — this is the deepest possible understanding of how computers actually work. it's the opposite of "vibe coding" and it makes you a dramatically better engineer at every level. ## tools and resources - **KiCad** — free PCB design. the learning curve is real but the tutorials are good. - **Arduino IDE / PlatformIO** — for programming microcontrollers. PlatformIO is better for serious projects. - **JLCPCB / PCBWay** — cheap PCB fabrication. $2 for 5 boards. a hobbyist building a basic IoT sensor board can have it fabricated and shipped in under a week. - **Digikey / Mouser** — component sourcing. good parametric search. - **EasyEDA** — browser-based PCB design, simpler than KiCad but less powerful. ## why hardware matters hardware projects develop a different set of skills than software: - **debugging without a debugger.** you learn to reason about physical systems systematically. - **understanding constraints.** memory, power, timing — hardware forces you to think about resources in ways software doesn't. - **full-stack thinking.** a hardware project touches electronics, firmware, software, mechanical design, and sometimes manufacturing. you become a systems thinker. the [[publishing-research|research]] opportunities are real too — hardware projects can become science fair entries, [[competitions-hackathons|competition submissions]], or published papers. and hardware experience is rare enough among teens that it stands out in [[work-experience|internship applications]] and [[mentorship-networking|cold emails]]. see [[tools-stack]] for specific hardware tools, and [[design-engineering]] for the fabrication and physical design side.