Ask HN: How to start creating stuff with Arduino? | Hacker News Reader

Ask HN: How to start creating stuff with Arduino?

10 pointsbitboxer15 comments

I have bought the arduino starter kit by fritzing ( http://fritzing.org/shop/starter-kit/ ) and played a little bit with it. Now I want to know how to create own circuits. How do I know what to put where? I know how to code, but are there tutorials on creating circuits out there I can read?

View on HN

http://www.ladyada.net/learn/arduino/

I used these tutorials to get started.

This is good. Teaching about electronics with adruino. Exactly what I needed.

Here are the answers to a similar question on StackOverflow a while back: http://stackoverflow.com/questions/1690284/getting-started-w...

(Mine's the top one...)

I don't know if they're still available, but the Forrest Mims electronics books that they used to sell at radio shack are absolutely awesome, teach theory and have tons of simple (and not so simple) circuits you can build. They're mostly analog though, digital is much easier, just connect a few parts together and then it's all code.

There's a bunch of good Arduino tutorials here with nice pics too http://itp.nyu.edu/physcomp/Tutorials/Tutorials

Concise electronics for geeks: http://lcamtuf.coredump.cx/electronics/

Thanks! Great link with tons of details.

I still do not get the point of an Arduino though. Its just an avr board with supporting circuitry. If you know C, picking up on avr-gcc is a day or twos job. Where was the need to have the new language? Where did all the hype came from?

It's targeted at Beginners (Developers and Artists) who want to start getting into creating electronic stuff. And it's great for that target audience (including me ;) ).

I started using atmega32 controllers before college. I had some prior C experience but nothing with controllers. I found it very easy to learn it that way, why can't people pick it up that way? Why is arduino better?

It's easier to start with a board that is ready for you to use. Hook it onto a usb port, start the app and add everything you want to build on a breadboard. No soldering no nothing. From 0 to blinking LEDs in 5 Minutes.

But when you do that you miss out on important concepts which you should know. Its not always necessary to get an app working. I do this to learn, and by skipping steps I am skipping concepts.

But then again, in my native language you say "जैसी जिसकी सोच" (everybody thinks different).

Each person has his own way of learning. You seem to be forcing your perspective on others.

Bitboxer is dead on with his facts. IMHO there's a lot more fun in getting something working quickly without much setup/learning. And there are people who like it that way (I belong to that group for sure).

It's like asking why use Heroku or AppEngine when you can maintain your own VPS. Because it's easier. Doesn't mean skipping using your own VPS will do you bad.

You seem to be forcing your perspective on others.

I did no such thing, I said at the last comment that I believe everybody thinks different. All I am trying to do is understand what exactly are they thinking.

Edit: Also, while I may use Heroku (I actually did) or appengine, I wouldn't go straight to rails before learning some basics about what exactly is a website.

Blinking the led must come after learning what exactly is the LED. I am not saying learn all of the semiconductor theory but a small description in your head would be good.

I think it's more rewarding to have a little success right at the beginning. Going through tons of concepts at first demotivates very fast. Especially if you want to teach this stuff to kids :) . Concepts can be learned after the first success and slowly you know everything.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com