Hi everyone,
Ive always loved electronics and designing circuits and im an avid reader of HackADay which always feature really cool bits and bobs and things people make. And ive always wondered how you start to learn to make your own ideas come together.
Im just finishing my first year of an Electronic Engerneering degree and things are really beginning to look a lot clearer.
Digital circuit design I love, its clear cut you start with wanting to build something to perform a certain task and you systematically work through it and produce the out come.
For electromagnetics on the other hand, it really doesnt get my interest. I think its cool and interesting but just doesnt sit well for me, just to many "external" factors and "perfect condition" requirements...anyway...its not about that.
But what im still stuck on is
1) designing a circuit that interacts with a PC. Over USB or parallel port for example.
2) for something like a POV wand or a light painter I see many people building their own but I have the same feeling of not knowing how or where you would start in wanting to design and build something like that.
http://hackaday.com/2012/05/10/extremely-detailed-light-painting-bar/
I dont even know what to look up on to teach myself.
I have a few different ideas of things I want to make. An RGB LED strip that with different dials can control brightness, colour and how many leds should be on for example.
Then say using a PC to set LED patterns, plug in my circuit over USB say, then save the pattern to the LED strip as a preset for example.
I just have no idea on where to start or what I should be looking up on to get this kind of design knowledge. Not how to do it explicitly but gaining the required knowledge for me to come up with a solution myself.
Ive done circuit design and analysis as well, op amps, mesh, loop, transistors etc thats all fine with me as well, i enjoy working through circuits and coming up with solutions.
So the question of bringing it all together is learning the extra building blocks I guess that go in between.
I know this probably sounds like a strange post but hopefully someone can understand whats going on in my head! hah
Thanks
Ive always loved electronics and designing circuits and im an avid reader of HackADay which always feature really cool bits and bobs and things people make. And ive always wondered how you start to learn to make your own ideas come together.
Im just finishing my first year of an Electronic Engerneering degree and things are really beginning to look a lot clearer.
Digital circuit design I love, its clear cut you start with wanting to build something to perform a certain task and you systematically work through it and produce the out come.
For electromagnetics on the other hand, it really doesnt get my interest. I think its cool and interesting but just doesnt sit well for me, just to many "external" factors and "perfect condition" requirements...anyway...its not about that.
But what im still stuck on is
1) designing a circuit that interacts with a PC. Over USB or parallel port for example.
2) for something like a POV wand or a light painter I see many people building their own but I have the same feeling of not knowing how or where you would start in wanting to design and build something like that.
http://hackaday.com/2012/05/10/extremely-detailed-light-painting-bar/
I dont even know what to look up on to teach myself.
I have a few different ideas of things I want to make. An RGB LED strip that with different dials can control brightness, colour and how many leds should be on for example.
Then say using a PC to set LED patterns, plug in my circuit over USB say, then save the pattern to the LED strip as a preset for example.
I just have no idea on where to start or what I should be looking up on to get this kind of design knowledge. Not how to do it explicitly but gaining the required knowledge for me to come up with a solution myself.
Ive done circuit design and analysis as well, op amps, mesh, loop, transistors etc thats all fine with me as well, i enjoy working through circuits and coming up with solutions.
So the question of bringing it all together is learning the extra building blocks I guess that go in between.
I know this probably sounds like a strange post but hopefully someone can understand whats going on in my head! hah
Thanks