Introduction

I've never had a blog before, and for that matter, never had a reason. Now I do, or at least now I want to get some things down before I forget. If any of this winds up being useful to other people, great. If not, well, I've got notes out in the cloud I can get back to from anywhere. It has come to my attention that computers are better at remembering things than my own brain - more on that later...

For a while I've had a number of ideas regarding various gadgets I wanted to build. Most of these gadgets are of an electronic nature. I am a Software Engineer by trade. While I've got 15+ years of experience programming in various languages, I've got little or no experience with electronics. This has, until recently, stopped me from acting on any of these ideas.

With software you can debug and you can try again with little or not consequences. With electronics sometimes if you make a mistake you can fry a component - and you're out real money. I hadn't gotten into it because I was afraid. That and I didn't know where to start.

I had been trolling the web and other blogs for a while to see how other people build their stuff. It was during these trolls - and this is recently - that I discovered Arduino. It was open souce - which means something to me coming from the software industry - and low cost. The barriers to entry were all but dropped, so I plunked down some cash and bought one.

What I bought was an Arduino "Duemilanove" (2009) and a prototyping kit from Adafruit. The Arduino itself was assembled and I got a USB cable with the kit. Adafruit pointed me at a great tutorial written by one of the owners (LadyAda if you don't already know) that walked me through getting familiar with the Arduino as well as teachning me how to assemble the prototyping kit.

Some soldering and electronics indoctrination (?)  later, I was hooked. I've created a number of little "projects" of my own. I wouldn't call these finished product - more doodles, or sketches designed to teach myself how to work with something in particular. 

Don't get me wrong - I'm not saying I'm doing this just to learn things. It's fun playing with the thing and getting it to work. If anyone else in the programming field is reading this then they know the joy behind fiddling with code to accomplish a complicated goal. Its fun to try different things - some that work, some that don't - but to eventually come up with the solution and see your application running on the screen. Working with electronics - and the Arduino in particular - is that same joy on a different level. When I get it working I can show my wife and kids and it's not just on a computer screen; it's there in front of them, blinking, or moving a motor, or what have you.

I've created a number of projects of my own that mimic some of what I've seen out out on the web to some degree, some don't. With this blog I intend to try and post info on what I don't see many examples of. Images, code, and - if I can figure out how to write them - schematics will also be posted here. 

Whenever I find errors in my own stuff, I will endeavor to correct them. I can make no claims as to how fast that will happen or how quickly new material will appear. I have a full time job, a wife, 2 kids, and many other interests all of which I must spend my limited time nurturing and caring for. 

That said, enjoy and thanks for listening...