One Giant Leap for Nerdkind

Tonight, I bought a breadboard. Not just any breadboard but a mini, self-adhesive, red breadboard and some red wire and a force sensitive resistor and an Arduino Uno and LabVIEW Student Edition. Now I’m just a brief 5-7 days of shipping and a few lines of code away from a force sensitive device with a graphical computer interface. Awesome.

I should mention that I also got a pretty awesome electronics mentor too.  In a previous post I mentioned this confident electonogician and since then he has mocked up, created, and tested the project that I asked him to think about.  He did all of this with stuff he already had around the house and, in 21^st century communication style, he emailed me a pair of videos as a proof of the concept.

One reason I’m excited for the potential of this project is the possibilities it can open up for me as a scientist. Scientists have always tinkered in order to blaze the technological trails that would allow them to explore the mysteries of the natural world that intrigue them.  I am a nerd and I aspire to be the best nerd I can be.  I believe electronics will help me get there.

Who is This Arduino and What Did He Do With My Breadboard?

Tonight I was introduced to the exciting world of online hobbyist electronics.   I am seriously excited about this microcontrollercosm of the World Wide Web because electronics is an area in which I have a serious deficiency in knowledge.  My introduction started with a project I am working on at the office that presented a price tag in the $700 range that I thought belonged more in the $dozens. I emailed an electrical engineer friend in the morning and by lunch he responded by saying the project was as good as done. 

This is one of the main reasons I’m intrigued by the world of electronics. There is a logical confidence in the mathematical certainty of the physics on which electronics is based and the electronically literate thrive on it.  Everything is simple to electronicigician. Micro controller this, resistor that, mix in some “simple code” and suddenly a pile of pieces is a pile of blinking pieces. Add a switch and a sensor, tweak the code and it not only blinks but it automates an appliance.

I don’t know anything about this world but I’m interested and Arduino could be my ticket to tinkering. From what I understand Arduino is a microcontroller that I can attach an LED to, write a little code (or copy it from someone on the Internet) and, voilà I’ve made my own blinking pile of pieces. OK, this doesn’t sound too compelling but apparently it is foundational to making awesome stuff and I do like awesome stuff.