Free Online Electronics Course from EDX

The EDX team have just started a new course

Electronic Interfaces: Bridging the Physical and Digital Worlds

The course number is  EE40LX

As with all the course from EDX, it is FREE 

This course is designed to show the interaction between the digital world and the world around us. You will be building a robot, and learning how sensors can be used to give input to a microcontroller.

If you do decide to give it a go, we are supplying a kit of parts to support the course

You can Buy the Kit on eBay 

Genuine Arduino? This board comes from an uncertified manufacturer. We won’t be able to provide any support if it doesn’t work as expected.

Here is the situation. You have bought what you believe is a genuine Arduino.

You download the new IDE software and when you plug the Arduino in you get a pop-up which says;
“This board comes from an uncertified manufacturer. We won’t be able to provide any support if it doesn’t work as expected.”

Stop ! Don't Panic!
The good news is you do have a genuine Arduino board    - sort of

Analogy-
There are two nerds at school, (lets call them, Archibald, he's from the US and Luigi, he's from Europe). They look set to become the best in class, and they have managed to avoid being bullied for years. Looking Good!
Upset with this lack of being picked on by the lesser kids, they decide to bully each other!, and go at it like Popeye and Brutus. Not so Good!
While they are beating each other up, new nerd on the block (let's call her Rosie Berry Pi) puts on a spurt and sneaks in to win the prize, lucky Rosie!
Rosie is showered with the adulation of the whole school. Meanwhile Archie and Lui are reduced to glaring at each other in detention. Silly boys.

What's really going on
I will try and be brief.
Arduino LLC was formed by the big 5 (Massimo Banzi, David Cuartielles, David Mellis, Tom Igoe and Gianluca Martino) in 2009. These are the "Code Guys", and have been creating and directing the software that makes it all work. The run the site Arduino.cc, where most people get the Arduino IDE software from. The manufacturing of the Hardware side was undertaken by "Smart Projects" and after a couple of twists it is now called Arduino SRL, they run the site Arduino.org
Both teams believe they are the "Real" Arduino, and are currently in litigation with each other.
Arduino LLC(the Euro lot) have fired a salvo at Arduino SRL (the Yanks) by including a pop-up in the software which detects the versions made for Arduino SRL. Is this a targeted attack specifically at the yanks? I would suggest it is, as the pop-up is oddly absent if you use one of the obviously fake chinese clones.

When the dust settles, will Arduino triumph in its SRL or LLC form? or will the brand reputation be damaged enough to let the new guys take the market lead?

My suggestion, just tick the box that says "Don't show me again"

Getting Started with Electronics

Electronics is a fun and rewarding hobby, but how do you begin? You have taken the first step just by searching.
There is so much information available it can be really hard to know which tutorial to follow, which resource to use, and even where to buy the parts.
When I first started, back in the 1970's, I took anything and everything apart, I was a bit of a nightmare for my Mum. It was a few years before I started to learn how to put those things back together. In those early days, it wasn't easy to get much knowledge, Especially as I wasn't old enough to get a library card, thankfully things have moved on a little.
There has never been a more exciting time to be involved with electronics.

Finding out, how to begin

I would like to offer some advice to anyone looking to get into electronics.

• Join a club or after-school class

Ok, not available for everyone, but if it is available to you, do it. Having someone with you as you take your first steps is the easiest way possible, but if you can't, there are lots of online tutorials available. Here are some of my recommendations;

• fearofphysics
• MadLab
• 101Science

Or try the introduction to electronics pages on the Right hand side of this blog.

There is also the good old fashioned book, such as Make:Electronics by Charles Platt

  "Our Absolute favourite, possibly one of the best introductions to electronics ever written

Simple, clear instructions will take you on a journey with 24 practical experiments to work through"

Getting the Components

So now you want to get going, where do you buy the parts?

• Maplin, quite high prices, but they are nationwide with stores No Longer has High street stores
• Farnell, again, quite high prices, online, or from the counter in Leeds, mainly aimed at commercial users
• CPC, the "hobbyists" side of Farnell, worth a look
• Rapid, Online, with next day delivery, postage costs are high unless you reach a minimum spend
• eBay, lots of small sellers offering parts, but be careful, lots of not great parts for the unwary. That being said, it is a fantastic source of low cost components.
• Amazon, recent changes mean that low price parts can now be bought from third party sellers of this site, use the same caution you would for ebay.

The other cool way of getting hold of components is by recycling! Most redundant electronics can be harvested for their bits.

Working at Home

Electronics can be a messy hobby, bits of wire generally tend to not be a healthy thing for hoovers to suck up. Grab yourself a box to keep everything in, a table to work at, and try and stay tidy as best you can. As you get further along, you might consider having a dedicated space for your projects.

Last Words!

BE SAFE

Stay away from using mains voltage until you are competent, it can and does kill! Using a 9v battery will be safe, the worst you are likely to do is destroy some components when things go wrong. I highly recommend that you wear safety glasses. Components can suffer critical failure, and then they will explode. You can replace LED's, you can't replace your eyes.