About
Hi, I’m Nayan
I’m in high school and I’ve been into robots since I was little. When I started out, everything I could find online was written for people who already knew what they were doing. So I built the version I wanted back then. CircuitKid is a box with every part in it and a set of videos that don’t skip steps.
- Built by a student
- Real Arduino hardware
- Live help every week
Nayan, somewhere near a breadboard
The story
Why I made this
Short version: I got annoyed, then I built the fix.
When I got curious about robotics, I did what everybody does. I searched. What came back was datasheets and forum threads where engineers talked to other engineers. The tutorials that were supposed to be for beginners still jumped about four steps between “plug it in” and “now it works.” I was a kid who wanted to make something move. Almost none of it was written for me.
So I did it the slow way instead. Take a thing apart. Wire it wrong. Sit there until the mistake explains itself. It got there in the end, but it took far longer than it should have, and by then I was pretty sure the electronics were never the hard part. The hard part was that nobody explained it to a beginner like a beginner.
That’s what CircuitKid is. Every part you need lives in one box, and I filmed the lessons I wanted when I was starting, boring middle steps included. The course ends in the Inventor Lab, where you build an RC car out of a bare chassis and a tic-tac-toe board that plays against you. I run a live session every week, so you never have to sit there stuck the way I did.
Philosophy
How I teach it
Four rules I hold every lesson to. If a video breaks one, I film it again.
Build it, then find out why it works
You wire the thing up and watch it do something. Then I explain what just happened. A blinking LED sitting on your desk is a much better reason to care than a page of theory you have to take my word for.
No lesson stops in the middle
By the end of every video, something in front of you is doing a thing it was not doing before. Usually it blinks. Sometimes it drives across the floor. Either way you can go show somebody.
Real parts, not a simulator
You get a real Arduino and real jumper wires, and you will absolutely plug some of them in backwards. Good. A simulator that never lets you make the mistake never teaches you how to spot it.
Getting stuck is normal, staying stuck is not
I run a live session online every week. If your build refuses to cooperate, hold your wiring up to the camera and we sort it out right there. I would rather look at your breadboard than guess over email.
Want to build the first one with me?
Grab a kit and start at lesson one. Or read the whole curriculum first and see exactly what you’d be making.
Questions before you start? Email me at nayanrgarg@gmail.com. I read all of them.