mos6507's Blog

Step 1. Contact local community college and have a course catalog sent to you.

Step 2. ???

Step 3. Profit!

Step 1. Contact local community college and have a course catalog sent to you.

Step 2. ???

Step 3. Profit!

I watch South Park too.

Heh. Actually, I don't watch South Park; that meme (if I can use one of them hep buzz words) has spread even to me.

I'm (still) very interested in doing this myself. I'd love to learn the material simply to better maintain my collection of old hardware and to design my own upgrades from time to time. Up to now, I've had to rely on project write-ups on the Internet from those few people who bother to document their projects step by step, but they're often either incorrect or not exactly what I need. My university does offer a "Technology" degree, but I get the impression that it's more oriented to industrial engineering rather than electrical engineering, so I haven't pursued that option.

 

I did start a topic asking much the same question about three years ago, and I got lots of good advice, but I've been too busy working on my degrees to put it into practice. Here's a direct link if it would be helpful:

 

http://www.atariage.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=75148

I'm on this path too.

 

Been doing systems and software Application Engineering for too long. As I get older, kids leave the nest, etc... it's gonna be time to change things up. Won't have the big monthly nut, and more time. Some of that is gonna go to my wife and I doing somethings we want to do, but the rest is largely up for grabs. I've wanted to get back to more electronics stuff, ever since leaving it for the software path as a kid.

 

Today, there is so much easy tech to work with! It's hard not to just go grab a bunch of stuff and just jump in! Lots of things are possible --more possible now than they have been in the past, IMHO. If you don't abuse it, many of these companies will send out samples too. If you've got something solid to work on, asking for a few samples more often than not ends up with some product in your hand to learn on. Of course, they want you to talk it up, but again, not a bad trade for learning.

 

If you are a learn by doing kind of person, take a look at some the Parallax stuff. I've been working with their new Propeller micro, and it's cool from a software, retro computing experience point of view. On the hardware / engineering side, they have some excellent materials that can take someone from, "I don't know much more than what all the stuff is called" to "I'm having trouble getting my robot to make the right decision", or "How best to add the memory I need to this project?"

 

I'm reading the Understanding Signals text right now. http://www.parallax.com/dl/docs/prod/sic/Signals.pdf They've got other texts online, hoping you will purchase their kits. Not a bad exchange, all things considered. They are gonna get me on the hook for an education kit, with stuff I can assemble, burn out, tinker with, etc... Most of their texts and kits are written to the "I wanna control my x with y, over z" kind of person. This, of course, ropes in all the robotics geeks, and they only add to the fun as they are always looking for more components to toy with. (which is how I learned to ask for samples)

 

Your Chimera project made me think about building things that present as other things to older hardware. I've been watching with interest actually. It's kind of an interesting way to get into this stuff. There are practical applications as well, IMHO. I'm not at the skill or time level to attempt something like that, however I do see where it can all come together down the road. On the practical side, I've gotten to know a coupla freelancers, who solve little niche problems, of interest to them, and do fairly well at it. I'm leaning that way as time goes on. It's the kind of thing one can do to add income, while having a great time. Perfect as I get older and need to step down from the daily grind, or maybe just work more on my terms. All of these guys tend to focus on some area they are really into. Their spare time is spent learning, tinkering, talking. From that comes solutions to sometimes very difficult or niche problems.

 

Right now, I'm wanting to hook up a paddle controller to my Propeller system. In that text is all I need to know about R/C networks and safe interfacing to my MPU. On the software side, there is enough power to build a game, generate a signal, interact with devices, etc... Hardware complexity is fairly low, meaning I can scrounge my old projects, Ramsey kits, etc... for most of the stuff necessary. Building on protoboards, keeps things flexible, while learning is high.

 

I don't mean to sound like a commercial. I've just had a great time with their stuff and am learning a lot while doing it. It's the same kind of great time I have working with my older computing gear, only with relevant, in production hardware. There are other companies that do similar things. This might be too basic --don't know what your goals are, nor where you are at hardware understanding wise.

 

Anyway, it's fun and does present as a path you might benefit from --at least in the beginning. At the least, some time spent looking at what companies offer, education / product support wise, may yield some combinations of stuff you can work on and learn from on the cheap, until you really know where you need to spend the bigger dollars and focus.