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What are some good first projects

tdguy

What I'm looking for are some great first projects and maybe some more advance projects for a beginner who is learning outside of the traditional learning medium.  Just a good beginnings for anybody that is new and needs help in a good direction just to get the experience would be nice.

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  • in reply to clem57

    That is a good point. 

     

    Some of the areas I'm in is micro-controllers (arduino), robotics, and power systems. 

     

    A couple of goals I'm interested in are

    • Regulated e-cigarette mods
    • power control modules
    • flow control modules (controlling liquids like water, oil, ect)

     

    As to non traditional, I've been indoctrinated until recently to think that the best way to go through school is to go into college which is what I'm classifying as "Traditional" in my message.

     

    Equipment I have

    • Soldering station
    • Standard hand tools
    • Networking crimping tools

     

    As to a budget, for the projects I'm looking at keeping each project at or below about $20 in total of parts.  I have found a few that are less than $5 around.

     

    Because I'm just getting into this, I may be saying things that I think are right but are way off so any help there would be nice too.

     

    Again, thanks for the help.

  • in reply to tdguy

    This might be a good place to get some project ideas for the Arduino.

     

    http://tronixstuff.com/tutorials/

     

    I repair dental equipment for a living and I work on pneumatically controlled systems.  Wouldn't be too difficult to combine a small air compressor and some solenoids all controlled by an arduino to do all kinds of cool things.  You could use a paddle pump and pinch valves.  I have a bunch of ideas revolving around p and f, but I'm saving them for a future idea post i'm working on.

     

    Make an automated plant waterer.

  • in reply to tdguy

    Maybe you could try making a reaction timer..... where an LED starts a millisecond counter and a switch (that you hit) stops the counter. Try displaying the result on some seven segment LED displays or even an LCD.

    There are many ways to tweak and improve such a system - make bigger displays, add sound effects, record best times, etc. You can substitute an audio "beep" start signal and determine if your audio response is faster than your visual response or if loudness or brightness of trigger helps performance. You can add multiple stop switches that must be selected based on which trigger is initiated to determine how decisions slow down response.

    It is always fun to test your reactions - everybody thinks they are fast. Then try it again after a couple of beers....