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Would this be a good stepping stone for someone wanting to learn more about microcontroller type stuff? I bought an Arduino starter pack a few years ago, and i

Would this be a good stepping stone for someone wanting to learn more about microcontroller type stuff? I bought an Arduino starter pack a few years ago, and it was neat, but I never ended up doing much with it beyond the first week or so. I guess this would maybe suffer the same fate. What projects do people do with microcontrollers that don't just end up being silly gimmicks?

mumblemumble 6y ago
The single most useful thing I've built with a hobbyist board is a pomodoro timer. I also built my own wifi speaker using a Raspberry Pi Zero W and an open source implementation of the AirPort protocol, but we've stopped using it because it was flaky and needed regular reboots. Bluetooth turned out to be (barely) less annoying.
emilecantin 6y ago
I've done a few "smart-home"-type projects. One of them is an e-ink display outside my office door that either displays today's date, or a warning sign stating that I'm in a meeting. The warning is triggered by a switch on another microcontroller that sits on my desk (an M5 Stack, so it has a nice enclosure & screen).
- war1025 6y ago
  So flipping my original question around a little, how did you get into learning these things? I've always wished I had taken a hardware course or two while in University. I can't seem to think of anything practical enough to keep my motivation while I deal with learning about all the actual hardware bits.
  - emilecantin 6y ago
    Honestly, I just used ESPHome for all of this (https://esphome.io/ https://esphome.io/). I mean, I've written code for microcontrollers before, but it's hard to beat something where all the building blocks are already done for you; leaving you only the job or assembling them in the product you want. If you know "normal" programming (I do web dev), it's relatively easy to get an Arduino and start copy-and-pasting example code until you've got something cool. The syntax itself isn't too complex, and most of the really hard stuff already has a library built for it. Arduino code can also be used on the ESP8266 / ESP32, which is an amazing, <$2 (shipped!) microcontroller that's Wifi-enabled.
yummypaint 6y ago
If you're into music production making your own MIDI controllers, electronic drum pads, sequencers, filters, compressors, etc can quickly save thousands of dollars. Plus there is nothing like performing on your own hardware.
matheusmoreira 6y ago
Good question. I'd probably try to automate my home a little bit...
ies7 6y ago
Last year I pushed hundreds of esp8266 & esp32 for manufacture data entry/monitor. Some example: Temp monitoring Weight data collection Cheap wifi mesh :) And a bunch of thing with rfid and ble beacon For dashboard we use thingsboard.io Edit: There're many site mentioned that you shouldn't use arduino for manufacturing because it isn't hardened etc. Please study it first :)

mumblemumble 6y ago

The single most useful thing I've built with a hobbyist board is a pomodoro timer. I also built my own wifi speaker using a Raspberry Pi Zero W and an open source implementation of the AirPort protocol, but we've stopped using it because it was flaky and needed regular reboots. Bluetooth turned out to be (barely) less annoying.

emilecantin 6y ago

I've done a few "smart-home"-type projects. One of them is an e-ink display outside my office door that either displays today's date, or a warning sign stating that I'm in a meeting. The warning is triggered by a switch on another microcontroller that sits on my desk (an M5 Stack, so it has a nice enclosure & screen).

war1025 6y ago
So flipping my original question around a little, how did you get into learning these things? I've always wished I had taken a hardware course or two while in University. I can't seem to think of anything practical enough to keep my motivation while I deal with learning about all the actual hardware bits.
- emilecantin 6y ago
  Honestly, I just used ESPHome for all of this (https://esphome.io/ https://esphome.io/). I mean, I've written code for microcontrollers before, but it's hard to beat something where all the building blocks are already done for you; leaving you only the job or assembling them in the product you want. If you know "normal" programming (I do web dev), it's relatively easy to get an Arduino and start copy-and-pasting example code until you've got something cool. The syntax itself isn't too complex, and most of the really hard stuff already has a library built for it. Arduino code can also be used on the ESP8266 / ESP32, which is an amazing, <$2 (shipped!) microcontroller that's Wifi-enabled.

yummypaint 6y ago

If you're into music production making your own MIDI controllers, electronic drum pads, sequencers, filters, compressors, etc can quickly save thousands of dollars. Plus there is nothing like performing on your own hardware.

matheusmoreira 6y ago

Good question. I'd probably try to automate my home a little bit...

ies7 6y ago

Last year I pushed hundreds of esp8266 & esp32 for manufacture data entry/monitor. Some example: Temp monitoring Weight data collection Cheap wifi mesh :) And a bunch of thing with rfid and ble beacon For dashboard we use thingsboard.io Edit: There're many site mentioned that you shouldn't use arduino for manufacturing because it isn't hardened etc. Please study it first :)