Chapter 1 · Book pp. 7–24
Getting Started with Tinkercad
ทำความรู้จักกับโปรแกรม Tinkercad
Tinkercad is a free, online program from Autodesk for learning electronics by simulating circuits (circuit simulator) and for 3D design. Because it runs in a web browser and costs nothing, schools all over the world use it to teach science and technology.
This course uses the Circuits part of Tinkercad: you build a circuit on screen, press a button, and watch it work — before you ever touch a real component.
1.1 Start using Tinkercad, online and free เริ่มต้นใช้งาน Tinkercad
🧪 Lab 1.1 · Open Tinkercad and create an account
-
Search Google for tinkercad and click Circuits under the result,
or go straight to www.tinkercad.com
and choose Circuits on the home page.
Fig 1-1Finding Tinkercad with a Google search for “tinkercad”, then choosing Circuits Fig 1-2The Tinkercad home page: click Circuits to open the circuit simulator -
On the Circuits page, scroll down to read more if you like, then click
Start Tinkering.
Fig 1-3The Tinkercad Circuits start page: click Start Tinkering to begin -
First-time users need an account. There are two kinds: educator accounts for
teachers and student accounts for joining a teacher’s class. For your own use,
click Create a personal account. Already registered? Click
Sign In instead.
Fig 1-4First-time users register; for personal use click Create a personal account -
Choose how to sign up: with a Google (Gmail) account or an Apple ID.
You only do this once.
Fig 1-5The sign-up page; you only need to do this the first time -
When registration is finished you see your dashboard. Next time, go straight to it at
tinkercad.com/dashboard.
Fig 1-6Your dashboard: profile picture, 3D Designs, Circuits (the simulator), Create new Circuit, and Try Circuits for ready-made examples
📝 Note
Tinkercad’s website changes from time to time, so the colours, buttons and layout you see may not match the pictures in this book exactly. Follow the same steps and look for the same button names.
🏫 In our class
If your teacher gives you a class code, choose Students, join a Class on the Start Tinkering page instead of making a personal account. Your circuits then show up in the class for your teacher to check.
The Circuits workspace พื้นที่ทำงาน
Click Create new Circuit on your dashboard. The workspace opens with tools for wiring circuits along the top, and a panel of electronic parts on the right that you drag onto the work area to build and test a circuit.
| Tool | What it does |
|---|---|
| Circuit name (top left) | Click it to rename your circuit; Tinkercad makes up a random name such as “Bodacious Sango”. |
| Rotate | Turns the selected part. |
| Delete (bin) | Removes the selected part or wire. |
| Undo / Redo | Steps backwards or forwards through your changes. |
| Wire colour | Changes the colour of the selected wire. Colour makes no electrical difference, but it makes a circuit easy to check. |
| Wire type | Normal, Hookup, Alligator (crocodile clip) or Automatic. |
| Start Simulation | Runs the circuit. |
| Components panel | The parts you drag onto the work area. |
Finding parts
Tinkercad has enough parts and test instruments to learn basic electronics properly. Open the Components list and choose Basic for the common parts or All for everything. The button on the right switches between pictures only and pictures with a short description of each part.
The parts library at a glance
To save you time hunting for a part, the book collects the whole library on three pages. Click any picture to enlarge it.
| Group | Examples you will use in this course |
|---|---|
| General | Resistor, capacitor, polarized capacitor, diode, Zener diode, inductor |
| Input | Pushbutton, potentiometer, slideswitch, photoresistor (LDR), sensors |
| Output | LED, RGB LED, light bulb, NeoPixel, vibration motor, DC motor, micro servo, piezo, 7-segment display, LCD 16×2 |
| Power | 9V battery, 1.5V battery, coin cell 3V battery, solar cell |
| Breadboards | Breadboard, breadboard small, breadboard mini |
| Instruments | Multimeter, power supply, function generator, oscilloscope |
| Integrated circuits | 555 timer, op-amp, comparators, optocoupler |
| Power control | NPN/PNP transistors, MOSFETs, relays, voltage regulators |
| Logic | 74HC00 (NAND), 74HC08 (AND), 74HC32 (OR), 74HC04 (NOT), 74HC75 (latch), 74HC93 (counter), 74HC283 (adder), CD4511 (7-segment decoder) |
Because you can try a circuit as many times as you like, Tinkercad is a quick, cheap way to test an idea before building it for real — and to make fewer mistakes when you do.
1.2 The breadboard in Tinkercad รู้จักกับเบรดบอร์ด
A breadboard (แผงต่อวงจร) lets you build a circuit without soldering: you push the legs of the parts into its holes. To add one, click the type of breadboard you want in the right-hand panel, move the mouse over the work area, and click again to place it. Use the mouse wheel to zoom in and out.
How the holes are connected
- Along the long side the columns are numbered 1 to 30, left to right.
- Across each column the rows are lettered a to e (5 holes) and f to j (5 more).
- The 5 holes a–e in one column are connected together; so are the 5 holes f–j. The gap in the middle keeps the two halves apart.
- The long rails at the top and bottom carry the power supply. Each rail is connected all the way along. The red line is positive (+) and the black line is negative (−).
- Hover the mouse over any hole and Tinkercad highlights every hole connected to it in green.
1.3 Start building a circuit เริ่มต้นต่อวงจร
Your first circuit is the simplest useful one: a battery, a resistor and an LED. It gets you used to the tools before the circuits get bigger.
🧪 Lab 1.2 · Wire up an LED
- Place an LED. Click LED in the panel, then click on the breadboard to
drop it in. You can change its colour in the LED’s settings. Look at the legs: the
bent, longer leg is the anode (+) and the straight, shorter leg is the
cathode (−).
Fig 1-15Placing an LED on the breadboard. The bent leg is the anode (+), the straight leg the cathode (−); the colour can be changed - Add the battery. Choose the 1.5V Battery, set Count to
3 batteries and Type to AA, then click to place it. Three 1.5 V cells in a row give 4.5 V.
Fig 1-16Adding a 1.5 V battery pack and changing the count to 3 - Wire the positive side. Click the battery’s + terminal, then click the + rail on the
breadboard to draw a wire. Make it red. The colour is optional — it does not change how the
circuit works — but it makes checking the circuit much easier.
Fig 1-17Start wiring: (1) change the wire colour to red for positive, (2) click the + terminal, (3) drag to the + rail - Wire the negative side. Draw a wire from the battery’s − terminal to the − rail and
make it black.
Fig 1-18Connecting the battery’s negative terminal to the breadboard with a black wire - Add a resistor. A resistor (called “R” for short) limits the current. Click
Resistor and place it so one leg is in the same column as the LED’s cathode and the
other reaches the − rail. You can change its Resistance in its settings; the book uses
1 kΩ.
Fig 1-19Placing the resistor; its resistance can be changed in the settings - Finish the circuit. Draw a red wire from the + rail to the LED’s anode (A). The
circuit is complete: + rail → LED → resistor → − rail.
Fig 1-20The last wire: from the battery’s positive rail to the LED’s anode (A)
1.4 Simulate the circuit จำลองการทำงาน
Once the circuit is wired, test it in the simulator and watch what happens.
🧪 Lab 1.3 · Run, break and record your circuit
- Click Start Simulation.
- The simulation starts at once and the timer counts up. If the circuit is right, the LED lights. Remove a supply wire and it goes out.
-
When you have seen enough, click the same button again — it now says
Stop Simulation.
Fig 1-21Running the simulation: (1) click Start Simulation, (2) the time running, (3) the LED lights, (4) click again to stop - Break it on purpose. Take the resistor out and wire the LED’s cathode (C) straight to the
− rail, then simulate again. Tinkercad shows the LED as damaged: with nothing to limit it,
far too much current flows. The pop-up in the book reads “Current through the LED is
322 mA, while absolute maximum is 20.0 mA.”
Fig 1-22An LED connected straight to the battery is damaged — an LED always needs a resistor in series to limit the current - List your parts. Click the component-list button at the top right to see every part in the
circuit, then click Download CSV to save the list as a spreadsheet file.
Fig 1-23The component list for the circuit, and the .csv file it downloads
Your circuits are saved automatically
Every circuit you make is saved for you and appears on the first page of your account. Click one to open it and test it again or keep editing, or click Create new Circuit to start another.
Chapter summary
- Tinkercad (by Autodesk) is a free, browser-based circuit simulator. Sign up once with Google or Apple, or join your teacher’s class.
- The workspace has wiring tools along the top and a parts panel on the right (Basic or All).
- On a breadboard, holes a–e in a column are connected, f–j in a column are connected, and each power rail is connected along its whole length (red +, black −).
- An LED has an anode (+, bent leg) and a cathode (−, straight leg), and always needs a series resistor.
- Start Simulation runs the circuit; the component list exports as .csv; circuits save automatically.
🛠️ Activity · Build it yourself
- Rebuild the LED circuit from Lab 1.2 in your own account and give it a name.
- Change the LED colour and the resistor to 220 Ω, then 10 kΩ. What happens to the brightness each time? Use the current calculator to explain why.
- Add a second LED with its own resistor so both light at once.
- Download the component list as a .csv file.
Check yourself
The book’s Chapter 1 is a walkthrough with no end-of-chapter questions, so these are my own, based on its pages.