What is Reddit's opinion of Getting Started with Arduino: The Open Source Electronics Prototyping Platform (Make)?

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I’m not current with the specific kits anymore but I would start with these 3 things... 1. An arduino. I’d get one with built in WIFI. The Nano BLE sense is a good option has it also has a few onboard sensors 2. A good book. I started with this one 8 years ago. It was really fun and easy to progress thru the chapters and by the time you finish it you’ll have knowledge and experience with a bunch of common sensors and actuators and feel like you can build anything. Getting Started with Arduino: The Open Source Electronics Prototyping Platform (Make) https://www.amazon.com/dp/1449363334/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_api_glc_i_6UmZFbZ9RH290 3. A kit with more hardware like a variety of resistors, sensors, actuators, little breadboards, and maybe some wire. You can buy this all separately and eventually you will buy separate parts based on the projects you pursue. So I’d get one of the smaller kits ($40-60). 4. Lastly, there’s a ton of free example code everywhere on the net. The official Arduino forums are a good first stop. As a beginner, your questions have already been asked and answered. When you pick up a new sensor to try, you can usually find nice small working examples that you can literally cut and paste into your Arduino IDE to run with minimal modification making learn g very fast. But read the book above and don’t skip chapters as it’ll give a foundation on the fundamentals like digital pins bs analog pins, PWM, etc.

Have fun!

Arduino is a great space to get some experience coding because the programs are generally short and self-contained. Also, there’s a ton of tutorials and examples as well as active forums where your question has probably already been asked or can be answered within minutes. Plus you already have some understanding of hardware (which is not a requirement when you first start with Arduino).

The only question is, what are you waiting for? ;)

Getting Started With Arduino is a great book with short projects that introduce you to the code.

Given that this is my first foray into coding anything at all, ever, then some strange code is highly likely. Here's a snippet:

void confirmSetting(){ digitalWrite(greenLED, HIGH); // LEDs ON digitalWrite(redLED, HIGH); delay(250); digitalWrite(greenLED, LOW); // LEDs OFF digitalWrite(yellowLED, LOW); digitalWrite(redLED, LOW); delay(250); }

I've heard that using delays is kinda sloppy... not sure how to improve that yet, mostly just learning by the examples from the Getting Started in Arduino book.

It's called a relay. :)

You should read Getting Started with Arduino from Massimo Banzi. The book is written with absolute beginners, artists and non-electronics focused makers in mind, and explains the details of how you should go about desinging a project like this.

(It even has some specific examples doing pretty much exactly what you are asking about.)

Either one will work for this encoder project. Logic level is most important when you're interfacing with other ICs (integrated circuits). Logic level is basically an indication of what voltages are considered to be "high" or "low" in a digital circuit. If you connect a 5v arduino to a 3.3V IC the IC may be damaged by the higher voltage, whereas if you connect a 3.3V arduino to a 5v IC the arduino output voltage may not be high enough to be considered high by the IC.

In the case of the encoder there's no such risk.

I first started learning about electronics and arduino on instructables.com. If you'd like a book recommendation this was my first Arduino book: https://www.amazon.com/dp/1449363334/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_awdb_imm_t1_vcY2Fb52DQ927?_encoding=UTF8&psc=1

And this one focuses more on the programming side: https://www.amazon.com/dp/1259641635/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_awdb_imm_t1_q6X2FbYRTE1SA?_encoding=UTF8&psc=1

Here are some comments that I just posted in another thread for someone who is just starting out. You’re further along than they are and they were asking about cheap beginners kits. Although you’re asking specifically about courses (which I have no experience with) some of the comments are probably still applicable to your goal of RE-starting in this space.

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I’m not current with the specific kits anymore but I would start with these 4 things... 1. An arduino. I’d get one with built in WIFI. The Nano BLE Sense is a good option as it also has a few onboard sensors 2. A good book. I started with this one 8 years ago. It was really fun and easy to progress thru the chapters and by the time you finish it you’ll have knowledge and experience with a bunch of common sensors and actuators and feel like you can build anything. Getting Started with Arduino: The Open Source Electronics Prototyping Platform (Make) https://www.amazon.com/dp/1449363334/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_api_glc_i_6UmZFbZ9RH290 3. A kit with more hardware including a variety of resistors, sensors, actuators, little breadboards, and maybe some wire. You can buy this all separately and eventually you will buy separate parts based on the projects you pursue. So I’d get one of the smaller kits ($40-60). There are a ton of online stores that sell Arduino compatible hardware. My favorite is Adafruit. They have a good variety, keep up with current trends, and post awesome tutorials on how to program and wire up their products. I assume they ship to India but they’re US-based so shipping might be pricey. You can always buy elsewhere but visit their site for information and tutorials. 4. Lastly, there’s a ton of free example code everywhere on the net. The official Arduino forums are a good first stop. As a beginner, your questions have already been asked and answered. When you pick up a new sensor to try, you can usually find nice small working examples that you can literally cut and paste into your Arduino IDE to run with minimal modification making learning very fast. But read the book above and don’t skip chapters as it’ll provide a foundation on the fundamentals like digital pins vs analog pins, PWM, etc.

Good luck!

This books was pretty helpful for me: https://www.amazon.com/Getting-Started-Arduino-Electronics-Prototyping/dp/1449363334/

Once you have output (controlling the LED blinking patterns), you can move to input. Most kits come with a photoresistor (a light sensor); you can use that to turn on the light when it's dark.

Once you have input and output, you have everything you need to make a sentient robot with a dream of becoming the world's best ballet dancer. He'll lacks grace, but he'll makes up for it with passion.

Those projects should be enough to keep you busy for awhile.