Kitronik Inventor's Kit for the BBC micro:bit

Jargon buster

Plain-language definitions for the technical terms used above.

breakout

A breakout board carries a small or fine-pitched component and brings its connections out to standard, breadboard- and header-friendly pins. Describing a part as a breakout means it can be wired into a project without soldering directly to the component's tiny contacts.

electrolytic capacitor

An electrolytic capacitor is a type of capacitor that can store relatively large amounts of electrical charge in a small package. It is commonly used for smoothing power supplies, reducing noise, and short-term energy storage, but it usually has polarity so it must be installed the correct way around.

LDR

A light-dependent resistor is a component whose resistance changes with light level. It is useful for simple brightness sensing, and an ADC board is needed to turn its changing analogue voltage into numbers a microcontroller or computer can read.

LED

A light-emitting diode (LED) is a small electronic component that emits light when current flows through it in the correct direction. Because it only conducts one way, its polarity matters, and a through-hole LED must be soldered the correct way around to light up.

male-to-male

A male-to-male cable has plug-style connectors on both ends rather than a socket on one end. This matters when choosing a cable because it must match the female sockets on the modules or boards you want to connect.

MicroPython

A version of the Python programming language made to run on microcontrollers. It matters because it lets beginners write readable code to control LEDs, sensors, motors and displays without needing to start with lower-level languages.

photocell

A light-sensitive component whose electrical resistance changes with the amount of light falling on it. It matters when choosing or using light sensors, automatic lights, or brightness-detecting circuits because its response speed, resistance range, and sensitivity affect how reliably it detects light levels.

potentiometer

A variable resistor usually turned with a knob or shaft to create an adjustable electrical signal. It is often used for inputs such as volume, brightness or position, so it helps beginners learn how a microcontroller reads changing values.

RGB

Short for red, green and blue, the three primary colours of light that are mixed in varying amounts to make a wide range of colours. In electronics RGB can refer to an LED or pixel that blends these three colours, or to a colour signal or interface that carries separate red, green and blue channels.