Hi everyone!
I’d like to introduce myself. My name is Kevin. I’m a 23 year old computer programmer, with my focus at the time specifically on PHP and jQuery.
A few days ago I decided to attempt to begin learning more about hardware, circuits, and how they’re programmed. Upon my searching I came across .NET Gadgeteer. I was impressed with how easy it looked, not only to attach Modules, but to program them. That day, I went online and purchased a FEZ Spider, along with a PIR Module, a Camera and an Ethernet Module; the idea behind my Gadget was that I’d have a motion sensor waiting to be triggered, once it’s triggered, it would snap a picture and then upload that picture to a web server. I decided that I’d start programming my Gadget that night, so that once I received my parts, I would simply have to connect my mainboard and test the code. Lucky for me, everything worked very well (other than sometimes I received errors when POSTing content to a web server), especially considering I didn’t know that I knew how to program in C# :P.
So, once I was done that, I was kind of at a loss. With the Modules that I purchased, I found it difficult to think of other ideas I was able to build using them, and even if I did have a decent idea, it would be far too simple to program.
So, that lead me to looking into circuits. Now, my only prior experience with circuits was (believe it or not) briefly in elementary school, and even more briefly in high school.
I got refreshed on Ohm’s Law (which I remembered having to use in high school) and began thinking of building a very simple circuit.
It might be good at this point to inform you all that I do not even know what all components do, nor how they work. I essentially have basic knowledge about resistors and LED lights. That’s the extent of my knowledge in terms of circuits.
So, I’ve decided that the first thing I wanted to attempt to build was an Infrared LED emitter, which would be able to send IR signals. With a bit of searching, I came across this video Assembling the IR LED Array Module for .NET Gadgeteer on Vimeo by G. Andrew Duthie, where he was building an IR LED Array Module for Gadgeteer. He even designed and had his own PCB built (this may be a standard, I don’t know, but it’s frickin’ neat – speaking of which, does anyone know of a company that creates PCBs based on your designs, that is very cost-effective?).
Now I have essentially two paths that I can go down, and your opinions would mean a great deal to me, as I don’t know which method has more benefits. With either of the options, I would still have to design my own circuit (using 1 resistor and 1 or more IR LEDs). The options I can pursue are the following:
- Using a Gadgeteer Socket, make my IR LED Array into a “Module” and connect it to my FEZ Spider mainboard. This includes having to program the Module; a seperate Module (like a Button) would trigger my new IR LED Array Module, and tell it to the the IR LED(s) on/off.
- Use pure circuits with no programming (using a battery to power the device). I believe this would include adding a switch (no idea how to use one, just thinking…) and maybe even a button to turn the switch on/off.
What I like about option 1) is that I can control my Module programmatically, and tell the LED light to turn on or off. What I dislike is the fact that (from what I’ve seen thus far) the FEZ Spider Mainboard must be attached via USB to my computer in order to power it. What I’m unsure of is, for example, the Camera module has pre-build functions like takePicture() and even delegated events. But, how is the Camera Module programmed to take a picture? If I had 3 IR LEDs, and wanted to turn the first one on, and the other two off, how on EARTH would I do that? I’m at a loss to understand this part.
What I like about option 2) is that it can be powered by a regular battery, doesn’t require me to program anything, but requires me to learn more about switches and buttons, and how to even control when a button is pushed (now that I think of it, does option 2) have ANY sort of programming? At all?)
Thanks for taking the time to read this, and understanding that I am a beginner.
I appreciate any help, advice or words of wisdom any of you have to offer.
Thanks again to Andrew Duthie for linking me here.