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Offline fondpondforeverTopic starter

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Everyday Practical Electronics
« on: February 23, 2015, 01:13:26 AM »
Is Everyday Practical Electronics magazine useful for the Amiga enthusiast who uses Arduino-like boards and a soldering iron to create projects. For example would the magazine give you an advanced project equivalent to 6 LED's flashing different colours in the shape of a hexagonal gemstone when different frequencies are played in a Music program like ProTracker. Would Everyday Practical Electronics be useful for A-Eon's X1000 Xorro Project Board? Thanks. :p
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Offline QuikSanz

Re: Everyday Practical Electronics
« Reply #1 on: February 23, 2015, 01:44:47 AM »
Sounds easy with Xena
 

Offline agami

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Re: Everyday Practical Electronics
« Reply #2 on: February 23, 2015, 02:41:44 AM »
The answer is right there in the name of the magazine; Everyday, and Practical.

So, No.
---------------AGA Collection---------------
1) Amiga A4000 040 40MHz, Mediator PCI, Voodoo 3 3000, Creative PCI128, Fast Ethernet, Indivision AGA Mk2 CR, DVD/CD-RW, OS 3.9 BB2
2) Amiga A1200 040 25MHz, Indivision AGA Mk2 CR, IDEfix, PCMCIA WiFi, slim slot load DVD/CD-RW, OS 3.9 BB2
3) Amiga CD32 + SX1, OS 3.1
 

Offline CodePoet

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Re: Everyday Practical Electronics
« Reply #3 on: February 23, 2015, 07:43:10 AM »
You could probably get the gemstone thing happening with the right filtering (or mathematics a-la FFT)

As harsh as it sounds, Arduino is pretty much Lego for wannabe engineers. Don't expect too much beyond novelty applications from it

With that said, if you feel you have an interest in Electronics, it's really best if you start with an "Electronics 101" style book, the 'for dummies' series is great - words can't explain how important it is to have a basic understanding of electronics concepts prior to jumping onto the microcontroller bandwagon

...Of course if you don't give a damn about the field, and want to 'get down to business' in creating flashy things with wifi connectivity, then Arduino may just be your thing, especially if you're not looking to commercialize your creations

NB: I don't mean any offence to Arduino-lovers, I'm just not a huge fan of the fan-club - I've seen people install an off-the-shelf Arduino devboard into their vehicle, running off a linear regulator, which is attached to their ignition system via a shield. Complete and utter stupidity on so many levels.
 

Offline fondpondforeverTopic starter

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Re: Everyday Practical Electronics
« Reply #4 on: February 23, 2015, 10:24:44 AM »
Thanks for your answer CodePoet. Agami, surely in the Amiga World you do things everyday with your soldering iron if your into the physical side. Right?
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ChuckT

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Re: Everyday Practical Electronics
« Reply #5 on: February 23, 2015, 08:57:07 PM »
Quote from: fondpondforever;785200
Is Everyday Practical Electronics magazine useful for the Amiga enthusiast who uses Arduino-like boards and a soldering iron to create projects. For example would the magazine give you an advanced project equivalent to 6 LED's flashing different colours in the shape of a hexagonal gemstone when different frequencies are played in a Music program like ProTracker. Would Everyday Practical Electronics be useful for A-Eon's X1000 Xorro Project Board? Thanks. :p


Electronics can be kind of a trap if you don't know what you are getting yourself into.  It is expensive, takes a long time and there is a steep learning curve.  A datasheet for a microcontroller can be 250 pages or more long and the information is written by engineers for engineers.  The reason you can't call one of these chip makers on the phone and talk to one of their engineers is because it costs money.  There is also a different price tag for software to design your own circuit boards.

The other issue is that no one is really going to teach you anything unless you take a course.  I've been on Arduino boards and they won't teach because they say they have taught themselves and they won't do your homework.  

Ask yourself, "What do I need to learn about Microcontrollers and how will I know it?"

Other people are going to ask you, "What do you want to do?" I have a junk box of electronics and several unused microcontrollers because people suggested the wrong chip.  Instead of asking you to find the correct part, they may try to help you do the impossible with the wrong chip or the wrong part.

I seem to think you need to price a modern day oscilloscope, software to make printed circuit boards, a surface mount soldering station, and logic / debugging tools.  I don't think it can be done for less than $1,000.  And trainer boards can cost any amounts.

The thing about Arduino is that you are playing with wiring and a bootloader with some java wrapping.  In other words, if you programmed the Commodore 64 in BASIC, you haven't learned Machine Language and you haven't learned to build your own computer.  It is more complicated but people love Arduino because they can do some wiring, get some code to cut and paste and they think they have arrived.  It might get your hands wet and you might learn some basics but you don't really have a good part selection or understanding of electronics.

So let me ask you:  What topics do you need to master to learn Microcontrollers?

The answer I got was here:

http://dangerousprototypes.com/docs/Microcontroller_topics_to_master
 

Offline danbeaver

Re: Everyday Practical Electronics
« Reply #6 on: February 23, 2015, 09:11:13 PM »
One could learn some basics from archives from Radio and Electronics Magazine:  https://archive.org/details/radioelectronicsmagazine

They had articles on microprocessors, building computers (using 8-bit and 16/24/32-bit 68000), and various electronic circuits.
 

Offline agami

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Re: Everyday Practical Electronics
« Reply #7 on: February 23, 2015, 10:31:57 PM »
I have played around with some Arduino and Teensy boards for some practical and some impractical solutions. It's nice to tinker and prototype things. But there isn't even an Arduino compiler for Amiga.

Most of what you will find in such a magazine will couple electronics projects with Windows PCs and in some cases Macs. Finding Linux substitutes would be difficult, let alone an outcast such as the Amiga.
---------------AGA Collection---------------
1) Amiga A4000 040 40MHz, Mediator PCI, Voodoo 3 3000, Creative PCI128, Fast Ethernet, Indivision AGA Mk2 CR, DVD/CD-RW, OS 3.9 BB2
2) Amiga A1200 040 25MHz, Indivision AGA Mk2 CR, IDEfix, PCMCIA WiFi, slim slot load DVD/CD-RW, OS 3.9 BB2
3) Amiga CD32 + SX1, OS 3.1
 

ChuckT

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Re: Everyday Practical Electronics
« Reply #8 on: February 24, 2015, 01:25:56 AM »
Quote from: fondpondforever;785200
Is Everyday Practical Electronics magazine useful for the Amiga enthusiast who uses Arduino-like boards and a soldering iron to create projects. For example would the magazine give you an advanced project equivalent to 6 LED's flashing different colours in the shape of a hexagonal gemstone when different frequencies are played in a Music program like ProTracker. Would Everyday Practical Electronics be useful for A-Eon's X1000 Xorro Project Board? Thanks. :p

If you are into Arduino, use this blog:


http://tronixstuff.com/

They have a lot of tutorials and a youtube channel:

http://www.youtube.com/tronixstuff
« Last Edit: February 24, 2015, 01:38:41 AM by ChuckT »