In the past 8 months or so I’ve been on a journey to learn everything I can about microcontrollers, circuits, electronics, components, sensors, and embedded software.
It all started with a second attempt (albeit 10 years after the first) at making something with Arduino. Since then, I’ve built more similar demos for work, but also fun stuff for me.
New to me, at least
As I became sated with using assembled boards and sensors, I started looking into the microcontroller itself. I found numerous examples of folks programming just the chip that’s in the Arduino, part of the AVR family of microcontrollers.
I had a few chips belonging to an Arduino board I had lying around (the original one I had bought in ’09) and started playing with them, learning how to program them at the bare-chip level. And I followed examples on how to build a programmer, too.
There were also smaller AVR chips, the ATtiny45 and ATtiny85, which were versatile, simple, cheap. Yes, up in the image to the right is an ATtiny programmer shield for the Arduino I designed (still being prototyped at this stage, though).
I was leveling up here, real chip-fu!
A familiar path of discovery
Then I saw how many ATtiny or AVR programming boards were out there. And I heard from folks that they too took that path. Indeed, I think this step of bare-chip programming is the next step most folks take after messing with Arduinos and that catapults them even further.
At the same time, I was asked to do more hardware constructs for work and I realized that I was no longer dabbling. I’d already spent some hundreds of dollars for work and for me. I really hadn’t taken good notes or managed my code well. Time to wisen up.
Not stopping yet
After playing the AVR programming, I’ve felt more confident learning about circuits, and building them – low drop out voltage regulators, astable multivibrators, paper-based circuits.
In this last wave of leveling up, I’ve been taking good notes and managing my code better, like the scientist I am at heart insists I do. And the rate I am amassing experience points is accelerating. It’s exhilarating.
Some of the things next up for me include more elaborate and polished demos at work, getting deeper into 3D printing (I did), and continuing up the learning curve of badge life.
There’s no shortage of things to learn!
