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Cookies to ddrl46 for the banner.
Welcome to the Facepunch electronics thread, this thread is for anyone who has an interest in electronics, be it analog, digital or just blowing shit up in their free time.
If you have something you want to show or desire to get into electronics just make a post and someone will be along eventually.
Thread Helpers
This is a list of the people who have a decent knowledge of electronics, if in doubt give one of us a poke.
If you wish to be added here please talk to me.
Chryseus
ddrl46
ROBO_DONUT
Recommended Reading
Art of Electronics by Paul Horowitz and Winfield Hill
Without a doubt the most complete and informative book on electronics, although the
current 2nd edition is rather old (1989) it is still extremely relevant to modern electronics.
If you're going to buy any book this should be the one, although it is not designed for beginners.
Complete Digital Design by Mark Balch
An excellent book that covers all the basics such as boolean logic,
karnaugh maps, binary arithmetic and more advanced topics such as serial
communication, microprocessors and the practical design of digital circuits.
Principles of Electric Circuits by Thomas L. Floyd (9th ed)
A very good book for beginners that unlike most comes in an electron flow
version as well, if you prefer that. The book is full of well drawn diagrams and
helpful pictures which makes reading easy and fun, in addition at the end of each
chapter there is a quiz to make sure you fully understand what you have read.
Troubleshooting Analog Circuits by Robert A. Pease (Bob Pease)
An excellent book by an excellent author, this book contains a lot of useful
information that is invaluable if you are interested in getting into electronic
repair.
Video Lectures
Basic Electronics, Prof T.S.Natarajan - NPTEL
Very well made lecture series with a lot of useful information, highly recommended.
Other Resources
http://www.allaboutcircuits.com/
A very informative e-book that can be read online or downloaded, it explains things
very nicely and with plenty of pictures and diagrams so it is suitable for beginners.
I highly recommend although the book is not complete.
http://www.eevblog.com/
Excellent video blog all about electronics, definitely worth watching.
Also has an excellent forum suitable both for beginners and professionals.
http://www.williamson-labs.com/
Some useful images but the site design will make your eyes bleed.
Where to buy components
Bitsbox - Small selection of components but very cheap shipping, £1.50 UK, £2.75 Europe, £4.00 anywhere else.
RS - A well known supplier with large selection, shipping is fairly cheap but no Paypal.
Farnell - Another excellent supplier with a very large selection, minimum order applies and no Paypal.
DealExtreme - Sells a lot of made in china stuff but you can get some really good deals such as the Rigol DS1052E.
Rapid - Decent selection but not the cheapest, shipping outside the UK is also fairly expensive.
Maplin Electronics - Similar to rapid but even more expensive, not available outside the UK as far as I'm aware, avoid.
Digikey - Excellent selection of components but fairly expensive shipping.
Sure Electronics - Small selection but some good value for money component kits.
Sparkfun Electronics - Nice selection with some good deals.
RSH Electronics - Small selection with some great bargain packs, cheap delivery £4.00 international
Electrical Safety
Working with electricity is generally quite safe, however here are a some useful tips that will help you avoid severe injury or in the worst case death.
Avoid working with mains electricity unless you are confident with what you're doing
Probe live circuits with your right hand and keep your left hand in your pocket
Keep your hands clean and dry
Do not wear any metal objects even around low voltage
Never go near high energy (3 phase) systems with a non-industry grade multimeter
Use a properly fused multimeter to avoid risk of explosion
Ensure high voltage capacitors are discharged before touching a circuit
Never make changes to household wiring unless you REALLY know what you're doing
NEVER EVER play around with microwave ovens they're potentially lethal
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This looks fairly interesting, what languages can you code for this stuff in?
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It depends very much on the MCU / CPU in question, C and inline assembly is usually the standard however a number of other languages have been made to work such Fortran, Java, C++, Python, etc
Any language can with some effort be used.
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It should be noted that the higher level the programming languages get (C++, Java, .........., Lua), they need a lot more CPU power and ROM and RAM, making them impractical for microcontroller use. That's why you'll most likely find C and assembly used on microcontroller like the AVR or PIC.
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C++ is not a high level language; and lua is not a programming language, it's a scripting language written in C.
While C++ is not used on many microcontrollers by default, it still compiles to assembly so as long as a compiler is written it can be used on any microcontroller that is assembly-compliant. All of the arduino platforms use C++ though, and it's fairly easy to set up visual C++ to compile onto an arduino for example.
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Lua is a programming language and I have no idea what you mean by "assembly-compliant".
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I think he means it compiles into assembly
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Just mean any embedded system that is designed to interpret assembly commands.
EDIT: Also, fair enough if they want to call lua a programming language - but it is by definition a scripting language. It's a language made within another language that only runs by being executed by another program (whether it be a custom program or the standard lua interpreter), and it's usually used to extend programs functionality outside of the main code.
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Oh wow, We finally got to a v2, we need highlights.
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Please PM me any suggestions you have for the featured projects section.
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Personally, I wouldn't class something that runs in a VM as a programming language.
But that's like, my opinion man.
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So.. what do people actually use these for? Other than shamelessly screwing around
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It's not a matter of opinion. It's a programming language by definition.
That still doesn't make any sense. Any modern processor is going to be pretty similar. They all iterate through instructions containing opcodes and arguments. Assembly languages are just the human-readable form where opcodes are replaced by mnemonics.
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Alright so honestly, why would you do this? You skip over my post and basically reword it but without reasoning.
Also, I didn't say it was rare or abnormal - for gods sake read the posts in the thread. The entire point of me saying that was that everything should work with C++ to some extent, and that went over your head to a pretty extreme extent.
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I don't think you are aware of the definition of a scripting language. A scripting language is by definition a special type of programming language that's designed to be embedded in an application written in a different language.
Wikipedia posted:
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That's pretty much what I said exactly, did you read my post at all...?
EDIT: Oh, I see. Well if you just bold two parts of a sentence it's easy to disagree with what I said I suppose, but the rest of that paragraph agrees with everything I said.
EDIT2: also, your title is missing a semi-colon.
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So what you're basically saying Java isn't a programming language?
What about C#?
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Alright, since everyone is clearly incredibly offended by my disagreement of lua being a programming language - let me clarify what I said in a language everyone here can understand (apologies for any 5AM spelling/grammar/other errors).
Lua is embedded - it has to be run in an interpreter, whether that be the standard one written in C or a custom one. The wikipedia definition of a scripting language says this, just as Overv quoted as well:
Now, because the definition opens with "a programming language that...", some people are crying foul and saying this is a programming language then. But the that is not leading up to include an addition, it's leading up to include an exception. In this way it means that the scripting language is not a complete programming language - it cannot run on it's own, and is therefore not totally one.
Now, a way to analogize this to C++ is to say that in a way scripting is more of a base class - it is related to a programming language class but is is not a complete reference, it is not complete on its own when used alone.
So that's why I said lua is not a programming language - and if you disagree then fine I suppose, but at least be mature about it please. This isn't fast threads.
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Even though it is compiled into assembly, it still requires big amounts of CPU power and RAM.
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C++ does not require large amounts of processing power and RAM by default. You can make C++ wasteful yourself by abstracting the fuck out of it and using tonnes of convenient structures that you don't really need, but that's using C++ poorly.
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Where in the definition of a programming language is it specified that it needs to be able to run on its own?
And actually it is an addition. The fact that a scripting language allows control of an application is a special property that programming languages do not necessarily have.Wikipedia posted:
Additionally, I like how you're saying people are being immature here, yet you are the one coming up with stuff like this:
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It's the other way around - it's not that a programming language is defined to be able to run on it's own, it's that a scripting language is defined to not be able to run on its own.
A programming language can always control an application because it is the application. A scripting language is an extra layer that cannot be run on it's own - but can add functionality to an existing application that runs on its own.
EDIT: ie, I can write a C app that runs on it's own, and I can write it in any way to have control over itself - and I can add a layer of lua to add additional ways of controlling it. BUT, I cannot just use the lua on it's own - it needs the C, whereas the C does not need the lua.
Edited:
That was a joke, it wasn't intended to be offensive. Sorry.
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I really was not expecting this.
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Well I'll be damned, here I was thinking that C# was a programming language but it clearly isn't because it can't run on its own, it needs an implementation of the CLR and the FCL.
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As far as im aware, dont all languages need something to turn them into executable code, or intermediate code?
Does that mean C isnt a programming language because you need an original implementation of a compiler in ASM?
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Apparently ASM isn't a programming language either because it needs the CPU tpo interpret it.
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I guess you could technically say so.
No, that's dumb.
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I came here expecting content.
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Chryseus: I'm a hilight?! :3:
It's just a single H-bridge though, not a stepper driver, just a plain old DC motor driver.
As for content, I can post some of my stuff from the last thread, though I'm working on a few things again, so there'll probably be some new content sooner or later.
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Don't complain, post content.
Edited:
Would it be asking for too much if the banner was 10px narrower?
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How would data transmission between an Arduino and PC work? Say if you wanted some sort of wireless communication, such as sending commands to your Arduino. Would you use ad-hoc 802.11 or is there some longer range, more suitable bits of equipment out there for that?
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Anyone else have a Netduino Plus?
I have one and its very nice, I like it better than my Arduino Duemilanove.
It's backwards compatible with most Arduino shields and it uses .NET as the programming language.
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I have the regular Netduino. It's pretty cool, but I haven't played a lot with it yet.Anyone else have a Netduino Plus?
I have one and its very nice, I like it better than my Arduino Duemilanove.
It's backwards compatible with most Arduino shields and it uses .NET as the programming language.
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People who make analog stuff get extra points.
Not that digital is bad, I just prefer analog since it takes much more effort to learn and make good things with.
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Just to get the scope of these things, is it technically possible to write a program for it thatll convert a morse code input that you tap in externally, and then route it to a custom made IM client for the thing?
Not that thats a sensible idea
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It's possible.Just to get the scope of these things, is it technically possible to write a program for it thatll convert a morse code input that you tap in externally, and then route it to a custom made IM client for the thing?
Not that thats a sensible idea
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Sure why not.
Naw, Java is a programming language, sure but I wouldn't say Lua is.
I guess I can't be like Overv and just search the wikipedia definition for everything.
That's JIT iirc, and doesn't run in a VM. Correct me if I'm wrong.
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Yes, C# is an odd language, but does it really warrant coming in to a thread, ignoring someone's clearly worded reasoning and acting sarcastic and annoying?
Anyways, since there's no moving projects so far - here's one from the last thread I made a long time ago
The video quality is just awful due to the only video camera I had being my cellphone one at the time. The bluetooth module was a pain in the ass. There's threads all over the arduino forum trying to figure out how to program it - no joke, the recommended way for a long time has been to hit the reset button really fast when hitting the upload button. I was helping a guy in PMs for a while trying to get his timing right for hitting the reset button.
The project broke soon after because the RC car I modded was very clearly 200 years old, but now I'm gutting and rewiring this truck
it's really impressive mechanically but the electrical is just awful. It's got a single transistor turning the drive train so it can only go forwards or backwards - it has no speed control. That and it has the standard approach to steering: it uses a potentiometer and a DC motor connected to their own feedback controls rather than a servo motor.
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With the new Uno chips, couldn't you make it even be detected/used as a keyboard? That'd be cool.Just to get the scope of these things, is it technically possible to write a program for it thatll convert a morse code input that you tap in externally, and then route it to a custom made IM client for the thing?
Not that thats a sensible idea
Edited:
^ My new project.
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Can I be added to the list? I own an Arduino Uno.
Programming King x 1
Friendly x 1
Informative x 1
Agree x 6
Dumb x 2
Useful x 1
Disagree x 1
Optimistic x 1
Artistic x 1
Funny x 9
