im a major beginer in electronics making stuff does anyone have any projects to suggest (in any fields)? (to make)

 

I think you should start with some tutorial material on this or other sites. While you're looking for something to build, try to think about the acquisition of useful hand tools. At some point you'll want to get a temperature controlled soldering station. You can try just a soldering iron, but you need to be very careful not to use too much heat when doing that first project.

 

Robotics is always a cool place to start. You can start as simply as getting a couple motors, a sensor, and a pre-made microcontroller board. You plug everything in, write some code and it runs.

 

too much heat? arnt soldering irons kinda ment to be hot?

 

Yeah, but you can overheat the component and damage it by heating it for too long.

Baking cookies needs a hot oven, but you can still burn the cookkies.

 

what would these 'codes' be used for?

 

i kinda need a name or something like a website or.. a project name or something like that

 

By code, I mean prgramming code, software for the microcontroller (a computer on a single chip). It tells the robot what do, for example it makes a signal for the motors to move forward if the sensor reading is saying nothing is in front of it.

Kind of like (in more english terms):

If Sensor_Distance > 10cm then go forward.
If Sensor_Distance < 10cm then stop.

That kind of thing. Exactly what is your background?

 

well im kinda just a guy looking for something to do and electronics seemed to appear on ask.com... a little low quality i know; but ive did some things at school a few years ago, i know the basic components and what how to follow a circut (if i know the symbols (sorry for the misspelling of circuit (sorry again there)) diagram...

about that level of basicisity

 

Well what holds your interest?

 

well i thought i might want to make something i might actualy be able to use in reality not like a 'steady hand game' (yes i have made that before)

 

something like... uh a robot thingy? i dont know maybe like one of those maze mice things that follows 1 side of the maze or something funny like that

 

well to start with anyway

 

okay i think ive worked out myself how to build one but how do sensors work when they sense something do they like compleat the circuit? or something else?

 

Well a sensor uses some physical phenomena to discover something about the environment.

The sensor can output the signal in different ways (analog voltage or analog current, or a digital computer signal).

For example, you hook the power wires to the sensor and you hook up the "signal" wire from the sensor to the an analog to digital converter (ADC)attached the computer (a lot of the time the coimputer chip has one built in). All this ADC does is change the a real-life voltage into a bunch of 1s and 0s so the computer's digital circuitry can work with it.

So a distance sensor might output 1V for every meter that it detects an object being in front of it. So if something was 3m away it would put out 3V on the signal line, 1V for every meter. The ADC would take this 3V and change it into a digital signal (a bunch of 1s and 0s) so that the digital computer can work with it.

The sensor could use different methods to output the information. The most common are voltage and digital signal followed by current (other methods exist also). The digital signal is different than the other "analog" methods because it is a signal the computer processor can directly work with and can carry more complex information using only one data line. An analogy might be that instead of dropping 5 balls into a container to tell you that I see 5 apples (analog), I write on a note that says how many apples there are, as well as additional information like the time I saw the apples at and what colour and shape they were. With the note, you could process the information directly instead of having to interpret it and I can also stick more information into that one signal, instead of requiring a separate container of balls to tell you the colour, shape, and how many apples.