Frequently Asked Questions

Not to be confused with our frequently questioned answers, which we refuse to elaborate on.

How do I join?

As of now (9 Jan 23), the class is full and we are not able to take any more students. Thanks for your interest though!

There’s two ways to join the class, either with a labkit, or without.

With Labkit:

You’ll be given a PCB and components to build a bluetooth speaker. You’ll also be given a spot in our Altium 365 Workspace, along with a Design Review slot with our LAs where we’ll look at your board design.

Registration for this option has now closed, but we have a waitlist! Email us by January 8th if you’d like to be added to it! Registration for this option will be finalized by January 9th at noon. If you’re in this option, you’re eligible to obtain 6 units academic credit for the course by registering for either 6.S092 or EC.S03 - whichever course number your prefer.

If you register for either 6.S092 or EC.S03 with the registrar and choose the normal, for-credit grading option - this does not automatically make you get a labkit! To get academic credit for the course you have to get a Labkit, and be registered for either 6.S092 or EC.S03 with normal, for-credit grading.
If you're getting a labkit, you've probably already been emailed letting you know as such.

Without Labkit:

You won’t be given a PCB, components, or a slot for a Design Review. However, all of our course materials are publicly available! Feel free to follow along at home and complete the assignments and watch the lectures along with the rest of the class.

If you have access to MIT’s campus under the Institute’s Building Access Policy you’re more than welcome to join us for lectures!

Also feel free to register as a listener for either 6.S092 or EC.S03 if you’d like - it’ll just make the class show up on your Grade Report, but it won’t be visible on your transcript or grant you access to any course materials you wouldn’t already have.

How do you use the IAP Events Calendar?

We don’t check the events calendar for any registration info - if you’re marked as interested on that calendar that’s great, but we’ll have you play by the same rules as the with/without labkit bit described above.

Can I use a CAD tool other than Altium?

Sure! We’ve chosen Altium just because it’s what we’re most familar with and has some convenient features, but you’re more than welcome to follow along in KiCad, Eagle, Cadence, or whatever you’d like - we’re teaching PCB design, and we don’t care too much about what tool you use. The course staff won’t be able to help you with these tools as much, we’re just not as familiar with them.

Can I use the course materials for my own purposes?

Broadly speaking, yes! The course content is released under a Creative Commons license (you can see it on the banner below) and you’re welcome to use it for whatever you’d like. The various bits of firmware we use are open-source, released under the licenses described on their GitHub pages. The only closed-source part of the course is Altium.

If you’d like to use our class for your purposes, let us know! We’d be super curious to know what you’re up to and if we can help you.