

Ask HN: Getting hands dirty with electronics for newbies - SingAlong

I have been wanting to get my hands dirty with some electronics hobby projects. The recent article on Arduino Laptop interested me.<p>I'm a web developer and have no idea of electronics. I visited Beagleboard and Arduino websites. Can't make out which board/kit is the right one for me to start with. Any board/kit that can be programmed to make some cool stuff is what I'm looking for. (to build something like the Mini Arduino Laptop which can be related to gadgets even if they are not actually the 'real' ones)<p>EDIT: for a student with limited budget :)
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judegomila
Some projects to get you into electronics:

Building a 555 timer circuit.

Build some basic amplifiers.

Build some basic filters.

Building a basic AC to DC convertor.

Controlling stepper motors with your USB/parallel port.

Building an A2DC convertor.

Building a USB controller.

Connecting a Wii controller to your PC.

Build a basic robot.

Lego Mindstorms - play around with this kit.

Build CERN.

~~~
SingAlong
What's CERN? Googling CERN leads me to CERN an organisation related to nuclear
stuff. European Organization for Nuclear Research

~~~
judegomila
Forget the last one. Don't try to make that project for a while - its the end
boss.

~~~
bayareaguy
He could start small with something of the scale of Lawrence's first
Cyclotron.

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tesseract
Some questions to consider which will narrow down the available options:

\- Do you want to design and/or build circuitry, or just write code for an
existing board?

\- Do you want to have lots of peripherals on the board (e.g. blinkenlights,
buttons, display, ethernet interface, analog/digital converters, ...) or would
you rather add on what you need?

\- Do you want to make purely data-processing things, or do you want to
control something in the real world (like a robot)?

\- Do you want to do any audio or video processing?

\- Do you want an embedded processor (runs software), or do you want an FPGA
(acts like reconfigurable logic hardware)?

\- If you are going to be writing software, do you want to do it in assembly?
C? Something higher-level than that?

\- Do you plan on doing something complicated that you think will require a
fast processor and/or lots of memory?

\- Do you require an open-source compiler/development environment or are you
OK with using the board/chip vendor's?

\- Are you at all interested in working with analog electronics or do you plan
to stick to digital?

~~~
Shamiq
That's an intimidating list of questions, to me at least. Maybe something that
takes you through the motions first, then allows for some expandability?

~~~
tesseract
This looks interesting from the expandability front: <http://ucontroller.com/>
(N.B.: I have never used one)

~~~
SingAlong
Yup! that's expandable and sounded good. But LOL, that ucontroller it seems
has to be programmed by Machine Language. I got a hint on their tutorials
page.

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sown
Many helpful suggestions here:

<http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=149317>

------
tu
There are also lots of kits in the Make Store. (<http://makershed.com>)
Makezine also has a couple of older weekend projects about electronics. Like
this one about the arduino

[http://blog.makezine.com/archive/2007/09/intro_to_the_arduin...](http://blog.makezine.com/archive/2007/09/intro_to_the_arduino_week_1.html)

Or this into to breadboard electronics:

[http://blog.makezine.com/archive/2007/08/intro_to_breadboard...](http://blog.makezine.com/archive/2007/08/intro_to_breadboard_elect_1.html)

Or the introduction to oscilloscopes:

[http://blog.makezine.com/archive/2007/02/introduction_to_osc...](http://blog.makezine.com/archive/2007/02/introduction_to_oscillosc.html)

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kaens
<http://www.ibiblio.org/kuphaldt/electricCircuits/>

<http://www.ibiblio.org/kuphaldt/socratic/>

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jsyedidia
The following looks like a good starting point, with an Arduino tutorial, a
recommended starting kit, plus recommendations on tool kits:
<http://www.ladyada.net/learn/arduino/>

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Tichy
I would also like to learn electronics. You might also enjoy checking Adafruit
industries: <http://www.adafruit.com/>

She has a lot of fun DIY electronics kits. I figured I'd use them to learn
soldering and stuff, so I ordered some.

Also I still dream of one day creating a sleek case for Minti MP3 with 3d
printing and beat the iPod with open source hardware.

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jsmcgd
<http://hackaday.com/>

You might find some ideas here to inspire you.

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shutter
Wholeheartedly second this question. I've always enjoyed software, but I have
an itch to play with hardware too.

~~~
SingAlong
Yeah! I've always enjoyed watching people build simple robots too. Watched a
lot such videos on youtube and saw a lot of pics of articles on
instructables.com. I mentioned 'saw pics' instead of saying reading articles
because I dont understand what that guy is really saying... some OMAP3 some
7689 whatever. Really wanted to learn things.

I'm downloading the Intro to Robotics course video lectures from the SEE site
at <http://see.stanford.edu>

I just took a quick look at the descriptions mentioned below the video
lectures. Every lecture seems to be teaching some theory. I would enjoy the
theory part. But would be more interesting to build something as I learn.
Maybe be something simple like a motor programmed to move straight, backward
and make turns :)

Anyway, I found this link from the youtube video I watched
<http://www.societyofrobots.com> It's got no basics, but just enjoy the pics
and videos if you don't understand(like me).

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silencio
I was in the same position as you a while ago..some people I know were buying
some Parallax products and wanted to know if I were interested in joining them
to get a volume discount, so I got some of their products..I'm not sure what
kind of stuff you wanted to program, but I've done some small but cool little
toys and projects with their propeller and javelin microcontrollers - and they
had some intro sets too I think. Lots of extras you could add on like GPS and
bluetooth (for $ of course).

I've really wanted to check out the Arduino boards, but no time, so I couldn't
give you any sort of comparison I'm afraid. Might as well take this
opportunity to purchase one while I still remember, too ;)

~~~
SingAlong
Can you please list the Parallax products and a few projects that you started
with? Anything related to robots (to keep myself interested as I'm fascinated
with robots). Would like to start with simple robots that can move :)

~~~
silencio
Hmm, it's been a while, and I only have a dismantled bot right now sitting on
my desk as a paperweight..

I'm not sure I actually did anything with the propeller chips, but at Defcon
last month I saw a project by Kingpin that interested me (it's NSFW but the
website is at <http://www.bsodomizer.com/> , having to do with displaying a
BSOD/goatse via a hardware-based vga passthrough device) that I might use it
for as a joke on friends.

The javelin and basic stamp ones I used with the board of education (that's
what they called it I think?), the BoE bot kit. Mostly messed around with that
and one of the bluetooth accessories to navigate around (it's probably a lot
simpler than you're thinking it is). At some point I had the brilliant idea
that I could use my then-Pocket PC to control it, but that didn't go anywhere.
I wonder if my now-iPhone could handle that..

Depending on your wants, I'm not entirely convinced parallax products would be
right for you. The arduino boards look cheaper and I bet they're a lot simpler
to program. I about wanted to rip my hair out dealing with the BASIC stamp
from parallax since I couldn't stand the language.

edit: I might note my friends and family were way more impressed with the tank
treads I got (a lot more stable than the wheels) than the bluetooth. still
they thought it was cute I mounted a small iSight and a long firewire cable to
watch them in another room. iSight wasn't sending video to the bot itself, not
enough bandwidth. Although I do think parallax sells cameras that could.

~~~
SingAlong
www.iphonehacks.com/2008/06/lego-nxt-robot.html That link which I once
read(although I don't own an iphone) tells how to control a Lego Mindstorms
with iPhone.

I checked the Mindstorms website too and was confused what to start with. It
mentions all about Indiana Jones and Batman and Bionicle but nothing about
what should be bought to build these stuff.

Anyway, since you mentioned the Arduino boards (which also is the apple of my
eye since you mentioned it is cheaper), I chose a seller from Austrialia, that
is close to my country (all other retailers have websites in Japanese or
languages that seem like Japanese to me). Here's the link to the retailer's
Arduino products page.

<http://www.littlebirdelectronics.com/collections/arduino/>

Can you help me choose the components I can start with? I saw something called
"Bare-Bones Arduino Kit". Seems like I have to choose that. Or any other
components?

The one in my region is Flexi(India)
<http://www.techsouls.com/projects/flexi/>

They have been listed on the Arduino site as an Arduino compatible or Arduino
similar hardware. Would better if I can choose hardware here.

"...used to display a fake BSOD..." That BSODomizer cracks really me up!

Sounds funny but a really cool weekend project I can try out soon. And how's
that BSOD pronounced? B-S-O-D or Bsod?

~~~
silencio
Oh yeah, how could I forget lego?! What you want would probably be on
<http://mindstorms.lego.com/Products/Default.aspx>

Regarding the Arduino boards, I have no idea. I've never really looked into
them much. Others on HN might be better-versed on what to recommend based on
what you're wanting to do. One of the stores near me (unfortunately in the US)
has a starter kit at
<http://www.makershed.com/ProductDetails.asp?ProductCode=MSAK> which I've
bookmarked for later. You might also want to go look on forums and stuff to
find out more info, I was searching around to see what was making the bare
bones board different, and there were a bunch of sites talking about it, and I
found a bunch of projects on instructables too, if you need ideas:
<http://www.instructables.com/tag/keyword:arduino/>

I _love_ the BSODomizer idea. I cracked up during the presentation multiple
times: kingpin was showing video of using it on a coworker who thought it was
a real one. And I've always pronounced BSOD as "bee-sod", but I don't know. I
wish someone made a pronunciation dictionary of tech terms, I hear crazy
variations in the pronunciations of so many...BSOD, sudo, linux and what have
you.

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fozy
Add my vote to the Arduino. I picked one up a while ago, in the same situation
as you. There are lots of DIY projects that integrate the Arduino. Make
magazine (makezine.com) for instance has quite a few projects that are not too
complicated.

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ph0rque
Can't do much to answer the questions, unfortunately, but if you're familiar
with ruby, RAD (Ruby Arduino Development; <http://rad.rubyforge.org>) might be
interesting for you to check out.

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blackguardx
Are you interested in analog or digital electronics? I started out with Atmel
micrcontrollers in 10th grade and then my curiosity bloomed. Try to learn the
basics of analog electronics. Everything stems from there.

I once got a fortune cookie that said "Digital components are made from analog
parts." How true.

