Learning about electric (1 Viewer)

[irnbru]

I've never got to grips with electricity in general but having recently had my bike battery fail and the extortionate price of £400 for a replacement started my enthusiasm to learn more about how electrics work. I have bought a replacemet bike battery which peterc10 who kindly collected it for me so if anyones planning on going to Hawick next week and is passing through Kent gives a shout out.

Anyway I've bought a compatible arduino starter kit but now that its arrived I'm beginning to think its more complicated than what i thought by watching youtube videos. Anyone else been down the complete beginners route and have you stuck with it? I am now keen to learn.

 

[Richard n Ann]

I've never got to grips with electricity in general but having recently had my bike battery fail and the extortionate price of £400 for a replacement started my enthusiasm to learn more about how electrics work. I have bought a replacemet bike battery which peterc10 who kindly collected it for me so if anyones planning on going to Hawick next week and is passing through Kent gives a shout out.

Anyway I've bought a compatible arduino starter kit but now that its arrived I'm beginning to think its more complicated than what i thought by watching youtube videos. Anyone else been down the complete beginners route and have you stuck with it? I am now keen to learn.

There are 2 things to learn with arduino, electronics and coding. I bought one to learn a bit of coding as I'm OK with electronics. I found the coding so tedious I lost interest in a week

 

[irnbru]

There are 2 things to learn with arduino, electronics and coding. I bought one to learn a bit of coding as I'm OK with electronics. I found the coding so tedious I lost interest in a week

Oh I hope thats not me. I'm pretty good with computing and always keen to learn on pc, its the practical side I'm worried about. I've so far bought the starter kit, a variable psu and a spot welder, ...and a raspberry Pi on the way, just hope I've not bitten off more than I can chew. Only time will tell.

 

[TheBig1]

Don't try learning Arduino and Raspberry Pi simultaneously. Some coding is cross platform and easy to translate other bits, the commands are totally different. You end up having to learn Python, Linux and C to make it all work

The best way to start out is follow a youtube example with included pre authored code. Learn how that works and how to manipulate that code and build from there. Best to start with something that you are going to use

I don't want to add confusion either, but one is a microcontroller board that runs one set of uploaded code the other is a fully fledged single board computer

 

[irnbru]

Don't try learning Arduino and Raspberry Pi simultaneously. Some coding is cross platform and easy to translate other bits, the commands are totally different. You end up having to learn Python, Linux and C to make it all work

The best way to start out is follow a youtube example with included pre authored code. Learn how that works and how to manipulate that code and build from there. Best to start with something that you are going to use

I don't want to add confusion either, but one is a microcontroller board that runs one set of uploaded code the other is a fully fledged single board computer

To be honest I dont want to learn either. I guess like my accordion learning I want to run before I can crawl. I just really want to learn "at the moment" specific things like repairing/ renewing cells on bike battery which I hope I will learn from Neil n Pat at Hawick, nearly all my solar garden lights no longer work so I'd like to fix these, I'm very hopeful with the help of knowledgeable funsters to learn how to connect raspberry pi to victron.
Why oh why did I wait until I turned 60 to do the things most teenagers learn.

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[RedFrame]

As TheBig1 says, trying to learn all at once won't end well.

Your Arduino kit will have come with some basic (growing with complexity) lessons follow these. Learn how to download programs (this can save a lot of time) and then modify them slightly to do something different.

You'll be amazed what you can do with it, I ended up creating a wireless camera system for the motorhome and bird boxes.

Good luck.

Cheers
Red.

 

[DBK]

I'm struggling a bit here to understand what you are trying to do. Garden lights will consist of a small solar panel, a battery and an led. There will probably be some sort of solar controller chip as well but if you're lucky there might not be. If you take one of the lights gently apart then with a multimeter you could see what's working and what isn't. For example, does the solar panel produce a voltage and so on.

I think you'll find more suitable projects with a Raspberry Pi as there a lot of things designed for schools. I used one to make something to monitor the internal temperature of the MH and send me emails showing the temperature, which I could read on my phone. By Raspberry Pi I mean any of their models except the newish Pi Pico. The Pico is similar to an Arduino which as TheBig1 says is a different sort of beast.

 

[Lenny HB]

, I'm very hopeful with the help of knowledgeable funsters to learn how to connect raspberry pi to victron.

Following the link to the video Paul Two on Tour gave you on your other thread it is quite easy. You get a nice feeling of achievement when it works. Lots of help for the Pi online but a lot of it is a bit geeky and takes a bit of deciphering.
Took me ages to get a touch screen working with the Pi but got there in the end.

 

[TheBig1]

I recently stepped outside my comfort zone with the Raspberry Pi as they are stupid expensive. So I bought 2 rival boards that use the same system. However the Orange Pi and Mango Pi use a different processor, so much less peer support available. You have to put in research to find an operating system that works. The info is out there but harder to find. The benefit is a project that cost a third of the same using a raspberry Pi 4

 

[TheBig1]

As mentioned above, odds on the inside of a garden solar light has very little contents. A rechargeable battery, a small solar panel and a photo cell that switches on if the sun stops shining. My ex used to fill the garden with such lights and every spring I had to fix a few that had leaked and corroded. Clean them out, remove corrosion with white vinegar, solder on any loose wires and pop in another cheap rechargeable AA battery.

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[autorouter]

Oh I hope thats not me. I'm pretty good with computing and always keen to learn on pc, its the practical side I'm worried about. I've so far bought the starter kit, a variable psu and a spot welder, ...and a raspberry Pi on the way, just hope I've not bitten off more than I can chew. Only time will tell.

There is a fundamental difference between programming on a computer like a PC or Mac, and programming a micro board like an Arduino. A computer takes user input and processes data, like text, documents, pictures, audio files etc. Its outputs go to a screen, speaker or printer, or out to other computers on the internet. A micro board like the Arduino has electrical inputs and outputs which sense and measure things happening in the real world, and can switch devices on and off to affect the real world.

To take an example. The first thing a coder learns when coding on a computer is a simple program to display a couple of words on a screen. However when programming a micro board, the first thing a coder learns is how to get a single LED to flash on and off. That sums up the difference, I think.

A Raspberry Pi is a device that has all the capabilities to behave like a proper computer running Linux (if you attach a keyboard, mouse and screen). But it also has built-in electrical inputs and outputs and can interact with the real world by sensing and measuring, and switching devices on and off just like an Arduino micro board.

 

[Clive Mott]

If you want to understand electrics then you must start with the basics. The first building blocks are the units, Volts, Amps and resistance. Ohms law. Watts, DC, AC etc.

 

[plug]

Sorry folks you have fried my nut with all this tech talk, I have rewired my house and fitted a new fuse board, but I just can’t get my head around this tech

 

[dunnah01]

Sorry folks you have fried my nut with all this tech talk, I have rewired my house and fitted a new fuse board, but I just can’t get my head around this tech

I hope you've not fitted a new fuse board in your re-wired house

 

[irnbru]

Here's a thought, maybe a completely stupid one but for all you clever people who make stuff , would it be possible to have the toilet flap in the motorhome open and shut at the touch of a button?

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[tonyidle]

Here's a thought, maybe a completely stupid one but for all you clever people who make stuff , would it be possible to have the toilet flap in the motorhome open and shut at the touch of a button?

I think Thetford have managed to do it?

 

[irnbru]

I think Thetford have managed to do it?

Oh really. Will need to look into getting one. I think I've bitten off more than I can chew with this electronics malarkey. Now I'm trying to fix a large garden lantern thats supposed to have 3 flickering solar lights. Trying to check it out with a power supply and meter, just hoping I don't blow myself up . Nothing ventured nothing gained as its broke anyway.

 

[landranger]

Here's a thought, maybe a completely stupid one but for all you clever people who make stuff , would it be possible to have the toilet flap in the motorhome open and shut at the touch of a button?

Yes you can... we have one.

The parts are a bit dear, and according to Thetford it can't be retro fitted. I needed to be "creative" with some of the terminals, but it's doable.

Nothing ventured nothing gained as its broke anyway.

That's the way, it's broken, what's the worst that can happen....it'll still be broken

 

[irnbru]

This electronics malarkey is so much more detailed than I first thought and thats not taking AC into consideration. Ive given up at the moment on arduino , seem to have got caught up in ordering parts that are commonly used in youtube with the hope I can repair solar lights etc...but realistically despite buying several pcbs I'm no further forward.
It appears to be an age thing with me and I'm now wanting to learn things I should've really learned years ago. So I'm now playing with a breadboard, I have the basic understanding of Ohms law and resistors. I know that a YX8018 is a led booster which i think i need but cant grasp what else i need using a 3.;7v battery and 3 x 2v led running in parallel. I have 2 solar panels =input 3.6v .. Please can someone do me a pin circuit on a vero board so i can easily copy it. Capacitors, transistors, inductors needed etc...The simpler the better THANKS

 

[autorouter]

Can I suggest you tinker about a bit with Tinkercad. It is a free design app made by Autodesk, the Computer-AidedDesign (CAD) company that's used by many of the world's top design companies. There are several sections, like 3D solid design, circuits, code blocks, etc, but I think the one to start with is circuits.

Basically you drag and drop components onto a page, and connect them up with wires. Then press the Simulate button to try out the circuit and see the results. It's not the best circuit simulator around, but it's very good for getting started and simulating simple circuits while you are learning.

Circuits on Tinkercad - Tinkercad

Bring your 3D designs to life with Circuit Assemblies using Tinkercad.

www.tinkercad.com

For example, you could connect a battery, resistor and LED in a loop. Then wire in an ammeter and a couple of voltmeters, and watch the voltages and current change as you vary the resistor value.

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[Lenny HB]

Can I suggest you tinker about a bit with Tinkercad. It is a free design app made by Autodesk, the Computer-AidedDesign (CAD) company that's used by many of the world's top design companies. There are several sections, like 3D solid design, circuits, code blocks, etc, but I think the one to start with is circuits.

Basically you drag and drop components onto a page, and connect them up with wires. Then press the Simulate button to try out the circuit and see the results. It's not the best circuit simulator around, but it's very good for getting started and simulating simple circuits while you are learning.

Circuits on Tinkercad - Tinkercad

Bring your 3D designs to life with Circuit Assemblies using Tinkercad.

www.tinkercad.com

That's really interesting, I've only used Tinkercad for 3D printing I didn't know there was another side to it.

 

[autorouter]

That's really interesting, I've only used Tinkercad for 3D printing I didn't know there was another side to it.

There's lots more too, it will do Arduino circuits, and you can code programs to run on it.

 

[autorouter]

Can I suggest you tinker about a bit with Tinkercad. It is a free design app made by Autodesk, the Computer-AidedDesign (CAD) company that's used by many of the world's top design companies.

Sorry that's not very clear. Autodesk produce AutoCAD, used by professional designers and costs several thousand pounds per licence. They also produce Fusion 360 which is less expensive, and is free for non-commercial use. Then they have TinkerCAD, for beginners, which is a free web app, runs in a web browser, no download and installation needed.