Appendix A. Materials

The following is a list of materials that you’ll need to complete all of the exercises in this book in their entirety. If you buy them all, it will cost you approximately $200, depending on which brands you opt for and where you buy them:

Edison compute module and Arduino Breakout Board

For this book, we focus on Intel Edison and the Edison Arduino Breakout Board. You can buy the set for approximately $100 USD at any of the following locations: Maker Shed, SparkFun, Mouser Electronics, Adafruit, Seeedstudio, and Amazon.

Two microUSB cables

Make sure to buy high-quality microUSB cables for powering the board; substandard ones (like the ones you often get for charging cell phones and other electronics) probably won’t work. MicroUSB cables can be found easily on Amazon or many other sites if you don’t have them already.

DC power supply

Any supply between 7V and 15V with 500 mA or more will do. You can find fairly cheap ones on Amazon that will work.

Breadboard

A half-size breadboard with power rails is probably the most well suited to this book. These can be found for a few dollars on Amazon. You can also purchase them from Adafruit, but they’re slightly more expensive at $5.

Male-to-male breadboard wires

These are probably cheapest on Amazon. Adafruit also sells packs in two different flavors: regular in mixed lengths and premium in just one length. They range in price from $6 to $8.

An LED

You’ll need to buy a pack because LEDs are rarely sold as individual units. Adafruit has heaps of them, and you’re looking specifically for a bare breadboard LED in a single color. You can also buy mixed packs on Amazon.

Resistors

A pack of resistors with any value from 220 ohms to 1 kohms will work. However, if you’re thinking about getting more seriously into building and making, try getting a mixed pack in a large range, such as those on Amazon.

Button

The cheapest and easiest are sold as a pack on Adafruit for $2.50. However, button choices are fairly limitless, and you can buy some really cool ones if you’re so inclined.

Potentiometer

You can buy a single potentiometer from Adafruit for $1.25.

Accelerometer

The specific accelerometer chip you’ll be using in this book is the MMA8451 sold for $7.95 on Adafruit. Accelerometers are one of the most widely used and basic sensors for embedded devices, which I why I chose them to pair with Edison.

SPI-driven display

Any screen that uses ILI9341 will work with the exercises in this book. I personally recommend the resistive touch shield (more on why in “SPI Screen”) or the resistive touch breakout.

UVC-compatible webcam

My personal preference is for the Creative Live! Cam Sync HD 720P Webcam, because it’s small and quite cheap on Amazon. However, Intel Edison has driver support for any UVC-compatible camera. A complete list can be found here.

Linux-compatible USB headset

I use the Logitech ClearChat Comfort/USB Headset H390. It’s fairly cheap at $25 on Amazon and has a mute button, which I find comes in handy. However, any Linux-compatible USB headset should work well with Edison, and cheaper ones are available.