General Questions on How To Get Started Hardware Hacking/Modding

[greytiger]

Hi,

Please note this post is asking for your help and suggestions on how to get started on a specific project I have in mind and asking for suggestions on setting up my own little EE lab/mod shop in my garage.  This post also is the first time I have put pen to paper on my little project so there is a great deal of basic self discovery of what I don't know and planning what I think might work.  As such, the questions are vague and coming from an absolute hardware beginner.  Considering that, please understand my goals here are two fold:

Goal:

- Long Term: To become an avid hardware hacker/modder/hobbiest with a respectable home lab for diagnostics, debugging, design and manufacturing in the garage for personal/entrepreneurial/prototyping use as an outlet for fun and creativity.

- Short Term: As a 1st project, mount a computer in a backpack and have it be mobile

Personal Limitations to Consider (Please):
My eyesight is not that great anymore.  Getting a little long in the tooth (40 years, feels like 85) is beginning to rob me of my nearsightedness.  Also, I am severely dyslexic so book/text reading is very difficult for me.  I would prefer video links as much as possible for instruction whenever possible as opposed to books.  I do have a screen reader but it doesn't translate technical information very well so anything resembling programming or math, becomes gibberish in a screen reader.  I will though actively listen to as much material general material as I can.   

Current Skills/Assets:
What I bring to the table is 18 years of programming experience in a variety of languages including C/C++/C#/SQL/JavaScript/Bash/PowerShell/Basic.  I am comfortable programming on Windows/Mac or Linux OSes for software development and scripting but hardware is a new beast I have never tackled.  About 20 years ago, I was trained (4.5 Months) as an aircraft electrician by the USAF but I barely remember the fundamentals of those courses and I am certain I need a solid brush up.  I have an LLC in Texas so I can purchase wholesale as well.

Possible Equipment Needs:
I have a budget of about $1500.00 for equipment/supplies.  I imagine I will need an oscilloscope. I would prefer to get the most bang for the buck on such a device. If you could, please provide some vids/links for the basic tools/equipment needed to forward/reverse engineer circuit boards, build my own circuits via bread board then to a printed circuit, soldering equipment & instruction, any safety equipment/guidelines I should be aware of and generally any equipment I would need to make the job a little easier and my little lab the most flexible.   Do you have any links besides ebay or craigslist to purchasing electronics testing/circuit design/box modding equipment on the cheap? 

Maybe some tips to buying used equipment like what to look for so I don't buy a lemon specifically for the o-scope. I probably also need to know what equipment I would need build custom boxes with for both metal and plastic.  Is there a link/site where I can purchase ready-made metal/plastic compartments/housings in a variety of dimensions either retail or wholesale?  Finally, I would like some advice on working with carbon fiber.  I don't know where to buy bulk carbon fiber sheets/rolls and I don't have any equipment for cutting, shaping, curing/forming or basically working with carbon fiber.  Any sites/vids/links/retailers/wholesalers you can list to help would be great as well.

Possible Software/Programming Needs:
What software packages do you consider the most flexible for working/designing hardware/circuit design/schematic creation/chip programming/housing designs?  Any open-source software out there that is useful in this process?  Are there any other applications you would suggest I purchase?  Where would you start if you knew nothing of chip/rom programming?

Ok with that bit of ground work here are some project details.

1st Project Details/Major Components:

Case:  A NothFace Surge Backpack - http://bit.ly/1LhOJzH

Computer: raspberry pi or audrino - need to research further to choose the fastest/most efficient/most extendable

Considering the pi/audrino, what are the best links/vids/guide you've found for building a circuit board to connect to that computer?  I know almost nothing about pi/audrino programming so I need an solid guide to that. 

Solar: I need to research this but I would like the smallest most power producing solar panels I can find that I can combine in an array possibly to recharge my battery backup. 

Batteries: lithium or the best suggestion you may have storing energy. Again I think I need the smallest, most lightweight but powerful enough power storage device I can find to run the pi/audrino and additional device(s) that will be wired in.

I know that is a lot to process and but I just need to get some basic starting points defined. 

Thank you for your time and consideration,

Mike Mahon
Austin, TX

[kolonelkadat]

 @software:
for circuit design, I use Altium CircuitMaker. Other popular choices are kikad and eagle.
for uC programming, youll typically go with whatever toolchain goes with the chip you want to use.

@gear
2 handheld multimeters are the first things I would get. watch daves multimeter shootout, or mjlorton,s, or some other dude did one more recently too. Search youtube.

you will also want an ADJUSTABLE power supply. 0-30 volts, 0-3amps would be nice. I prefer to get used HP ones from the 70s and 80s for the price vs build quality, but its up to you. Lambda ones are nice as well. If you want new and dont mind the ~$500 price tag, the Keysight U8002A is what I would probably get, although the rigol DP832 is probably better value for money in that price range.

a breadboard will be very handy as well. get a couple of them. 3M makes (or maybe made) a good one.

youre an american, so just get a hakko fx888 soldering iron. you can get a better one down the road a ways if you ever need it.

to put a pc in a backpack, you absolutely dont need an oscilloscope. But when you find yourself  thinking "damn I wish I had an oscilloscope for this project im working on" then head over to tequipment.com and buy yourself a rigol 1054z

@consumables
solder, flux, solder wick, wire, heat shrink
I buy wire and heat shrink locally because its convenient for me, but all other consumables come from mouser.com


@your project
AN ARDUINO IS NOT AND NEVER WILL BE A COMPUTER.
Raspi is a choice you could make. For 70 bucks or whatever they cost these days, Id just get a cheap laptop or smartphone. I find it really hard to justify the cost of a raspi when youre going to have to turn around and buy a monitor and keyboard and mouse to use it as a computer.

I just am not quite sure what your end goal is, so I really dont know how to help you with this.

[zerorisers]

to put a pc in a backpack, you absolutely dont need an oscilloscope. But when you find yourself  thinking "damn I wish I had an oscilloscope for this project im working on" then head over to tequipment.com and buy yourself a rigol 1054z

I almost always find myself thinking "damn I wish I had an oscilloscope for this project that I'm working on" and going through with what I do. Tequip.net let me demo a scope that was able to decode CAN, and keysight held a seminar teaching me all of the functions of the scope.
It is very pricy and out of budget but keysight usually has some pretty cool deals going on. I believe you where able to get all software options for free this year.
http://www.keysight.com/en/pc-1940898/infiniivision-3000-x-series-oscilloscope?cc=US&lc=eng

[Mechatrommer]

I imagine I will need an oscilloscope

what are you going to do with it?

Computer: raspberry pi or audrino - need to research further to choose the fastest/most efficient/most extendable

its arduino, not audrino, get used to the spelling and the pronounciation too. and its not a computer. its a microcontroller. it has many output/input pins that you can connect physically to the outside world, not like software that you used to they only live in virtual world.

Batteries: lithium or the best suggestion you may have storing energy. Again I think I need the smallest, most lightweight but powerful enough power storage device I can find to run the pi/audrino and additional device(s) that will be wired in.

lipo usually used by rc people. cutting edge battery a hobbiest can get...

I would like some advice on working with carbon fiber

http://lmgtfy.com/?q=bulk+purchase+carbon+fiber+america
http://lmgtfy.com/?q=working+with+carbon+fiber+youtube

messing with carbon fiber and arduino is really something...