

Ask HN: How to start creating stuff with Arduino? - bitboxer

I have bought the arduino starter kit by fritzing ( http://fritzing.org/shop/starter-kit/ ) and played a little bit with it. Now I want to know how to create own circuits. How do I know what to put where? I know how to code, but are there tutorials on creating circuits out there I can read?
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atomical
<http://www.ladyada.net/learn/arduino/>

I used these tutorials to get started.

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bitboxer
This is good. Teaching about electronics with adruino. Exactly what I needed.

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kersny
Here are the answers to a similar question on StackOverflow a while back:
[http://stackoverflow.com/questions/1690284/getting-
started-w...](http://stackoverflow.com/questions/1690284/getting-started-with-
arduino/)

(Mine's the top one...)

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dholowiski
I don't know if they're still available, but the Forrest Mims electronics
books that they used to sell at radio shack are absolutely awesome, teach
theory and have tons of simple (and not so simple) circuits you can build.
They're mostly analog though, digital is much easier, just connect a few parts
together and then it's all code.

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SingAlong
There's a bunch of good Arduino tutorials here with nice pics too
<http://itp.nyu.edu/physcomp/Tutorials/Tutorials>

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ehsanul
Concise electronics for geeks: <http://lcamtuf.coredump.cx/electronics/>

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bitboxer
Thanks! Great link with tons of details.

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rick_2047
I still do not get the point of an Arduino though. Its just an avr board with
supporting circuitry. If you know C, picking up on avr-gcc is a day or twos
job. Where was the need to have the new language? Where did all the hype came
from?

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bitboxer
It's targeted at Beginners (Developers and Artists) who want to start getting
into creating electronic stuff. And it's great for that target audience
(including me ;) ).

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rick_2047
I started using atmega32 controllers before college. I had some prior C
experience but nothing with controllers. I found it very easy to learn it that
way, why can't people pick it up that way? Why is arduino better?

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bitboxer
It's easier to start with a board that is ready for you to use. Hook it onto a
usb port, start the app and add everything you want to build on a breadboard.
No soldering no nothing. From 0 to blinking LEDs in 5 Minutes.

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rick_2047
But when you do that you miss out on important concepts which you should know.
Its not always necessary to get an app working. I do this to learn, and by
skipping steps I am skipping concepts.

But then again, in my native language you say "जैसी जिसकी सोच" (everybody
thinks different).

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SingAlong
Each person has his own way of learning. You seem to be forcing your
perspective on others.

Bitboxer is dead on with his facts. IMHO there's a lot more fun in getting
something working quickly without much setup/learning. And there are people
who like it that way (I belong to that group for sure).

It's like asking why use Heroku or AppEngine when you can maintain your own
VPS. Because it's easier. Doesn't mean skipping using your own VPS will do you
bad.

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rick_2047
_You seem to be forcing your perspective on others._

I did no such thing, I said at the last comment that I believe everybody
thinks different. All I am trying to do is understand what exactly are they
thinking.

Edit: Also, while I may use Heroku (I actually did) or appengine, I wouldn't
go straight to rails before learning some basics about what exactly is a
website.

Blinking the led must come after learning what exactly is the LED. I am not
saying learn all of the semiconductor theory but a small description in your
head would be good.

