5 ms·
These starter kits are great. I'm a complete electronics newbie but was always interested, but found the sheer choice of equipment on offer, and the fear of buy
by hi_hi 1y ago
These starter kits are great. I'm a complete electronics newbie but was always interested, but found the sheer choice of equipment on offer, and the fear of buying a bunch of kit that wasn't compatible to be a barrier to getting started.
I came across a kit for the Micro:bit which I purchased as a Christmas gift for my young daughter. It's really captured that delight in working with technology for me again. Even starting with the LED "Hello World" examples, as described in the post here, led (haha, whata pun) me down a rabbit hole when I noticed blue lights were flickering, while red ones were fine. I thought it was a defective LED, but it turns out power requirements vary depending on wavelength of light being generated.
I never would have considered that in a million years, but then of course you get deeper into the physics of all this, and it's just fascinating. All thanks to a kids electronics starter kit.
I've purchased a few other bits and bobs now, and discovered simulators so you can build out your breadboard circuits without fear of frying components (luckily the kits include a few LEDs as I learnt the hard way!) I'm now onto trying to build out a magic wand for my daughter to control the house smart lights with gestures as she's just got into Harry Potter. I love how there's a whole hobby community around this stuff too, and the basic websites with datasheets and descriptions of the various gizmos and archaic "warnings". It reminds me of learning 3d graphics development back in the day, when openGL was the goto, and building things up from the math concepts without layer upon layer of abstractions and opinions getting in the way.
- JayNitram 1y agoAre there any particular simulators you would recommend?
- HeyLaughingBoy 1y agoWokwi seems to be the most popular Arduino-based one. I'm not a huge fan of simulation for cases like this. The arduino forums are full of "it worked in simulation, but not on my breadboard..." complaints. Also, simulation won't teach you not to connect a 10ohm resistor across a 12V supply and then touch it. Or that capacitors may explode when connected in reverse polarity, or just how to be careful in general. There's a lot of stuff that should become second nature, but you'll only learn by connecting physical circuits.
- hi_hi 1y agoI have no idea if this is considered good, but I've started with https://www.tinkercad.com/ https://www.tinkercad.com/ There may be better ones out there, I just found this quite accessible to get started with.
- HeyLaughingBoy 1y ago> but it turns out power requirements vary depending on wavelength of light being generated. [pedantic] It's actually because of the different forward voltages of the blue LED vs red, not the overall power [/pedantic] Clearly, I knew what you were getting at, but I made that comment because it's useful to understand that LEDs are primarily current controlled devices, not voltage controlled. Had you driven both LEDs with e.g., a 10mA constant-current driver, they would both be solidly visible. For a regular indicator LED, this isn't really an issue (other than a too-low voltage will cause the flickering you observed), but for high-power illumination LEDs, or especially laser diodes, current management can be the difference between reliable operation or letting the smoke get out.
- hi_hi 1y agoThank you. I appreciate the correction. I knew I was in murky waters with that bit as it was a while ago and I don't have the best memory :-)