Actually m from india . speaking straight, " i can't spend much but also can't live without robotics".
so please give me some advices to not to kill my love towards robotics. i m a student of electronics but here in my college we do not have such facalities for electronics students. so please guide me about how to begin and what resources to use to get over the money problem.
i really need your help.......!!!!
i started working over 8051 family but working on with it is quite stressing as i need to start from scratch everytime.
I know what you mean…robotics is an expensive hobby indeed…
A few tips:
1) Scrapping: Collect electronic scraps whenever you can. As an electronics student you may have an advantage here having an easier time identifying the parts and figuring out what you could do with them…
2) Be creative: Use glue, tape and whatever you can find. For example I’m using old CDs to build servo brackets, rather than buying the premade ones for 5-10$ each.
3) DIY (Do it yourself): For instance rather than buying an Arduino board just buy the chips (atmega168/328). There are lots of manuals online on how to make your own boards. Perhaps you can make your own PCBs at school? Otherwise see advice no. 2 = use what you’ve got instead…
4) Communities: find someone with similar interest that you can share costs with whenever you do need to buy something. For instance tools or a programmer so you can burn your own bootloader on the atmega chips…No need to own one yourself since you’ll be using it rarely…
Cardboard!, its cheap :P. I Cardboard!, its cheap :P. I screw long sections together with small screws and its actually quit strong. Also you can scave lots from old electronics, i just got two geared motors from an old dvd play(along wiht lots of other stuff). Theres a tip on getting pager motors from cheap electric cars in the tips section, maybee worth a look?.
Also with a group, you can trade and swap parts. You will also find that people with different skillsets than your own. Why not start a robotics club at your university? You will have others to share costs, skills and knowledge with.
One criteria : Being able to One criteria : Being able to tell the difference between a tantalum and a ceramic cap regardless what a schematic appears to say. : )
I still have NO idea how you guys can tell the difference. The damn things look EXACTLY the same
Anyway I’ve been programming since I was 11 and I’m studying computer science. However a few months ago I frankly didn’t know what the hoot a circuit was. So bare over with me
Ttantalum are more oval and Ttantalum are more oval and likely to be shiny. Ceramic are almost a perfect circle and have more of a matte finish. As far as circuit schematics go I’m not sure how they are represented. I usually just check to see if polarity is called for and if not find one with the proper farads/voltage.
