this post was submitted on 11 Sep 2024
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Background: I took some 100 and 200-level courses on electronics in college over a decade ago. I still remember some stuff (Ohm's law, Kirchoff's law), and I can recognise the basic parts in a circuit diagram.

I am also happy to pick up a beginner friendly text book and go through the theory by myself, if there are any recommendations.

However, I've never even held a soldering gun. I am a blank slate when it comes to any practical applications. I get overwhelmed trying to figure out what kit to order on Amazon.

So, is there a course/tutorial you'd recommend for learning the hands on parts of it? I'd prefer as much handholding as possible. Ex -- if someone sells all the components to finish the projects in the course that would be the course I pick.

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[โ€“] [email protected] 2 points 1 week ago (1 children)

Robotics can be dangerous, don't jump into the deep end of robotics without learning how to use electronics first. Definitely start with electronics and move up to robotics once you have a lot of electronic failures under your belt. I would suggest that you keep robotics in mind as you learn.

Many people provided you with great places to start with electronics. Start there, because robotics are electronics with motion and that's more dangerous. Motion can hurt someone or start a fire. Especially for as a hobby I'd be most concerned about accidentally starting a fire because of bad code and poor failure planning.

If you pick this up and get some experience with electronics, you'll begin to understand a lot of the things that can go wrong with robotics before they start a fire. Also this can get very expensive, you will destroy components. It's inevitable. I may be speaking from experience.

[โ€“] [email protected] 3 points 1 week ago (1 children)

Thanks, fire safety concerns have definitely played a major role in why I haven't actually started building stuff. I'll keep this in mind.

[โ€“] [email protected] 2 points 1 week ago (1 children)

It's not as big a risk as this person is making out. If you're playing with low current microcontroller stuff, there's virtually no risk. At most you're gonna let the magic smoke out of a chip, not start a fire.

If you start getting into stepper motors and things like that, sure, but that's a long ways from where you are today.

[โ€“] [email protected] 2 points 1 week ago (1 children)

Where does something like "use a DC motor to build a tiny little fan" stand, in terms of safety?

[โ€“] [email protected] 2 points 1 week ago (1 children)

Very safe unless you attach razor blades to the blades.

Most small DC motors don't have enough power to break the skin

[โ€“] [email protected] 2 points 1 week ago

Awesome, thanks!