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We did our first flame piece last year- you are welcome to PM me.
There is a great book on profane. Make: Fire: The Art and Science of Working with Propane https://www.amazon.com/dp/1680450875/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_api_i_VyuOCbSGFNQX4
Also the people at poofersupply.com are burners and very helpful. They also occasionally give classes. We didn’t manage to take one, but heard good things.
Highly recommend those resources unless you are very knowledge about propane (your post implies that’s not the case)
Re material: For us, we were metal artists first. Five years of welding experience, some garage space and a stubborn attitude got a lot done. MIG welding is fairly quick to pick up (we honestly learned most of what we know from a weekend class and you tube videos, and lots of time burning ourselves in the garage). Steel is fairly easy to work with. Make friends with the people at the metal yard and have them use their big sheer to do major cuts for you, and you can do a lot of the rest with hand held power tools.
Keep it small and keep it simple would be wise advice- but no one who is making flame art for burning man wants wise advice. ;) so let’s go with this: try really hard not to blow yourself up.
Talking to makers who make them is def a great way-- i was also recommended this book, which is AMAZINGLY written, and walked me through making my own boosh/poofer, def check it out if interested! https://www.amazon.com/Make-Fire-Science-Working-Propane/dp/1680450875
Embedded systems are my thing (firmware engineer outside of burner world). But my friend literally wrote the book on poofers, and safe plumbing, I'd start there and then you can get into controlling the solenoids with arduinos and mosfets, switching hot surface ignitors with relays, etc.
That's an intermediate level project that sounds fun, but you don't need anything as complex as a Raspberry Pi. A simple microcontroller like an Arduino Nano would work great and cost less. Remember, a Raspberry Pi is an entire, albeit simple, computer. Arduino is a much simpler (and cheaper) microcontroller. (There's some overlap in capabilities, so take this as a reasonable generalization.)
Here's a sample project for non-contact temperature sensing:
Also, this book is an excellent resource for Arduino. It was just updated. https://www.amazon.com/dp/1680456938?ref=ppx_pop_mob_ap_share
From one Noob to another.. If you haven't already, pick up a good reference book, or a good book for beginners. Its helped me tremendously. I too am familiar with some electronics components, can solder, etc. I know what I want to do with the hardware, but dont know how to write it. Programming Arduino by Simon Monk 2nd edition is great for noobs. ISBN 978-1-25-964163-3. https://www.amazon.com/dp/1259641635/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_awdb_imm_ADEEJJ27YEF8VBH504D2
This is a graphic novel about Tesla, Bell and Edison that covers the basics of the war of the currents, and who some of the major players in the electrical field in the 1800s were:
https://www.amazon.com/They-Changed-World-Campfire-Graphic/dp/9380741871
I got this from my library and actually really enjoyed it, even though it's probably aimed more at teenagers. It focuses on the rivalries and doesn't get super specific about the physics, but they do discuss specific inventions.
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George Westinghouse is a really interesting figure to look into also.
The one book I would recommend for any people getting into Arduino would be Simon Monk's Programming Arduino: Getting Started with Sketches.
For your books, I'd start with the jumpstarting Arduino 101. Skip the breadboard one - just watch a 5min youtube video to learn how it works.
I posted this a few days ago:
I recommend Programming Arduino: Getting Started with Sketches by Simon Monk. He also wrote a sequel to it called Programming Arduino: Next Steps. Both of these books focus on the coding aspect of arduino.
Jeremy Blum has a book called "Exploring Arduino" that I also recommend. This is more general arduino learning and doesn't go as in depth into coding as Simon Monk's books do. He also has a youtube series that teaches Arduino.
In this case you're mostly buying the books and not getting that much hardware. In particular that kit seems to skimp on some of the small cheap components like resistors.
For about the same money you could get these:
Programming Arduino: Getting Started with Sketches, Second Edition (Tab) https://www.amazon.com/dp/1259641635/
Elegoo Mega 2560 Project The Most Complete Ultimate Starter Kit w/ TUTORIAL, MEGA 2560 controller board, LCD1602, Servo, Stepper Motor for Arduino Mega2560 UNO Nano https://www.amazon.com/dp/B01EWNUUUA/
Total: $70.19