I would like to learn electronics AND programming

Jono

Jono

Jono

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Joined
18 Oct 2002
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Northallerton/Harrogate
Hi,

I already know how to program windows c# - not as well as I would like and I'm improving in that area, but one thing I never really got to grips with properly, sadly, was pretty basic electronics... I'd love to learn how to design and develop simple circuits to do stuff around the house (in future - with as little Frank Spencer factor as possible) - so I'm after some kind of kit, that includes a breadboard type thing, a bunch of components to get me started and most importantly, an interface to a PC, so I can program it all and make it run from there. I guess I don't have a parallel port on my PC anymore, but could maybe get a card. There's something at work I'd like to write a little program to control via USB or parallel (we have two silver boxes with a bunch of signal lines/LEDs on that do stuff - E84 test units) - however the softeware for them is very restricted in what it can do, and although I have a manual test unit that's basically toggle switches wired to a couple of 9v batteries and the an E84 interface - I can't test in "real time" at realtime speeds - i.e. 10ms to get the sequence going... because it's toggle switches and I'm slow.

So I'd like to write a little application that I can hook up to one of these E84 units, and do it semi-automatically - I just tell it which order to activate the signals in and how much of a delay between them.. But I don't know how.

Are there any kits you could recommend that would get me started. I don't want it designed for 7 year olds, but my knowledge of electronics beyond changing fuses or lightbulbs and making a 3 bulbs light up in series or parallel is pretty much non-existent. And I'd like to change this fact about me, that I am somewhat ashamed of :)

I'd love to develop in C# if possible, but C/C++ knowledge refreshing couldn't go amiss either :)

Thanks for any advice going :)
 
There's a good beginner electronics book called Make Electronics by Charles Platt which teaches you how to build circuits on breadboards and later on in the book you work with the Picaxe micro controller which is a cheap programmable chip.

The only thing is that you need to buy the componets seperate as its not a kit.
 
I would probably go with an Arduino based board, there are plenty out there and it is programmed over USB. The netduino allows you to write code using the .NET micro framework and C# where as a regular Arduino uses C/C++. There are plenty of tutorials out there for the Arduino so you should have no problem getting up and running.

See: http://arduino.cc/en/Guide/HomePage
 
If you know C# then the netduino is an option, but it does restrict your options as very few embedded systems will use such a high-level language.
A better option would be to look at learning C or Assembly as these are the languages usually used for embedded systems.
 
I have an arduino but unfortunately haven't done much other than the starter tutorials with it.

Like you, I have a crippling lack of knowledge when it comes to electronics which gets me down. I don't even know where to start with picking it up either. I guess the best route is to just progress through arduino tutorials.

Fortunately I can program well so thats one less thing to learn
 
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