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This is the kind of full stack developer I'd like to be. Started tinkering with electronics in earnest about a year ago but it feels like I'm a decade away fro

by jcims 5y ago

This is the kind of full stack developer I'd like to be. Started tinkering with electronics in earnest about a year ago but it feels like I'm a decade away from being able to build stuff like this of my own volition.

stagger87 5y ago
Building a pcb that lights up leds is kinda the hello world for electronics. I think you'd be surprised how close you are to this.
- jcims 5y ago
  I think the part that is intimidating to me is the power/clock/microcontroller integration. Maybe the gateway is to design a PCB that just connects the LEDs and over time add more and more components to it.
  - mason55 5y ago
    If you’re just starting then imo it’s easier to go the other way. Start with a fully-built dev board like a Wemos D1 mini. Keep building things and as you run into roadblocks and learn how to get around them you’ll naturally develop the knowledge to get further into fabbing your own integrated PCB.
  - mnw21cam 5y ago
    I bit this particular bullet a couple of months ago. Turns out that a very cheap board like an Arduino Nano Every has a power voltage regulator (that will accept 6-21V supply) and a built-in clock, so you don't need to integrate anything. (As it turned out, I wanted a more stable clock signal for timing purposes than the arduino clock, so I attached a 32.768kHz crystal to one of the inputs, and that also was very easy. I also attached a 4-digit 7-segment display, as there are enough I/O pins, a thermistor, several buttons/switches, and a stepper motor controller. It was easier than I thought. Give it a try.)
  - jazzyjackson 5y ago
    You might look up various DIY arduino designs (starting on a breadboard). You can start with very barebones selection of components, move it to a proto-board, and then modify it to your needs. Adafruit and Sparkfun have great resources for how everything they sell works.
worldmerge 5y ago
> kind of full stack developer I'd like to be Same. It's really fun to mix high level software with hardware.
yboris 5y ago
A nice "gateway drug" is an addressable (programmable) LED strip. Hook it up to a Raspberry Pi or Arduino and have at it! I bought cheap motion sensors and will be installing a strip along the inside of a staircase to light up when I approach it. https://github.com/whyboris/Arduino-LED https://github.com/whyboris/Arduino-LED (see "stairs.ino") Another project of mine is having the LEDs light up as I play piano: https://github.com/whyboris/Digital-Piano-LED https://github.com/whyboris/Digital-Piano-LED Unsure where I'll go after I finish these projects, but LEDs are so much fun!
travisgriggs 5y ago
> This is the kind of full stack developer I'd like to be. Me too. But I think we need to find a new term for “full stack” at this point. Full stack developer was kind of the trendy “I do JavaScript and server stuff too”—though when I visited with adherents I usually found that many migrate to one part mostly and cede the other areas to others. I do the kind of stuff shown here, embedded C, mqtt servers, native mobile apps, etc, but I have been leery of using the term “full stack.” But now I’m seeing the term used more often in a more general abstracted sense, like the above. I see this type of person as a polymath (https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Polymath https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Polymath). I’d propose the term polytech, but that term is pretty overloaded already, and polyeng just doesn’t role off the tongue very well.
- Taniwha 5y ago
  OK, so I've been doing all this for years, plus chip design, can I claim "full stack plus"?
OnACoffeeBreak 5y ago
Same here. I have been daydreaming about starting from scratch and building up. Of course, everyone's definition of "from scratch" might be different, but for me the starting point would be an FPGA prototyping board. I'd start by implementing my own CPU, memory controller and IO peripherals. Then I'd move onto creating a development toolchain for the platform. Then writing an OS and so on.
- r-bryan 5y ago
  As Carl Sagan might have said, "To build a platform from scratch, you must first create the universe."

by jcims 5y ago

stagger87 5y ago

Building a pcb that lights up leds is kinda the hello world for electronics. I think you'd be surprised how close you are to this.

jcims 5y ago
I think the part that is intimidating to me is the power/clock/microcontroller integration. Maybe the gateway is to design a PCB that just connects the LEDs and over time add more and more components to it.
- mason55 5y ago
  If you’re just starting then imo it’s easier to go the other way. Start with a fully-built dev board like a Wemos D1 mini. Keep building things and as you run into roadblocks and learn how to get around them you’ll naturally develop the knowledge to get further into fabbing your own integrated PCB.
- mnw21cam 5y ago
  I bit this particular bullet a couple of months ago. Turns out that a very cheap board like an Arduino Nano Every has a power voltage regulator (that will accept 6-21V supply) and a built-in clock, so you don't need to integrate anything. (As it turned out, I wanted a more stable clock signal for timing purposes than the arduino clock, so I attached a 32.768kHz crystal to one of the inputs, and that also was very easy. I also attached a 4-digit 7-segment display, as there are enough I/O pins, a thermistor, several buttons/switches, and a stepper motor controller. It was easier than I thought. Give it a try.)
- jazzyjackson 5y ago
  You might look up various DIY arduino designs (starting on a breadboard). You can start with very barebones selection of components, move it to a proto-board, and then modify it to your needs. Adafruit and Sparkfun have great resources for how everything they sell works.

worldmerge 5y ago

> kind of full stack developer I'd like to be Same. It's really fun to mix high level software with hardware.

yboris 5y ago

A nice "gateway drug" is an addressable (programmable) LED strip. Hook it up to a Raspberry Pi or Arduino and have at it! I bought cheap motion sensors and will be installing a strip along the inside of a staircase to light up when I approach it. https://github.com/whyboris/Arduino-LED https://github.com/whyboris/Arduino-LED (see "stairs.ino") Another project of mine is having the LEDs light up as I play piano: https://github.com/whyboris/Digital-Piano-LED https://github.com/whyboris/Digital-Piano-LED Unsure where I'll go after I finish these projects, but LEDs are so much fun!

travisgriggs 5y ago

> This is the kind of full stack developer I'd like to be. Me too. But I think we need to find a new term for “full stack” at this point. Full stack developer was kind of the trendy “I do JavaScript and server stuff too”—though when I visited with adherents I usually found that many migrate to one part mostly and cede the other areas to others. I do the kind of stuff shown here, embedded C, mqtt servers, native mobile apps, etc, but I have been leery of using the term “full stack.” But now I’m seeing the term used more often in a more general abstracted sense, like the above. I see this type of person as a polymath (https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Polymath https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Polymath). I’d propose the term polytech, but that term is pretty overloaded already, and polyeng just doesn’t role off the tongue very well.

Taniwha 5y ago
OK, so I've been doing all this for years, plus chip design, can I claim "full stack plus"?

OnACoffeeBreak 5y ago

Same here. I have been daydreaming about starting from scratch and building up. Of course, everyone's definition of "from scratch" might be different, but for me the starting point would be an FPGA prototyping board. I'd start by implementing my own CPU, memory controller and IO peripherals. Then I'd move onto creating a development toolchain for the platform. Then writing an OS and so on.

r-bryan 5y ago
As Carl Sagan might have said, "To build a platform from scratch, you must first create the universe."