Should I begin with Arduino?

[rc3po]

Hello. I'm new to this forum. I came here because the last forum I was at is ran by atheists, as most seem to be, and it's my understanding of your rules that here it is ok to mention Biblical Text if you are actually making a legitimate point. Ironically, the point I was making was actually using The Holy Bible to give credence for the Big Bang Theory on their Physics Forum!
Anyway, I've been learning electronics for a year now and I love it. I wish I had got into it in my youth. I started with Charles Platt's "Make Electronics". Then I got the 500 in 1 Lab from Maxitronix. When I got to book 3 for the uProcessor, the programs wouldn't work right doing it the way they said to program it, so I wrote my own program and it works great!
I got away from it to study TV and electronic device repair because I really like to fix stuff, and tinkered on my breadboard also.
Now I'm wanting to get into uProcessors & uControllers and I was wondering if yall thought Arduino would be good for me to start with. I figured that since it is so popular and has so much support and parts & accessories, plus my computer has Win8, Arduino may be best.
What do yall think? I would appreciate your input.(pun intended)lol
Thanks.

 

[misterT]

Yes. Arduino is a good board.. But I would recommend that you do not use the Arduino IDE software. Instead use Atmel Studio 6. It is free also, you can download it from www.atmel.com
.. of course you can use the Arduino IDE if you want to keep things easy and learning minimal.

 

[rc3po]

Ok. Thanks misterT. I don't like things too easy so I will try Atmel.

 

[ronsimpson]

RC3P0,
The first hour or day with you new computer is very important. If nothing works then you will get tired and stop.
Arduino IDE software has many examples on the inernet. (also Atmel Studio) I like to start with some thing very simple and copy it from the internet. Like blink a LED. Then read a voltage. (known working programs) Then see if I can add the two together and have the voltage cause the blink rate to vary. This way I have some thing working in that first hour and I am willing to put the work in to learn the hard things.

I like computer boards with buttons, simple LCD display and maybe a "pot" variable resistor. Buttons and display helps with talking to humans. For trouble shooting, the LCD can display variables and tell you where in the program things went wring.

This probably is not the right form; several of us have talked about God and science here. I see you are from Texas. If you think the big bang might have happened and the world is a day over 6000 years then...............................I thought in Texas they burned people like you at the stake.

 

[rc3po]

Hi ronsimpson,
I appreciate your comment. I agree with you about doing easy stuff first then getting into harder stuff. I think I will take that approach. Then I will study other uControllers and programming languages.
Also, they don't burn people at the stake anymore. I believe the "6000 Year" theory applies to mankind since Adam, not the earth itself. As far as being a Christian, I'm non-denominational and study on my own rather than listening to some idiot that claims to be a Pastor. I know more than they do anyway since I never hear any of them teach anything that I know. They rely on people being lazy and stupid and not doing their own research.
I think I'll post a thread on the Physics forum about what I was talking about soon.
Thanks.

 

[NorthGuy]

I believe the "6000 Year" theory applies to mankind since Adam, not the earth itself.

That's right. The Earth had been created 6 days before Adam.

It doesn't make much difference what to start from. If you feel good about Arduino, start from Arduino. What I would suggest is to pick up a (relatively difficult) task to accomplish with MCU and then working your way towards accomplishing this task. It will go easier and will teach you better.

 

[rc3po]

That's right. The Earth had been created 6 days before Adam.

It doesn't make much difference what to start from. If you feel good about Arduino, start from Arduino. What I would suggest is to pick up a (relatively difficult) task to accomplish with MCU and then working your way towards accomplishing this task. It will go easier and will teach you better.

Thanks for the reply. I guess what I'm really trying to find out before I start investing time and money is if Arduino has you input things that are not necessary? In the programming book of the Maxitronix lab, it makes things more complicated by adding programming that isn't necessary. By omitting it and programming the MCU myself, it works fine. I programmed it to flash 8 LED's back and forth like the Night Rider car. Since they do waste time and energy on useless programming, I don't trust them.
So does Arduino try to keep things simple, or do they waste peoples time and energy on worthless programming that doesn't serve any necessary or worthwhile purpose?
I'm asking yall because I'm sure I won't read anything negative about them on their website.

 

[rc3po]

Well thanks everybody, I bought an Arduino starter kit and some other accessories from Jameco.com a while ago. So in a few days I will start learning some new stuff. Thanks for all of your suggestions!

 

[4pyros]

Do you have a project in mind?

 

[rc3po]

Not really. The book that comes with it has stuff you can do. Of course, I can do most of it with analog components.
Anyway, it's time to learn uControllers.

 

[4pyros]

We should give you a simple challenge.

 

[rc3po]

We should give you a simple challenge.

Sounds good. I'm game.

 

[Ian Rogers]

Your first visit should be the arduino playground
https://playground.arduino.cc/

Then the tutorials on this place.
https://tronixstuff.com/tutorials/

 

[4pyros]

Your first visit should be the arduino playground
https://playground.arduino.cc/

Then the tutorials on this place.
https://tronixstuff.com/tutorials/

Thanks Bookmarked

 

[rc3po]

Thanks Bookmarked

Thanks 4pyros, I appreciate the suggestions & help.

 

[4pyros]

Sounds good. I'm game.

OK then lets play; Game of Life on an Arduino. 4X4 grid of LEDS and three buttons.

 

[rc3po]

OK then lets play; Game of Life on an Arduino. 4X4 grid of LEDS and three buttons.

Ok. I'll let you know when I get my Arduino in and read the book. I also bought the book, "Getting Started With Arduino 2nd Edition".

 

[rc3po]

Hello 4pyros,
I got my arduino in today. I downloaded the IDE and everything was automatic since I have Win8.1 I changed the delay time on the example Blink program and I'm in control!
I will play with it a little bit today and read the info and get back with you tomorrow or late tonight.
Thanks.

 

[rc3po]

Yes. Arduino is a good board.. But I would recommend that you do not use the Arduino IDE software. Instead use Atmel Studio 6. It is free also, you can download it from www.atmel.com
.. of course you can use the Arduino IDE if you want to keep things easy and learning minimal.

Hi misterT,
Did you mean the Atmel Studio 6.2 Beta? I have Win 8.1 on my laptop.
I bought 3 extra 328 uControllers. The one that was on the board I boot loaded with the Arduino IDE.
I want to boot load a different chip for the Atmel Studio 6. All I see on the webpage is 6.1 & 6.2.

 

[MrAl]

Hi,

I just recently started playing around with the Arduino Uno board. I can see that someone can get up and running pretty quick with this kind of product.

Some of the tutorials found on the web for burning the bootloader are a bit misleading though.

I also tried the ATTiny. I also hope to try the Xmega at some point but not sure what to use as programmer board yet.