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You might start with the very popular PIC. Although the architecture is a bit long in the tooth and is a poor target for C, there loads of example projects for it so it's easy to learn. There are also many high-level building blocks (Basic stamp etc) that can get you up and running quickly.

I would highly recommend the Arduino to beginners. It's a great target for C, and there's loads of example projects for it too. Seeed Studio has been a great resource for me, especially the store, and the forum. #arduino on Freenode is popular and very helpful too.

Wrong. To learn electronics you should start with the basic circuits with discrete components. Then you can move to ICs.
Then to microprocessors and finally to complete development boards. Only in this way you will get a feeling about
what is really going on.

Get "The Art of Electronics" to guide you.

Gettng Started in Electronics

If you're going with Forrest Mims, go all the way and get his Electronics Learning Lab. From there check out MakerShed's Intro Electronics. Also check out, and subscribe to, Make Zine. You mention micro-controllers, they have a number of projects that will let you learn them. One I liked and thought about trying was Garduino: Gardening + Arduino. This project uses an Arduino controller to control how much light and water plants get.

Now the OP asked about ham radio and CB, the best thing there is to find a local amateur radio group and ask them about learning. I don't know if things have changed much, but the local groups I knew or heard of were willing to help new people. They even had free classes.

Falcon

Start with a kit, like these or these. See if you enjoy the practical end of putting something together. You'll need some basic tools - a soldering iron, sidecutters, solder.

If you enjoy that, then there's a bunch of different ways you can go, depending on what you're interested in. Microcontroller based systems, if you like software too, are easy enough to start working with. Or if you prefer analogue electronics, old school audio and radio, then you'll want to learn some more about the theory and practice and there are lots of good books there - I like The Art of Electronics but choose something that suits your style and covers the areas you want to start with.

But first see if you enjoy the mechanical end of putting a circuit board together.

You might start with the very popular PIC. Although the architecture is a bit long in the tooth and is a poor target for C, there loads of example projects for it so it's easy to learn. There are also many high-level building blocks (Basic stamp etc) that can get you up and running quickly.

I would highly recommend the Arduino to beginners. It's a great target for C, and there's loads of example projects for it too. Seeed Studio has been a great resource for me, especially the store, and the forum. #arduino on Freenode is popular and very helpful too.

In all fairness, there are plenty of other vendors worldwide that sell Arduinos and clones. This page lists many vendors of official Arduino and clone hardware.

You can get some pretty cool projects going quickly and easily with an Arduino. Combine that with Processing and you can do almost anything...

This is the contents of the special pack that the military used to destroy sensitive equipment. It was in some cases attached to the equipment.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thermite

It's trivial to set up a system so that even with Hotplug you can still trigger it.
http://www.engadget.com/tag/forensics

This small gadget can do a number of interesting tasks by itself and is very cheap. It has enough inputs and outputs to set up a variety of sensors and can even be used with Zigbee and GPS devices.
http://www.arduino.cc/

The place to start is with the Open Source Hardware movemet. I am making all sorts of crazy things with my Arduino. I could not have come close to making anything useful* without the mass of knowledge that has come out of the Open Source Hardware community!
*Useful is a relative term here...
--Posting AC because I have moderated in this discussion

http://arduino.cc/
Multiple variations and suppliers

Arduino is an open-source electronics prototyping platform based on flexible, easy-to-use hardware and software. It's intended for artists, designers, hobbyists, and anyone interested in creating interactive objects or environments.

Arduino can sense the environment by receiving input from a variety of sensors and can affect its surroundings by controlling lights, motors, and other actuators. The microcontroller on the board is programmed using the Arduino programming language (based on Wiring) and the Arduino development environment (based on Processing). Arduino projects can be stand-alone or they can communicate with software on running on a computer (e.g. Flash, Processing, MaxMSP).

Use an arduino clone.

http://www.arduino.cc/

Check out the Rock Bottom Freeduino Kit @ http://wulfden/ ( dot ) org/TheShoppe/freeduino/rbfk.shtml

Link has been edited to prevent the site from getting slashdotted.

Or how about "Link has been edited to prevent me from bothering to look at it"?

In the interest of returning sanity to the world, here is the demangled URL:

Some Arduino thing

Use an arduino clone.

http://www.arduino.cc/

Check out the Rock Bottom Freeduino Kit @ http://wulfden/ ( dot ) org/TheShoppe/freeduino/rbfk.shtml

Link has been edited to prevent the site from getting slashdotted.

I've been looking into this recently as well. Best bet I've found, in terms of "tinkering" ability is to use an Arduino and a GPS Shield (more details here). The two of these (and the GPS chip) will cost under $150, but allow you to code it to do whatever you want. Throw in a TouchShield and you begin to open up possibilities. The downside is the time/effort needed here. The "convenience" factor is not part of this solution... :)

Linux might be a bit heavy, but Arduino would probably be a perfect fit.

Arduino is an open-source electronics prototyping platform based on flexible, easy-to-use hardware and software.

Zigbee is the most popular wireless module for DIY products/projects like the Arduino.

Current prices on sparkfun are $30 for an Arduino, and $25 for a wireless module. If the individual prices are that low, imagine how much markup companies like Insteon have? They're probably selling a $10 lightswitch for $45 plus shipping.

But Arduinos are great because you can reprogram them easily, on a whim, and they're powerful enough to control whatever the hell you want.

Oh, and a question (since I'm not actually into all this hardware hacking stuff); does a light dimmer use something like a potentiometer?

It's not entirely the same, but I really cut my teeth on programming on a TI-83+ graphing calculator. It had a variant of BASIC, fairly simple graphics capabilities, and it was fairly easy to pick up.

Incidentally,I think that environment was my first exposure to the ideas of open source software, too. Programs could be shared easily, by linking calculators, and being interpreted, all programs came with source. I certainly learned a bit by reading programs from other students, or downloaded from the internet.

Also, I get a lot of the same feeling of experimentation, reproducibility, and real capability out of messing with microcontrollers, like the Arduino. I think there's really something to be said for working and playing on a relatively limited system. Limitation breeds creativity, perhaps?

I don't know if it's fast enough for linux. It really is a microcontroller - not a full fledged CPU or SoC. It only has something like 32KB of RAM built-in. You might get one of those DOS-style assembly operating systems to run on it, but probably not linux.

I'd rate it somewhere up there with all those AVR CPUs used in projects like the Arduino - except with different capabilities.

Their website has a lot of downloadable code on it. Do some research and see if anyone has written code for what you need. :)

Also, I have to wonder why use an obscure part rather than the Atmel chips that are wildly popular with open source enthusiasts, or even the Microchip PICs (not quite as popular as the Atmels, but still has a strong hobbyist following). Having a development community and existing software base is useful.

PICAXEs are just PICs with custom firmware that makes development and such easier. It approaches arduino level of ease in that programming a PICAXE requires only a serial connection, as opposed to a dedicated programmer or ICSP setup.

Though you are right. AVR IMO is superior to PIC because it has a freely available C compiler (gcc-avr). It might not be pretty, but damn it its free! Arduino is my current electronics platform of choice and I got more done with it over the summer break then I did in the years leading up to know with PICs simply due to the ease of programming and interfacing which blew away all the obstacles that previously turned me away.

A picaxe *is* a popular Microchip PIC, running a nifty bootstrap program developed by Revolution Education in the UK. It's intended to make microcontroller accessible to everyone, using a 3-wire in-circuit programming system so schools don't have to pay for a programmer, and so that kids can't break said programmer.

The development environment uses an intuitive BASIC compiler so people with no programming experience (pre-teen kids, or just biology graduates like myself) can be writing working programs in hours.

The IDE is free-as-in-beer and the picaxe chips are cheap (under five bucks for the smaller ones) and widely available.

Yes this is a plug, I'm not affiliated with Revolution Education but I probably wouldn't have had the stamina to get into microcontrollers without them.

There's a link to the manufacturer in the summary. http://www.rev-ed.co.uk/picaxe/

Kudos to the guy who built this laptop - building your own custom filesystem using only basic is pretty badass!

PS. If you really *must* use an Atmel CPU, a nice implementation is the Arduino. http://arduino.cc/en/Main/HomePage

*cough*90%ofthesoftwaremarket*cough* *cough*100%ofthehardwaremarket*cough*

Not quite 100%.

Read on!

I'd have to say that the most interesting "product" that I've seen this year is an electronics microcontroller platform called Arduino. It started pre-2008, but it has shot up in popularity and had a writeup in Wired this year. The board is open source (blueprints and source code are Creative Commons), and people are making a wide range of alternative form factors with special features.

...You might as well buy an Arduino since it's cheaper and has more applications....

Both are based on the Atmel Atmega series chips (currently atmega168, I believe.)

I have a Nerdkit (bought it for a small nagios project I'm working on), but from my reading and research, the big difference is that the Nerdkit is a microcontroller on a breadboard, meaning that you can make on-the-fly changes to your circuitry.

The Arduino is a put-together PCB with the mc chips pins wired to fixed pins on the board.

As far as comparison, the Arduino looks more professional, but you're working within their environment.

It's just a matter or preference. You get the same thing from both. I like working with basic nuts&bolts, so I prefer the Nerdkit setup. Others might prefer a more "plug and play" setup.

Oh wait, nevermind, they're just trying to sell their kit. You might as well buy an Arduino since it's cheaper and has more applications. The only thing it lacks compared to the other is an LCD screen, but I figure it makes up for it by having a big community.

Oh wait, nevermind, they're just trying to sell their kit. You might as well buy an Arduino since it's cheaper and has more applications. The only thing it lacks compared to the other is an LCD screen, but I figure it makes up for it by having a big community.

I have a project on-line that allows you to build a basic robot for $500. It has PWM motor control and basic tips on building the base. It uses a PS/2 mouse to do wheel encoders. (cheap) and using a USB A-D/D-A board to control stuff.

I am a current user of your software, I found your site when looking for a way to implement wheel encoders for my robot. It has been extremely useful to me.

For the I/O hardware on my robot, I have implemented drivers for both a Pontech SV203 and Arduino Diecimila board. I also wrote an encoder driver to use the Linux event interface rather than the ps2 interface so I could use a USB mouse encoder. On top of your software I have written a Player driver to allow me to use the robot within their framework, opening up a massive amount of new high-level functions for the robot.

I just wanted to thank you for making your software freely available, it has helped me transform my robot from nothing to something that can localize, navigate and avoid obstacles. It has done real work sanding my deck and vacuuming my floor, now if I can only get a snowblower attachment going I will be set.

SuperBanana - if you're still implying that the arduino files are not available here is the link.

http://arduino.cc/en/Main/ArduinoBoardDuemilanove

they posted the files the same time they released the latest arduino.

the freeduino project is very cool, they've made their own and a lot of folks use them, i'm not sure why you're suggesting they're wasting their time. they've added new things, changes, etc - they just didn't license the arduino name.

This is David Cuartielles from the Arduino project ... SuperBanana, next time please read before you make any remarks and false statements.

Phil made a clear point with his reply, but if you feel like you need to confirm anything regarding Arduino:

www.arduino.cc/en/Main/Hardware for all the files with the boards

www.arduino.cc/terms for all the disclaimers and information on licenses, use of the board, etc

This is David Cuartielles from the Arduino project ... SuperBanana, next time please read before you make any remarks and false statements.

Phil made a clear point with his reply, but if you feel like you need to confirm anything regarding Arduino:

www.arduino.cc/en/Main/Hardware for all the files with the boards

www.arduino.cc/terms for all the disclaimers and information on licenses, use of the board, etc

Don't forget the Arduino official homepage.

It's simple, very hackable, Mac- and Linux-compatible and it's a true free/open source design, so they don't have a monopoly on it and you can buy compatible boards from other sources or DIY!

It won't work on my Arduino, it's only got 1k RAM.

http://www.arduino.cc/

Hey code monkey... learn electronics! Powerful microcontroller kits for the digital generation.

There's another very easy to use USB microcontroller programming board, aimed at artists and hobbyists. (Also Mac/Win/Linux)
http://www.arduino.cc/

Unfortunately it still costs at a very minimum $5+ to add wireless to something...

Good god, where can I find $5 wifi modules?! Are you talking about Zigbee, because that still costs too much for me. The cheapest wifi module I've seen is more than $40, bluetooth is alot more expensive than that. The alternatives are $20 for a single generic 2.4GHz transciever, $20 for receiver/transmitter pair, or a buck for questionably useful DIY wireless (reverse engineered garage door openers).

...it's going to take a little while for a $2 light switch to get these.

Maybe, but I can think of one way to do it cheap, today. Use some low cost DIY wireless hardware for each switch. Then a relay/hub converts signals from the switches to Wifi. One hub, dozens of switches, and it only costs as much as one wifi module plus some extra components. (depending on whether you want to control the switches wirelessly or just detect them being on/off)

It'd still be too expensive for the average joe to buy or hire somebody to build, but a brilliant hobbyist could do it themselves.

If you aren't so hung up on Unix/Linux, consider using a micro-controller and building something that operates in the physical world. I have been looking at the Arduino http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arduino. This is a very small and inexpensive open source hardware/software board based on an Atmel Mega168 chip. You can buy a kit for around $15 US or an assembled unit for around $25 US from here http://www.moderndevice.com/ or from here http://www.ladyada.net/make/boarduino/index.html.

The software is free, and runs on Windows/OS X/Linus/Unix. You code it in C, and there are driver calls for all the on chip I/O devices. It can easily control DC motors and servos, so once you get those going there are a lot of robotic projects to explore.

There are a lot of on-line examples, so you have something to start with even if you are not hardware inclined. http://www.arduino.cc/playground/.

I would go with python was well it is really easy to mess around with and has pretty good documentation online.

One cool thing that encourages even me to learn new aspects of a language is combine it with other things you enjoy. I did that with learning about xml and python so I could parse the World of Warcraft armory. http://jerdking.blogspot.com/

If he enjoys working with his hands and likes robotics. I would suggest the http://www.arduino.cc/ It is a little standardized open source hardware platform that has a neat IDE and uses a modified C++ language. I think it is cool to show kids that programming can cause real world actions not just something on your PC screen(not that there is anything wrong with that)

Most of the kits you find at Radio Shack are firmly rooted in the 60's and 70's, where the most high tech item in the kit is the venerable old 555 timer and maybe a transistor plus 50 cents worth of resisters and a couple capacitors and an LED or two.

One who dismisses discrete electronics in favor of microcontrollers and other "high tech items" has left the path of enlightenment. At some point, you are going to want to use that microcontroller to actually control something.

Want to interface with a $5 surplus LCD display? No problem with an Arduino. Try that with a 555 timer. Want to interface with a cheap GPS module? No problem with an Arduino. Let's see you do that with discrete components.

Learning electronics is about having fun, and with microcontrollers you can have lots of fun fast. And you don't have to give up making spaceship sounds with a 555 timer, either. You can just add the sounds to your spokePOV and really impress your neighbors (and your kids). :-)

Most of the kits you find at Radio Shack are firmly rooted in the 60's and 70's, where the most high tech item in the kit is the venerable old 555 timer and maybe a transistor plus 50 cents worth of resisters and a couple capacitors and an LED or two.

One who dismisses discrete electronics in favor of microcontrollers and other "high tech items" has left the path of enlightenment. At some point, you are going to want to use that microcontroller to actually control something.

Want to interface with a $5 surplus LCD display? No problem with an Arduino. Try that with a 555 timer. Want to interface with a cheap GPS module? No problem with an Arduino. Let's see you do that with discrete components.

Learning electronics is about having fun, and with microcontrollers you can have lots of fun fast. And you don't have to give up making spaceship sounds with a 555 timer, either. You can just add the sounds to your spokePOV and really impress your neighbors (and your kids). :-)

Touchscreen OLED development kits
If you're into those types of kits, check out the TouchShield http://www.liquidware.com/products/show/TS/TouchShield+Stealth It's called a shield because it snaps on top of a popular electronics development platform called the Arduino http://www.arduino.cc/

Portable Game Development
It's wicked easy to code on them based on the games people are already creating. Josh over at twilightedge made this cute game over at, http://www.twilightedge.com/arduino/neko/

http://arduino.cc/

They are similar in concept to the Stamps you speak of, but they use AVR controllers and Processing for programming. I like the language choice better because Processing is basically just simplified C (my favorite).

But a much, much better option is to buy this starter kit and learn the hot new Arduino instead of the aging Basic Stamp. You'll need to start a junk drawer of components, including resistor assortment like these four kits. Local Amateur Radio HamFests and eBay are both good places to fill out your junk box.

Some good resources:

o The Arduino Home Page
o Peter Anderson's Arduino page (the whole site is great, and most can be adapted to the Arduino)
o Sparkfun Tutorials (and don't miss out on their store that has all the good stuff)
o The Electronic Goldmine is a great resource for odd surplus electronics.

I have learned a lot of electronics by using a small programmable controller like the Arduino -- they call it "physical computing" where you have several A/D and D/A ports to control. A starting kit is less than $40 ... http://www.arduino.cc/en/Guide/HomePage See the free digital I/O tutorials ... http://www.arduino.cc/en/Tutorial/HomePage-0007 This type of learning tool has the advantage of a PC/MAC interface via Bluetooth, WiFi, Ethernet while at the same time using an oscilloscope to look ant both analog and digital waveforms. Enjoy.

I have learned a lot of electronics by using a small programmable controller like the Arduino -- they call it "physical computing" where you have several A/D and D/A ports to control. A starting kit is less than $40 ... http://www.arduino.cc/en/Guide/HomePage See the free digital I/O tutorials ... http://www.arduino.cc/en/Tutorial/HomePage-0007 This type of learning tool has the advantage of a PC/MAC interface via Bluetooth, WiFi, Ethernet while at the same time using an oscilloscope to look ant both analog and digital waveforms. Enjoy.

I highly recommend getting an Arduino board, either an USB or Bluetooth one. They're easily programmable, have 14 digital and 6 analog pins and are quite cheap.
A more advanced board would be this one which is available from Sparkfun (who happen to have all sorts of electronic parts). Comes with an LCD, included SD card reader, 3 axis accelerometer. Wonder if TinyOS runs on it, anyone?
There are lots of cool things that can be done with these boards, google for "arduino projects".
Some nice sites for the electronic geek:
Hackaday
Electronics Lab

Cheers!

Having recently started playing with electronics more myself, I can tell you that it is a very fun hobby. My recommendation is to find a project which you want to do, and work towards that, rather than just studying theory and doing tutorials. While it will cost you more (at least, I tend to make mistakes when doing things for myself, rather than just following instructions), the sense of accomplishment can be very worthwhile. My largest project to date is an electronic drum brain which I designed, prototyped, and soldered myself. In addition to learning the electronics side of it, I also taught myself Python (using that as the slave software to actually play the samples). See http://drummaster.thecave.homeunix.org/ if you are interested.

As for where to get equipment from, I would highly recommend Digikey. They have a good selection, decent prices, and low shipping costs ($8 to Canada for everything I have bought - that, and it is generally arrives the next day!)

Finally, as a software guy myself, I would also recommend the Arduino to start with (this is what was used in the article). It is a very nice bridge between computers and microcontrollers, as it uses a simple C-based language with a good IDE to simplify uploading and compiling. It is powerful enough to do some nice projects with, and yet is simple enough that you can get some simple projects going after just a few minutes / hours. It costs about $35 (less for various non-official versions), and is available from a number of places.

Another great help is to get a circuit simulator, and try playing with simple circuits in software before you buy components. I found a nice Applet based one at http://www.falstad.com/circuit/directions.html

Hope this helps, and best of luck with your soon-to-be new hobby!

Cheers

First thing I would do is Build a Workbench with them. Check out instructables.com and makezine.com there are plenty of plans. Here is the link to a make podcast on a bench http://blog.makezine.com/archive/2006/07/make_podcast_weekend_projects.html I would then setup an old PC with a dual boot linux/XP setup, just to cover all your bases. If you are into Electronics and a little programming I would suggest getting an Arduino. http://www.arduino.cc/ To expand your electronic aspect of the lab I would get packs of resistors and Caps. Get a cheap soldering iron and DMM. That's all I got for now hope that helps.

I'd suggest that you buy an Arduino starter kit from Lady Ada's site, and try her Arduino tutorial.

And join a nearby Arduino user group!
David Mellis just started one in Boston, which led me to purchase an Arduino last night!
The forums on the arduino site mention quite a few regional user's groups, maybe you can find one near you?

I'd suggest that you buy an Arduino starter kit from Lady Ada's site, and try her Arduino tutorial.

And join a nearby Arduino user group!
David Mellis just started one in Boston, which led me to purchase an Arduino last night!
The forums on the arduino site mention quite a few regional user's groups, maybe you can find one near you?

I'm in similar situation... I just picked up an Arduino. http://www.arduino.cc/ It's an open source micro controller that you code in C and it gives you access to ~10 digital IO pins and 6 analog ones. They sell add-on packs to do things like ethernet (built in web server) or wireless. Find something around your house and automate it :p

Get yourself an Arduino.

http://www.arduino.cc/

I discovered CHDK while trying to find a remote trigger solution for my high altitude balloon project. After destroying three digital cameras trying to make a remote shutter, I discovered CHDK and it's UBASIC capabilities. I used a hacked-up USB cable and a simple UBASIC script to trigger the shutter from my Arduino.

Cool stuff. The HDR and RAW capabilities are incredible, for a $200 camera.

The Arduino http://www.arduino.cc/ is great for that.
Plug USB in and start programming in dead simple C.

ahhh, yes... I remember PEEK and POKE... I remember my friend showing me how I could use those commands to communicate with a joystick and control LEDs on the computer.

You really don't realize how good today's programmers have it until you try to run relatively modern applications on older hardware. Hell, even websites require relatively fast systems just to use.

Try using a 'killer' machine from 1999 (500mhz, 512MB RAM running windows98 or MacOS 8.5) to surf today's web. Sites like amazon.com bring it to its knees. The amount of code in the page, the javascript, the CSS... it kills.

I've got a vaio pcg-505tx that I'm using as a super mobile laptop right now. It's a 300mhz Pentium1 with 128MB RAM (it's maxed out). I even upgraded it with a 8GB SSD with the hopes of making swap happen faster. I've got Xubuntu installed on it with many services disabled and I have almost no RAM available to myself (about 25MB free). When I log into gmail with firefox, the machine swaps like crazy and I get an error that the javascript is taking too long to run and it wants to kill it.

Back in those days, you didn't have high-resolution, 32-bit icons everywhere, buttons were simple line art as were window decorations.

Low memory systems are not ideal for using hardly ANY modern applications. Even the overhead from the encryption when transferring files over SSH can overload slower machines.

It boggles my mind when I think about how the old console games used so little RAM and so little space for the executable code. Programming on the arduino has taught me how little space 8K really is. Creating a usable bitmap alphabet for a dot-matrix character display nearly maxes that out.

With today's limitless resources (CPU/RAM/storage), no one keeps an eye on optimizations unless it's to squeeze out an additional frame per second or render that additional polygon, and even then, optimizations aren't being used to their full potential.

No, it's called a shield. You're right, it's just an expansion board, but they call it a shield.

I guess because they sit on top of the board and "shield" the processor? I don't know.

Here are some pictures that might clear things up: Shields