Davismlfw knows his stuff. If you're more math than hardware you need to become a hardware guy before messing with these. As a start I would learn analog circu

Davismlfw knows his stuff. If you're more math than hardware you need to become a hardware guy before messing with these. As a start I would learn analog circuit design at a basic level. Followed by digital design and layout. At any point in this, pour your mind into a micro datasheet. Atmel or TI are easiest to read. You need to understand this stuff at a pin = signal level and below to really work at that low a level effectively. This is why arduinos etc are so relatively expensive. It's a ton of work to learn what's needed to design and build these boards + actually program them usefully Ideally you want to understand power electronics and DSP/signalling at a deep level as well. If you don't know what the difference between level and edge triggered is, for instance, you're going to have a bad time. Gray code, busses, ohms law, network analysis. This is a deep but fulfilling rabbit hole.