This month we'd like you to meet element14 Community's  Member of the Month for June: balearicdynamics

element14: First of all, congrats on being names element14 Community’s Member of the Month for June.

balearicdynamics: I am speechless and proud to have been chosen: Thank you to all the element14 crew.

element14: I see that you are relatively new to our community (registering on Jan 18, 2015) , what originally brought you to the Community?

balearicdynamics:  As a matter of fact, I registered recently, but I had been "using" the community for at least one year. I learnt of Element 14 almost when it started, in the first months; then I was completely absorbed in a couple of very large and complex projects, so I never had time to explore all the possibilities of the community. Then, I decided it was high time to share some of my experiences. So I joined actively.

element14: Tell me a little bit about how you got interested in electronics?

balearicdynamics: Well, that was really many years ago, at the beginning of the 1970s. To make a long story short, when I was about 10 years' old, I was surrounded by several friends of my parents' who were passionate hobbyists and were always available to answer my questions about electronics; some of them were specialized in audio, some others were CB amateurs (the Citizen Band when Internet was still a dream). Those very simple initial experiences really opened my mind. Then, in 1979 I bought my first development board, based on the Rockwell 6502. And since then I never stopped.

element14: What do you do professionally?

balearicdynamics: Currently, I try to solve problems related to a wide range of software, especially embedded solutions and mobile devices (almost exclusively Android-based). I try to create complete solutions, mixing electronics and software and trying to find the better balance making things as simple and cheap as possible.

element14:  I’ve really enjoyed keeping tabs on your submission to the Sci-Fi Your Pi Design Challenge; can you talk a little bit about why you applied and how you arrived at the Meditech as a project submission?

balearicdynamics: The idea of Meditech is to create an expandable core, inspired to the Star Trek medical tricorder that maybe helpful and accessible worldwide. This is one of the self-funded projects I am developing and I must admit that participating in this Sci-Fi-your-PI Challenge has been very helpful. Not only thanks to the support by Element14 that has dramatically reduced the self-funded development costs making it possible in a relatively short time, but also for the cooperation and support by the community.

element14:  What has been the most challenging part of the Design Challenge thus far?

balearicdynamics: This Design Challenge turned out to be as fascinating and intriguing as I expected, but it is by no means a simple project: it includes a wide integration of different software approaches, from scripting to Bash, from Python to C++ and more, in addition to a strong hardware integration of different technologies.

What I am experiencing during the development of this project is the many unexpected issues continually arising; I need to stop, study and carry out some research work at every step; then, I have to discover how to solve the issues so to be able to continue to follow the original design. After all the time I have dedicated to the project, I am almost sure that any parts not yet completed will reveal new surprises.

element14: Walk me through your routine on the site, what spaces do you check? Who do you follow?

balearicdynamics: I started checking, marking and bookmarking all the areas where I had some knowledge or experience, e.g. the Arduino side, Raspberry PI, Eagle, sensors etc. One of the parts I appreciate very much is the product testing; it is a great opportunity for the users and also one of the better ways to support the knowledge on products. By following some of the users, I get email notifications of their posts and that is another good way to explore new things. When I come upon any questions I think I can participate in with some helpful hints or suggestions, I always answer. It is not unusual that while answering a question I discover an approach to a problem worth to be bookmarked as a future reference.

The users I follow are probably the most active on the site, like @Violet, @Workshopshed, @mcb1, Ambrogio Galbusera, Joey Thompson, DAB, Frederick Vandenbosh just to mention the ones I most frequently exchange and share ideas, questions, critics with.

element14: What advice would you give someone new to the element14 Community?

balearicdynamics: Based on what I learnt as a self-taught during many years of experiments, I would suggest - especially to the new users and those that are starting to approach the world of electronics and micro controllers - to use their brains instead to just joining pre-built components and copy-and-paste the source codes they find on the Internet.

In my opinion, such an approach should be considered as the better option in order to experiment and see what happens and why it happens first-hand.

element14: Thanks for taking the time to answer some questions, any parting words?

balearicdynamics: Just a suggestion to all and in particular to newbies, everybody should always take advantage of the opportunity to grow their personal knowledge and experience thanks to the best and original engineering tools available for free, that is our understanding ability.

element14: Thanks!

balearicdynamics: Thank YOU for this great opportunity.