Badger_McLetcher
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| posted on 6/1/16 at 08:59 PM |
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Electronics learning advice - microcontrollers etc.
'Evening all, I have a fair few mini projects that I'd like to do, most based around accurately controlling a DC motor and deciphering
signal inputs, and to be brutally honest I have no idea where to start. I'm looking for some advice regarding where to learn about electronics;
book recommendations, websites, anything like that. I'm OK with simple DC and AC circuitry, but have no idea as soon as those wires enter a
black box! Any pointers would be appreciated 
If disfunction is a function, then I must be some kind of genius.
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tweek
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| posted on 6/1/16 at 09:48 PM |
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Chances are you will be able to achieve what you want with an arduino - there are a ton of variants (netduino, pc-duino etc.) and other more powerful
things (raspberry-pi, beaglebone black etc), but for basic input-processing-output, arduino is king.
It also happens to have the most resources/tutorials and someone will have done a similar project to your requirements, so google/youtube are
definitely your friends! Prime example - I'm currently building some shift lights and a digital tachometer based on the great work this guy did:
linky
Also, although they are a shop, adafruit also do great tutorials.
Hope that helps, components are so cheap these days that if the worst happens you will only short out a £20 board so go for it!
John
[Edited on 6/1/16 by tweek]
"oh dear..." said god,
"I hadn't thought of that"
and promptly vanishes in a puff of logic
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bi22le
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| posted on 6/1/16 at 09:50 PM |
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Depending on what you want to do i would consider using a raspberry pi or the newer version, cant remember its name.
The whole idea is IP / OP controlling for non electronics people. One of them had a GUI that helped create the logic code.
Track days ARE the best thing since sliced bread, until I get a supercharger that is!
Please read my ring story:
http://www.locostbuilders.co.uk/forum/13/viewthread.php?tid=139152&page=1
Me doing a sub 56sec lap around Brands Indy. I need a geo set up! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EHksfvIGB3I
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woodstock
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| posted on 6/1/16 at 10:17 PM |
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Arduino or Raspberry Pi would be my recommendation too depending on what you want.
Arduino's have the advantage of being able to process analog inputs and can be powered on/off as you want. Like an appliance.
The Arduino Uno is the most popular and featured in lots of documentation. It's plugs straght into a Win/Linux/Mac to be programmed. There are
lots of arduino boards with different numbers of inputs/outputs depening on what you need.
Raspberry Pi's run a Linux OS and are mini computer. This means you have to boot it up and shut it down as well as patch it etc but once you
learn a bit of Python you can do a lot with it and it becomes very powerful. It can only process digital inputs (on/off) natively but you can work
around that. As a PC it's easier to get connected to you WiFI network too if that's of interest. It also has HDMI out and any standard USB
keyboard and mouse will work.
The Pi2 is the most powerful version and is fractionally more expensive than an Arduino Uno. There is also a Pi Zero which which is on £5 but is less
powerful and doesn't use widely standard connectors so if that's of interest then I'd buy one of the Kits for £10 or so that come
with HDMI adapter and a USB adapter.
Both devices can be expanded with Shields (arduino) or HATs (Pi) to add other features. This could be a motor control board for example.
Take a look around http://www.instructables.com to see what other people are doing with each.
Hope this helps. I'm no expert but have played with both a bit.
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02GF74
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| posted on 6/1/16 at 10:37 PM |
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quote:
Originally posted by woodstock
Arduino or Raspberry Pi would be my recommendation too depending on what you want.
.
From what i understand, both of these are more akin to mico computers with os and can interface to usb. Wifi, bluetooth and other crazy shit.
Delending on what you want to do, may be an overkill (rip lemmy) and expensive.
To decipher a couple of input signals and drive a dc or stepper motor, then a PIC is more than adequate. There are many flavours, the simplest 8 pin
device with adc would suffice and cost a couple of quid.
You can get pic programmer off ebay, lots of info microchip website. You can get c compiler or use the assembler like langauge to program it.
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SteveWalker
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| posted on 7/1/16 at 12:04 AM |
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From what little I have seen, an Arduino is basically a microcontroller with a minimal amount of support on the PCB and some good development tools
and support libraries. Projects can be prototyped on the Arduino and then transferred to a project specific pcb containing only the minimum hardware
required. It appears to be pretty well as basic as PIC microcontrollers, but with less of a learning curve.
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coyoteboy
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| posted on 7/1/16 at 12:24 AM |
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PICAXE is the simplest and cheapest but also the slowest and most limited.
Arduino is probably the best for basic and complex hardware projects. It has no OS or native visual output.
Rpi is primarily software oriented, easy to setup as a development board for code but, most of the io boards take a fair amount of knowledge to use
well and can baffle even poor Elec Eng students. But it does offer nice interfaces. It's not a realtime hardware interface tool and if
you're looking at decoding raw precisely timed signals I'd look elsewhere as you may need to crowbar it into the role.
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Bluemoon
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| posted on 7/1/16 at 07:37 AM |
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arduino.. Just get a real board not a Chinese import, CPC stock the real ones (small premium).
Very easy you can always graduate to a different platform latter.
Rpi ect are probably overkill and run a full blown linux system and is not a microcontroler. I have used them for all sorts of things simple and quick
to learn.
PIC's are great but ardunio is a lot easier to get started there is so may examples/projects you can find online. Also many sheilds for the
ardinuo.
Dan
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HowardB
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| posted on 7/1/16 at 08:28 AM |
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for cheap,. the PI Zero was almost that, it was a give away on a magazine,.. I believe the retail price is about £4.00
hth
Howard
Fisher Fury was 2000 Zetec - now a 1600 (it Lives again and goes zoom)
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MikeRJ
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| posted on 7/1/16 at 08:54 AM |
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If you want a solid understanding of electronic components and design methodology, Buy yourself a copy of the "The Art Of Electronics" and
read it from cover to cover. It's a very readable book, not chock full of maths like most are.
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rf900rush
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| posted on 7/1/16 at 10:03 AM |
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As above Arduino , Microchip PIC ,
Raspberry PI , Are all good starters with lots of support.
The Raspberry Pi Is great for Graphics Based systems and many control systems, but is more limited in Real time control.
The Arduino and Pic micro-controllers are good for Real time control. Often used for Servo/Stepper control, Drones and much more.
Arduino is very cheap to get started on, no Programming hardware needed, just a USB lead.
PIC's need a Programmer like the PICKIT 3.
For Ready Made PCB's Have a look at Adafruit ,
Microchip PIC , Sparkfun .
A new one ( the small company I work for) has just started in this type of products.
Not the Biggest by a long way but it is new for us, also open to new ideas for project boards.
Hopefully some useful boards.
Personally I prefer the PIC (Microchip) for most of my gadgets, but they all are good hand have good support.
lastly don't forget the old Veroboard with resistors,capacitors transistors and IC,s, or Breadboard for learning.
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David Jenkins
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| posted on 7/1/16 at 10:50 AM |
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Arduino Uno is good, and is an excellent way to get into programming these things. The Arduino programming environment (a.k.a. "IDE" ) is
a bit quirky, but the various tutorials will get you over that hurdle.
When you've written something useful you can transfer the code to something a lot smaller, such as the
Adafruit Trinket. Reasonably priced, quite powerful in their own way, and good for
fitting into little projects.
There's also the Teensy, which not quite so cheap, a bit obscure, but also a little more powerful.
I've used both, and both are effective.
[Edited on 7/1/16 by David Jenkins]
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nick205
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| posted on 7/1/16 at 10:52 AM |
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Not read all of the thread, but we use Arduino's at work to develop and test stuff. According to the Engineers they're cheap to buy, easy
to use and if you kill one no great worry.
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nero1701
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| posted on 7/1/16 at 11:05 AM |
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Dependant on the size and scope of your project, you may wish to consider a PLC system?
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peter030371
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| posted on 7/1/16 at 12:01 PM |
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Lots of great suggestions already but also might be worth considering the mBed, some prefer the online compiler.
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Badger_McLetcher
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| posted on 7/1/16 at 09:18 PM |
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Wow, thanks for all the replies guys! That's given me a hell of a lot of reading to do
If disfunction is a function, then I must be some kind of genius.
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SPYDER
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| posted on 7/1/16 at 10:11 PM |
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I've done a couple of projects using Arduinos.
The first involved running a cable driven speedo from the electronic speed sensor on a modern gearbox using its extensive programmable PWM output
section. I combined two existing sketches found on the net. One to measure frequency of the gearbox pulses then another to produce musical tones.
The derived tones were fed to a stepper motor driver circuit board thence to a stepper motor mounted to the back of the speedo.
The second was a simple triple seven segment display showing AFR using the output from the Lambda sensor
You'll probably find that most things have already been done to some extent so you can find ready written sketches on the net. There's a
huge community based around Arduino.
Controlling a DC motor will be easy.
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David Jenkins
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| posted on 7/1/16 at 10:22 PM |
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The big advantage of Arduino is the number of people who've experimented with them - all ages from primary school kids up to pensioners. If you
get stuck on a problem then there are lots of people who could help you find a solution.
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