miniTesla

This kit allows you to build a little pegboard that works nicely together with our spring contacts and sub-boards to construct electronic circuits on it. It is a neat way to incorporate electronics into your Lego project without having to use premade electronic modules.

The kit includes the following parts:

• 2 pieces of Lego 1 x 16 bricks
• 14 pieces of white Lego technic 7 x 1 half-height (thin) beams

This pegboard is 192 mm x 128 mm (7.6" x 5") large which is a bit smaller than half letter size and made from clear 1/8" thick acrylic. Additionally, you will receive four M4x20 mm long hex spacers made from nylon and four M4 matching nylon screws. These spacers function as feet for the board.

The board has 230 holes to accept our spring connectors and it can be mechanically linked to Lego bricks and Lego technic components. Please see the free miniTesla manual for details on how this prototyping system works.

With this kit you can mechanically and electrically connect a 9V battery to the miniTesla pegboard. Included in the kit are:

• a metal clip that holds a 9V battery
• 9V battery snap on connector with wires and alligator clips
• two M4 x 20 mm nylon hex standoffs
• two M4 nylon screws

The metal clip is screwed to the pegboard with the M4 screws and standoffs. Attach the snap-on connector to a 9V battery and insert the 9V battery into the metal clip. Connect the alligator clips to your circuit. By removing/attaching one of the alligator clips you can power off and on your circuit.

Please...

Note that this part uses our old raster spacing of 15.24 mm. We now use a 16 mm raster to allow a direct mechanical interface to Lego pieces.

The Raspberry PI GPIO board is the most convenient way to directly connect to an RPi, either by plugging the RPi GPIO connector directly into the sub-board, or by using an extension cable. An extension cable is necessary to connect a Raspberry Pi 400.

Note that this part uses our old raster spacing of 15.24 mm. We now use a 16 mm raster to allow a direct mechanical interface to Lego pieces.

The USB-C sub-board is a convenient way to get 5V power to the circuit or to provide a serial data connection.

Note that this part uses our old raster spacing of 15.24 mm. We now use a 16 mm raster to allow a direct mechanical interface to Lego pieces.

This sub-board accepts integrated circuits with a width of 0.3" and up to 28 pins.

Note that this part uses our old raster spacing of 15.24 mm. We now use a 16 mm raster to allow a direct mechanical interface to Lego pieces.

The most widely used audio connector is the 3.5 mm audio jack. With our sub-board you can easily connect headphones or a speaker. It has 5 pins: GND, ring, tip, ring-switch, tip-switch.

Note that this part uses our old raster spacing of 15.24 mm. We now use a 16 mm raster to allow a direct mechanical interface to Lego pieces.

A potentiometer, or variable resistor, with three pins labeled CW, CCW, and wiper. The wiper moves between the CW (clockwise) and CCW (counterclockwise) endpoints and therefore the resistance between the wiper and the endpoints changes with the position of the potentiometer. The resistance between CW and CWW is a constant 10k Ohm.

Additionally, this potentiometer has a built-in momentary pushbutton by pressing down on the dial. When pressed the COM...

Note that this part uses our old raster spacing of 15.24 mm. We now use a 16 mm raster to allow a direct mechanical interface to Lego pieces.

A momentary pushbutton. It connects the two pins only as long as the button is pressed.

Note that this part uses our old raster spacing of 15.24 mm. We now use a 16 mm raster to allow a direct mechanical interface to Lego pieces.

A set of traces for the miniTesla prototyping system. Included are:

• 2x 9 holes long
• 2x 3 holes long
• 2x 3 holes around the corner

Note that this part uses our old raster spacing of 15.24 mm. We now use a 16 mm raster to allow a direct mechanical interface to Lego pieces.

This pegboard is letter size (11" x 8.5") and made from clear 1/8" thick acrylic. Additionally, you will receive four M4x20 mm long hex spacers made from nylon and four M4 matching nylon screws. These spacers function as feet for the board.

The board has holes to accept our spring connectors. Please see the free miniTesla manual for details on how this prototyping system works. At one edge we added bigger holes and cutouts to mount pushbuttons, switches, potentiometers, speakers,...

These are the crucial miniTesla spring connectors. They are the connecting elements that allow mechanical as well as electrical connection of electric components. This package includes 20 of them.

They are inserted in 5 mm holes of pegboards about 1/8" (~3 mm) thick. They can be inserted and removed with your fingers but a better removal tool is a 1.75 mm (No. 0) crochet hook. Please refer to the manual for details.

To clamp wires use your fingers or our compression tool.

These spring connectors also fit perfectly into half-height (thin) Lego technic beams. One can construct a little pegboard purely...

This is the getting started guide for the miniTesla solderless electronic prototyping system. Learn the basics of how to build, develop, test, and disassemble circuits.

miniTesla is a new electronics prototyping system based on an ingenious spring connector originally developed by Philips in the 1960s. This connector provides mechanic as well as electric connectivity. We have further improved the original system by eliminating the need for carrier boards for discrete transistors, and by adding additional ways to connect components providing three layers of interconnectivity. We are also...