Basic/Fundamental Electronics and Circuits

[cpldave]

Hi All,

Like many I'm eagerly awaiting the arrival of my batch-2 RPi, so I've been keeping busy by reading as much as I can about embedded systems and programming in general.

I've done bits and pieces of C++, C#, Python and Perl in the past and I can "get stuff done", but I've never felt like I had the type of knowledge needed to make use of the awesome expansion boards that are in production for the RPi... so I started hunting for information on embedded development and basic electronics and stumbled across a bunch of resources that I found useful and I thought I share them with the community just in case some others out there are in the same boat of not knowing where to start with this great little gadget:

Great Online Book about Circuits and Electronics (I'm only a few chapters in, but it seems great for a novice like me):

http://www.allaboutcircuits.com

I also came across a project called the NerdKit, which is a small breadboard electronics kit that aims to introduce people to embedded design/programming through example:

http://www.nerdkits.com/

The NerdKit is $70USD and I haven't ordered one yet... but I think it's definitely going to be on my list of things to acquire in the near future. The reviews by it's users are simply amazing. It does advertise itself as a beginners learning kit, so hopefully a complete electronics novice like me will be able to make use of it and get a better grip on working with electronics and embedded systems.

Hope someone else finds these resources useful. Of course, if you have any resources of your own that you'd like to share, please do

[SN]

Nice post this - has led me into the world of Circuit Simulation Software...  anyone have any recommendations of which (free one) to try ?

[ringz]

I think you should have a look at the arduino website

http://www.arduino.cc

There's loads of stuff there that I think you should look at before you decide on the nerdkit.

Martyn.

[cpldave]

SN said:


Nice post this - has led me into the world of Circuit Simulation Software...  anyone have any recommendations of which (free one) to try ?


I found this one linked on the NerdKit website:

https://www.circuitlab.com

It seems really easy to use. I sure once I know the symbols and basic circuitry, I'll be able to do some fun stuff on there.

[powderfinger]

The best guide I have found for basic microcontroller interfacing is part 3 of the PicAxe manual http://www.picaxe.com/docs/pic.....anual3.pdf

[mahjongg]

Wikipedia can be a great source of info, you should read the articles about

General Purpose Input/Output (GPIO), SPI and II2C, and also the UART (Universal asynchronous receiver/transmitter) article, as these are the primary mechanisms the R-PI supports for connecting other electronics