Now I guess CA or Wash
I'm one a dem Cajuns from Louisiana, cher.
What subject ? Are you thinking of doing it with videos or text? I sure hope you do.
Would it be free or for profit?
I can help if you like, by proof reading, beta testing, video editing, etc. My name is Roger, I am 67, and was a civil engineer. I live in San Diego and I have a lot of free time. Also I can contribute some money to your cause. Even if your project is for profit, I will volunteer my time. Because I could learn a lot from you just by editing your work.
My electronic and language skills are light years below yours but who knows, I might be able to do something that can help you.
Subject would be discrete and analog circuits, as that's what I've had the most trouble with. Probably no video, as it forces the viewer to learn at the pace the creator of the video sets; I prefer text. And it would be free.
I find there's a gap in educational material. Plenty of bare-basics beginner material written in a friendly, conversational style. Plenty of expert level material bogged down in terminology and math. Very little in the middle.
For example, let's say Mr. John Doe wants to use a bipolar transistor as a switch. He can easily look up an easily understandable basic tutorial on that. But what if the switch operates too slowly? That tutorial will typically cover one method of improving it. Two if he's lucky. But off the top of my head, I know four methods. Plus which cheap and common "jellybean" transistors he probably already has, or can easily obtain, that will operate faster. And which datasheet specs he'll need to examine if he needs to find something faster still. As it stands, John will have to look elsewhere to find that scattered info, likely finding himself in documents that are way over his head.
Another example, Class AB transistor amps. Any basic tutorial will explain what crossover distortion is, and show you one or two biasing schemes to eliminate it. But they can be touchy, and involve some trade-offs. The expert level resources mainly show the same schemes, though with a much better (and technical) explanation of the trade-offs. I built some, and though the end result was adequate, I never really felt comfortable that I had it right. Then, two years back, I wandered into an audiophile forum, for some reason forgotten to me (I love music but am not an audiophile). There I discovered a variation of the Class AB plus biasing called the "diamond buffer", apparently originating from the internals of an old op-amp IC. It's simple, yet works better and with less fuss, than any other biasing scheme I've seen. I would have loved to have found out about it decades ago. Yet it seems unknown outside audiophile circles. I have not seen it elsewhere. And despite mentioning multiple places, I have not found a single non-audiophile who recognized it.
There is no reason why additional info like this can't be written into a tutorial written for beginners, in a way that it's still easily understood. I think it would be helpful and appreciated.
The main barrier, as always, is time. I figure I'll need two virtually uninterrupted weeks of free time to focus and lay the groundwork, after that I can expand it in increments. Just too many other things I want to accomplish right now to give it serious consideration. In the meantime, a little forum activity helps others, and helps me polish my language and explanation skills. Your offer of help is quite gracious. Should I start moving ahead on this, I'll let you know. I'd love to have someone vetting my work, before putting it out there for the world to see.
I thought of this once (that is as far as I went). Are you planning on teaching a lab and using the metal standoffs and your PIC32 board for the class? Are you going to sell your board? There is a "For Sale" section on this forum. I believe there are several members selling boards to each other.
No lab/classes. Again, time constraints. But I've also been a serious programmer for 35 years now, have forgotten what it's even like to be a beginner. Even moving to MCUs a couple years back didn't faze me, felt just like coding on my old Atari 800. I'm good at helping with specific problems, but in the broader context of a class? I know from experience I move too fast and soon lose everyone. It's just too second nature to me, I am the WRONG person to teach that particular topic!
As for the board, when I revise it to fix the known errors, I'm going to post the design here to solicit suggestions from folks more experienced than me. Then roll them into the design, and do another fab run. Assuming there are no new issues, I'll update my post with the final design. If anyone expresses interest, I can sell some bare boards as a convenience to others.
I bought a Microstick II thinking I could use if for an online course from Cornell. It turned out that the course is not online nor posted on YT.
Don't let a little thing like that stop you.
Find a starting point, anything at all, and start doing stuff. I think there's a book called "Feel the Fear and Do It Anyway". For a somewhat cheesy maxim, it applies here perfectly.
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