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miniTesla

miniTesla

miniTesla is a solderless electronics building 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 providing convenient interfaces to popular platforms such as Raspberry Pi and Arduino. For more details refer to our free manual.

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Bestselling Products for miniTesla

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$19.50
miniTesla
Raspberry Pi Pico breakout board by miniTesla

With this breakout board, it is very easy to integrate a Raspberry Pi Pico microcontroller into your miniTesla project. Simply snap an RPI Pico without any soldered headers into the Clipzin socket. A reset button is already on the board, as is a 4-pin female header connected to the default I2S channel with four connections (GND, 3.3V, SCL, SDA). You can, for example, plug a small OLED screen into this header.

This board does not include an RPi Pico.

Why not get this Pico breakout board to build your own Test Lab that includes all the important testing equipment an electronics lab needs: multimeter,...

$3
miniTesla
BNC Connector by miniTesla

A BNC connector is one common choice to connect a coaxial cable. It is often used in lab setups because the connection can be established or broken with one quick turn of the hand.

Because there are pins and wires protruding at the underside of the PCB, you can only use this sub-board at the edge of the pegboard. See the additional photos.

$9.50
miniTesla
Rotary Encoder by miniTesla

This is an incremental rotary encoder with a push button. It includes a plastic knob. Pressing on the knob activates a momentary switch. Rotating the knob creates the gray code signals at the outputs A, B, and C that allow you to determine the direction of the rotation as well as how far it has been turned.

These encoders are great for selecting among various possibilities. For example, they are often used to navigate through a multilevel menu. Rotating the knob moves you up and down a list of menu items, and pressing the knob selects the item and moves you one level lower in the menu.

$4
miniTesla
Screw Terminal Block by miniTesla

Screw terminals are very useful for all kinds of applications. They can be used to connect wire antennas, and are convenient in combination with Lego Technic pieces to connect the ends of coils wound on Lego coil formers. See the manual for further details.

$3
miniTesla
Header 3x2 by miniTesla

A female header with 2 rows of 3 holes spaced 2.54mm (1/10") apart. Note that each of the three contacts in each row is connected with the adjacent contact in the other row. Thus effectively you only have 3 contacts.

$3
miniTesla
Header 6x1 by miniTesla

A female header for one row of 6 pins spaced 2.54mm (1/10") apart.

Two of them can be used to connect 7-segment display modules.

$18
miniTesla
Set of 30 traces by miniTesla

A set of 30 traces for the miniTesla prototyping system. These connections can be put either directly below or above the pegboard and are mechanically secured as well as electrically connected with our spring contacts. You will get two of each kind. Included are:

  • 2x 9 holes long
  • 2x 8 holes long
  • 2x 7 holes long
  • 2x 6 holes long
  • 2x 5 holes long
  • 2x 4 holes long
  • 2x 3 holes long
  • 2x 2 holes long
  • 2x 3 holes in triangle configuration
  • 2x 2 holes + diagonal on one end (L-shape)
  • 2x 3 holes + diagonal on one end (L-shape)
  • 2x 4 holes + diagonal on one end (L-shape)
  • 2x 5 holes + diagonal on one end (L-shape)
  • 2x 2...
$3
miniTesla
Transistor Socket by miniTesla

Transistors can be incorporated into the miniTesla system without a socket. You bend the legs to the side and clamp them at the top of the spring contacts (see the manual for instructions). However, a more convenient way is to use this socket. It is a small female header with a hole spacing of 1.27 mm (0.05") arranged in two rows with 5 contacts each. The outer four contacts on each side are electrically connected, as are the two middle contacts. This allows you to insert transistors with leads spaced at 2.54 mm (0.1") or spaced at 1.27 mm (0.05").

$4.50
miniTesla
20-pin DIP by miniTesla

A 20-pin DIP socket for somewhat larger integrated circuits. This is the common narrow size where the two rows of pins are spaced 7.62 mm (0.3") apart.

Sockets for other pin counts:

$4.50
miniTesla
18-pin DIP by miniTesla

An 18-pin DIP socket for somewhat larger integrated circuits. This is the common narrow size where the two rows of pins are spaced 7.62 mm (0.3") apart.

Sockets for other pin counts:

$4.50
miniTesla
16-pin DIP by miniTesla

Many digital integrated circuits in various TTL and CMOS versions have 16 pins for which this 16-pin DIP socket will work perfectly. This is the common narrow size where the two rows of pins are spaced 7.62 mm (0.3") apart.

Sockets for other pin counts:

$4.50
miniTesla
14-pin DIP by miniTesla

Many logic gate chips and other digital integrated circuits in various TTL and CMOS versions have 14 pins for which this 14-pin DIP socket will work perfectly. This is the common narrow size where the two rows of pins are spaced 7.62 mm (0.3") apart.

Sockets for other pin counts:

$99
miniTesla
miniTesla Starter Kit by miniTesla

This is the Starter Kit for the miniTesla solderless electronic building system. It has over 100 components and a printed instruction booklet with 47 experiments. It includes all the necessary tools and components to complete each circuit. You only need to supply a 9V battery.

In this Starter Kit, we teach electronics by circuit examples rather than the traditional math-heavy approach. In fact, there is no math in the instruction book. We immediately start with small but interesting circuits and short explanations of how they work. This encourages experimentation and emphasizes a playful...

$2.50
miniTesla
8-pin DIP by miniTesla

Some of the most popular chips come in 8-pin, arranged as 2 rows of 4 pins, DIP packaging. Think about the famous 555 timer chip or dual-operational amplifiers such as the LM358. You can also find comparators (LM393) and audio amplifiers (LM386). You can put two optocouplers (PC817) into the socket. Some microcontrollers such as the ATtiny85, PIC12F1840, or PICAXE-08M2 also fit. There are H-bridges to control motors (L9110), tone decoders (LM567) that can also be used to demodulate AM and FM signals, and a lot more.

You are not limited to only inserting integrated circuits. Other component...

$19.50
miniTesla
Raspberry Pi GPIO breakout board by miniTesla

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

$14.50
miniTesla
Lego pegboard kit by 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
$9.90
miniTesla
miniTesla Pegboard by miniTesla

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 contacts and it can be mechanically linked to Lego bricks and Lego technic components. In the Lego raster, it is 16 x 24 large. Its shorter side is exactly half the length of a Lego baseplate which is 32 x 32.

Please see the free miniTesla manual for details on how this electronic...

$3
miniTesla
Spring Contact Compression Tool by miniTeslaThis tool is perfect to compress the miniTesla contacts to connect wires to it. Please refer to the miniTesla manual for details.

$14.90
miniTesla
Spring Contact (Package of 20) by miniTesla

These are the crucial miniTesla spring contacts. 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 contacts also fit perfectly into half-height (thin) Lego technic beams. One can construct a little pegboard purely from thin Lego...

Displaying 1 to 19 (of 19 products)