Learning electronics by starting with a micro controller project is kind of like learning machining by scratch building an overhead cam v-8 engine as your first project. You'd have to learn so many things at once. And typically those books skip the very basics of theory because people think it's boring.
You have to start way at the very beginning: Current flows in a loop with Kirchoff's law, then Ohm's law and resistances. Then with that you can design battery powered LED. Really if you can't connect a battery to an LED and not blow up the LED you can't do the basic Arduino blinking LED. Or if you do get it to work all you have learned is how to read and follow cookbook steps.
I see this in other fields. AI and robots is a big deal now, many books and You tube videos and so on. Most of them only teach you to follow cookbook steps and cut and past text files. Theory is boring so they skip it.
Most kids that get into electronics start out simple with light bulbs and switches and then find out about transmitters. Old guys remember vacuum tubes. Then some learn about computers, later you put it all together. Don't do the "later" as the first step.
If you want to learn about programming, don't buy an Arduino. Use the PC you already own. it is MUCH easier to program. It might be counter intuitive but larger computers are easier to use than are tiny ones.
OK, I cheated. I went to school and studied electrical engineering and computer science The university gave my years of daily lectures, books to read and projects to do. You can't help but learn if you do that full time every day for several years. then I worked in that field for 40 years. But I know so little about mechanics that last night I read for the first time a book chapter on the design of bolted joints. Yes something as simple as bolts and nuts. How to calculate the required size and preload of a bolt and nut? So we are all specialists. If we go outside our field we become very ignorant of even simple things.
But the neat thing about the Internet is that one person can design and debug something and publish the design. We don't need to be experts on everything.
What I'm looking for is how machinist should interact with their machine when the job is simple. Something like "bore a 2" diameter hole with a 3/8 end mill" or make this random scrap of aluminum plate exactly 2.000 x 3.500 inches rectangle. What does the machinist need to say? and what is the most intuitive and least error prone way for him to say it.? Those questions are independent.
On Wed, Mar 21, 2018 at 10:14 AM, old_toolmaker@yahoo.com [7x12minilathe] <7x12minilathe@yahoogroups.com> wrote:
Hi Mark,
Good job!
I wish I possessed some of your electronic skills.
I did attempt to make a start learning the basics though.
A couple of years ago I checked a book out at the local library "Arduino for Dummies" and it was somewhat interesting but I didn't buy a kit to play with, so I didn't learn as much as I could have. But at least I now have a basic understanding of what Arduino is and does.
Dick
Chris Albertson
Redondo Beach, California
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Posted by: Chris Albertson <albertson.chris@gmail.com>
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