Tag Archives: artciles

Measuring and graphing resistance with a PicoBoard and a thermistor

Graph showing the resistance of a ice melting over time.
Graph showing the resistance of a ice melting over time.

Scratch has long been able to connect to the physical world by way of a PicoBoard, which is an external device that plugs into the USB port of a computer or a Raspberry Pi. The PicoBoard (available from SparkFun–www.sparkfun.com/products/10311)measures resistance, sound, button clicks, and includes a slider control. In this project, I’ll show you how to use a PicoBoard’s alligator clips to measure resistance and just to kick up the experiment a bit, we’ll use a thermistor to measure the resistance of water as it warms or cools.