Beginner here. I need some direction

Community General Discussions
1

I have come to a point in my life where I have some free time for a new hobby and I think robotics is something I could enjoy.

As I understand it, the following seems to be the basic skillset necessary to really get into robotics:

- ability to understand and create mechanical features with your hands

- have an understanding of electrical circuitry (especially in the context of commonly used robotics components)

- have an understanding of event driven computer programming

And of course, one would need hand tools, building materials, certain robotics components, and sometimes some spare cash.

I'm sure Ive left some items out here, but I believe I got the just of it.

I think the only thing holding me back right now is my lack of circuitry knowledge. I'm good with my hands, I have been programming in Microsoft Visual Basic and VBA for a few years now (so I understand event driven programming, I just will have to apply my knowledge to a new language). Furthermore, I have been into RC cars/planes for about the last 10 years or so (so I have several servos, recievers, batteries, etc. laying around here), and tools...I have tools.

So my question is, what do I need to do to learn the circuitry? I learned some very basic circuitry in my Physics II class (I'm a couple of semesters away from a degree in Civil Engineering), but I don't know enough. However, I CAN learn it, I just want to get the most appropriate resources possible.

I did some searching in these forums and found that many of you reccomend certain websites and tutorials. However, some of you also listed some literature. The literature I've seen reccomended is "Evil Genius" books. They have "Electronic Circuits for the Evil Genius," "Robotics Experiments for the Evil Genius," and "Mechatronics for the Evil Genius." I have also seen "Practical Electronics for Inventors" listed as well.

So, given that my problem is with circuitry (as far as I can tell), which of those books do you all reccommend, if any?

2

you are 10 steps ahead of most…

Don’t worry about the circutry… When you get started, most is just going to be of the + to + and ground to ground kinda stuff. As you progress and want your robot to do more, you will simply learn by default --You will scan a lot of data sheets for info and use wiki for all the terms you don’t know. I really wouldn’t worry about the circutry stuff.

To get started, I would suggest Picaxe, but then again, I am a picaxe guy. The “Start Here” bot works with picaxe and the picaxe manuals are fantastic --even including a lot of info on how to wire components.

Now it could also be argued that a guy like you with VB knowledge, might want to look at arudino… It is a bit more “Processing” or “Java”-like.

Oh, and don’t worry about the constrution, Frits only uses 2 things -paint stir sticks and hot glue and he started this place!

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dont worry

I couldn’t agree more with CTC. i came to this site beginning of last year and started building robots about a year ago and I knew next to nothing about electronics. Just read the start-here bit and the picaxe manuals; it’s what I did.

Also: picaxe programming is not event driven and (i’ll be corrected soon enough if i’m wrong) neither is the arduino. Think vbscript: all sequential.

So my suggestion: first do the “start here”, then decide which book to buy.

4

Thanks for the suggestions

Thanks for the suggestions everyone. I do plan to start with the “start here.” One of the reasons I was looking for suggestions for literature is simply because I have a birthday in a few days and my family is asking for gift ideas.

VB is event driven, definitely. I’m not sure about the others–but they look event driven to me.

Thanks everyone.

5

David Cooks Robot Building

David Cooks Robot Building for Beginners is good. Many of the beginning robot books have sections on electronics.

That Practical Electronics for Inventors comes highly recommended.

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Mintvelt,I just realized

Mintvelt,

I just realized that I misread what you said. For some reason I read "Visual Basic is not event driven." Sorry about that.

7

i have to pickit 1 flash

i have to pickit 1 flash starter kit and the arduino. they both are good, i suggested the evil genius series, Very Good.
if you like programming go with the pickit 1 or 2 because i had so much trouble with that. =) the pic kit 1 is walked through in the "123 Pic Experiments for the Evil Genius"