Hey Everyone!
I was wondering if anyone can share a decent "path" to get into Electrical Engineering/Embedded systems?
I am not even sure exactly where I am going, I just have a basic idea of what I think I need to get started in EE/Embedded. So far I think I need to learn Embedded Linux, AVR and/or ARM.
Sorry for the long post, I am just extremely lost and maybe someone else is in a similar position that could benefit from any answers here.
I have been into computers my whole life (currently 26y/o) but other than an AA degree in computer science in 2013, I have never worked in IT, I've been a welder since 18. I have tinkered with web design on and off for years (PHP, Javascript, Ect) and got pretty good at it, just never stuck with it because I couldn't care less about making websites, they just don't interest me. My main goal has always been to make hardware and gadgets and gizmos related to racing (cars, motorcycles, and basically anything with wheels and motor). So I ended up randomly getting an interview with a company for an embedded role, but obviously having never done embedded, I got turned down. I was able to get an idea of what that job and some others similar to it want from their employees, and I have found over the last 3 months or so that there doesn't seem to be a direct path that I can find.
Through what Ive found, I need AVR, ARM, Embedded Linux and EE to get started.
Within the first chapter of "Fundamentals of Electric Circuits" by Alexander + Sadiku
AVR wise, I read Make: Programming AVR, which I found barely useful and ended up just attempting to read the datasheet to figure it out. So far the AVR isn't too bad, I am fairly comfortable with some basic programs but I got stuck at PWM for a servo (mainly because I had no idea if it was working and needed to get an oscilloscope to figure that part out).
For ARM, I got "definitive guide to ARM CORTEX-M4 " by Joseph Yiu and the microchip SAME54 dev board. I made it about a chapter in and thought I should perfect my skills in AVR first because it seems like without a good base understanding all the ARM syntax could be extremely confusing.
for Embedded Linux, the company I interviewed with used Buildroot, (which I haven't tinkered with at all). I decided to try Linux From Scratch hoping that would help to build a solid foundation before jumping to a tool like Buildroot or Yocto. And getting stuck very quickly in LFS, that prompted this post.
Basically at this point, I have like several 500+ page books from linux command line, to EE, ARM development, AVR datasheets, and Math, and I just need some sort of confirmation that I'm even heading in the right direction (Obviously the math is good to learn for other things).
I was wondering if anyone can share a decent "path" to get into Electrical Engineering/Embedded systems?
I am not even sure exactly where I am going, I just have a basic idea of what I think I need to get started in EE/Embedded. So far I think I need to learn Embedded Linux, AVR and/or ARM.
Sorry for the long post, I am just extremely lost and maybe someone else is in a similar position that could benefit from any answers here.
I have been into computers my whole life (currently 26y/o) but other than an AA degree in computer science in 2013, I have never worked in IT, I've been a welder since 18. I have tinkered with web design on and off for years (PHP, Javascript, Ect) and got pretty good at it, just never stuck with it because I couldn't care less about making websites, they just don't interest me. My main goal has always been to make hardware and gadgets and gizmos related to racing (cars, motorcycles, and basically anything with wheels and motor). So I ended up randomly getting an interview with a company for an embedded role, but obviously having never done embedded, I got turned down. I was able to get an idea of what that job and some others similar to it want from their employees, and I have found over the last 3 months or so that there doesn't seem to be a direct path that I can find.
Through what Ive found, I need AVR, ARM, Embedded Linux and EE to get started.
Within the first chapter of "Fundamentals of Electric Circuits" by Alexander + Sadiku
AVR wise, I read Make: Programming AVR, which I found barely useful and ended up just attempting to read the datasheet to figure it out. So far the AVR isn't too bad, I am fairly comfortable with some basic programs but I got stuck at PWM for a servo (mainly because I had no idea if it was working and needed to get an oscilloscope to figure that part out).
For ARM, I got "definitive guide to ARM CORTEX-M4 " by Joseph Yiu and the microchip SAME54 dev board. I made it about a chapter in and thought I should perfect my skills in AVR first because it seems like without a good base understanding all the ARM syntax could be extremely confusing.
for Embedded Linux, the company I interviewed with used Buildroot, (which I haven't tinkered with at all). I decided to try Linux From Scratch hoping that would help to build a solid foundation before jumping to a tool like Buildroot or Yocto. And getting stuck very quickly in LFS, that prompted this post.
Basically at this point, I have like several 500+ page books from linux command line, to EE, ARM development, AVR datasheets, and Math, and I just need some sort of confirmation that I'm even heading in the right direction (Obviously the math is good to learn for other things).