Finally the fun starts =)

Finally the fun starts =)
Posted by SuperMiguel on 18 Mar, 2011 01:24
So finally ima start my true electronics studies at school i finish my calcs, my physics and all the prerequisites to get into the EE program.. So i have play with arduino from turning on an LED on to building a small robot. Also i done a bit of straight AVR but not much, so my C programming is not that great also the only analog electronics i have done is playing with the 555 and few basic things...

So should i go ahead and start working on my C programming or finally read "The art of electronics" and learn analog?

Thanks

#2 Reply
Posted by SuperMiguel on 18 Mar, 2011 15:56
Quote from: Mechatrommer on 18 Mar, 2011 14:56
congrats. do it all, if you can, analog, programing digital etc etc.

any recommendation on which one to do first?

#3 Reply
Posted by Mechatrommer on 18 Mar, 2011 20:20
ok, since you ask me. first programming, then digital, and then analog. i'm sure alot of people will answer backward. but thats just me

#4 Reply
Posted by NiHaoMike on 18 Mar, 2011 22:29
Start with whatever interests you most or whatever you think is most important to you.

I personally started with analog, then digital and finally software. I mostly work with power electronics which is mostly analog with some digital and sometimes a little bit of software. On the other hand, my friend Tiffany Yep, a digital communications engineer (and a model), specializes in software and only needs to know the basics of digital and analog circuits.

#5 Reply
Posted by Simon on 18 Mar, 2011 22:36
we were taught digital first in "school" and I found it well wierd, you still need the fundamentals of electronics to understand digital, software is not electronics, it's software. Programming a computer (MCU) is just programming although with MCU's you will be designing the whole system of software and electronics so things start to "meld".

For a general approach I'd say make sure you have the analogue fundamentals, at least enough to understand the physics of digital circuitry (not much point in trying to interface logic gates to control power loads until you know at least the basics of transistors) then do as you please. Developing both analogue and digital may be a good idea, both are huge so take what you need from either. most designs are both, or rather they are MCU's and analogue interface circuitry, but understanding digital helps with MCU's I guess

#7 Reply
Posted by SuperMiguel on 19 Mar, 2011 02:39
not sure if it matters but im really interested in robotics, not sure if that changes the order of the factors

#8 Reply
Posted by Simon on 19 Mar, 2011 08:19
yea, you need to study all areas as you will be dealing with software control through digital interfacing into the real (analogue) world by means of actuators and transducers. Not having the analogue skills to interface an MCU to the rral world will cost in the long run. I made a real hash of a project once because I didn't understand my opamp properly. It worked in the end but that was opure luck and due to software tinkering to compensatwe for my mistake

#9 Reply
Posted by Trigger on 20 Mar, 2011 21:45
I was a CS major then I switched over to CE which gave me a solid background in programming. It made my life a whole lot easier when it came to projects. Once you have to program in binary, then op codes, assembly, and finally C. My impression of microcontroller assembly was 'wow this is simple'. You should learn assembly for debugging purposes but don't torture yourself with writing programs in it unless you have to and that's why inline assembly exists. You can do a lot of creative outside of the box things with a microcontroller to solve problems but that all depends on your ability to tell it what to do.