Microcontrollers

What is a Microcontroller?

Small printed circuit (PC) boards populated with a processor, memory, general purpose in/out (GPIO) pins, a power jack, and sometimes Bluetooth and WiFi, USB and HDMI ports are called microcontrollers. They can be used for a vast number of purposes: educational, hobbiest, prototyping, etc. In short, a microcontroller is an integrated circuit that can run programs.

Some popular microcontrollers include Raspberry Pi, Arduino, ESP32 & ESP8266, BBC Micro:Bit among others. Each of these brands offer several models with varying features and capabilities, so do your homework before you buy.

Where to Buy Microcontrollers

These are a few places online where you can find a good selection of microcontrollers and accessories, in no particular order. Some local electronics stores also carry a few.

• Adafruit
• Chicago Electronic Distributors
• ProtoSupplies
• CanaKit
• PiShop.US
• MicroCenter
• Amazon
• Parallax
• Seeed Studio

Information about Microcontrollers

One of our members has a collection of links about Raspberry Pi, Arduino, ESP-32, etc. on Pinterest.

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