In this eight-part Build Your Own Datalogger virtual course, you'll gain the practical skills and knowledge base you need to deploy a data logger for real. Through learn-at-your-own-pace videos, Office Hour events, and resources, we will cover everything a beginner to Arduino needs to get started, from common terminology and components to programming, and all the way though piloting, testing, deploying, and troubleshooting.

IIn Module 1, we take you through the design flow we use when we design devices. This gives a broad overview of what the requirements are, how we prototype, iterate, test, pilot and deploy them. We also discuss the basic hardware and software blocks that are common to most devices, their terminology, and what they do. 

Akiba and Jacinta will cover:

• The hardware design flow that we follow here.
•  The ‘layers’ that make up hardware: physical hardware + embedded software + application.
•  A deeper dive into the physical hardware: MCU, input/out devices, ports, pins, analogue versus digital, peripherals and accessories. 
•  A deeper dive into embedded software: what libraries and drivers do.
•  Application software (what we’re writing in the course) and why we’re using the command line to start programming. 
•  Things to think about when choosing hardware; What questions do you need to ask?

Get Support - Join Our Community!

The best part of this virtual course is that you're not learning alone. You'll get the most out of this course if you join the live calls (and community group) and get to know the other community members who are learning along with you. Our community is super friendly and it's a great way to meet people who are exploring a huge variety of ways to use technology for conservation. If you need a reason, check out our Tech Tutors wrap to see some of the collaborations that have come from people meeting in our call chats. 

As you follow along with our modules, join our course forum where you'll be able to ask Akiba and Jacinta questions on an ongoing basis, help each other, and share your projects! This module's thread can be found here.

Coming up in Module 2

In Module 2, we'll cover the steps to installing Arduino and setting up the hardware, as well as writing our first programs. Ready to get started? You can find the next module here.