Welcome to tronics.Life! This is the obligatory “Hello, world!” post for this brand new blog/channel.
Introducing Myself
I’m Jeff and, while my career in technology can now be measured in decades, I have spent most of it in software development and solutions/enterprise architecture. Although I’ve never worked with electronics professionally, I have tinkered with electronics off and on for many years.
Over the last couple years or so, I’ve started spending a lot more time on my electronics hobby. I can attribute this new-found engagement to a couple of things:
- Electronics equipment and components have dramatically dropped in price over the years. What might have cost thousands of dollars (USD) 10 or 20 years ago, you might find now for a couple hundred dollars or possibly even less than $100!
For example, one year ago this month, I purchased the Siglent SDS1202X-E 200 MHz digital oscilloscope. This is something I have wanted to do for years, but couldn’t afford back then. - Secondly, the democratization of microcontrollers has enabled a whole new world for electronics hobbyists. Microcontrollers (MCUs) have greatly simplified the process of combining software-based logic (e.g. microcode) and hardware-based components and devices (e.g. sensors, cameras, etc.).
Not only are these MCUs widely available for very little cost, there is also a great variety of form factors and capabilities. For example, some include built-in Wi-Fi and/or Bluetooth support, some have built-in cameras and some are simply bare-bones microcontrollers barely larger than a grain of sand!
This simplicity allows those of us without an electronics engineering degree to create some really cool projects!
So, Why Another Blog?
In short, I like sharing knowledge. Much of what I’ve learned over the years has come from others sharing their experiences, as well as my own experiences as I experiment and tinker. Along these lines, I find enjoyment in sharing what I’ve learned so that others might benefit.
In this blog, I will be talking about some of the projects I have been working on as well as future projects. I will also be covering the use of the various tools and components that I make use of for testing and building projects.
My intent is to talk about discrete components (e.g. resistors, transistors, etc.) as well as various microcontrollers and microcomputers. Along the way, I’ll be talking about the equipment that I make use of and many of the educational and component resources that I’ve found useful for me.
For those that like visuals, here’s a few images that represent some of what I’ll be talking about in this blog:
Also, it’s worth mentioning at this point that there will be a “sister” YouTube channel for this blog site. It’s called, appropriately enough, tronics.Life as well and can be found here on YouTube. Much of the content will be shared between the two channels (i.e. blog and YouTube), though each have their own benefits. I have the initial set of video topics lined up but likely won’t get to recording and producing them for another week or two as I get my workbench setup accordingly.
So, if you have an interest in electronics, whether you’re a beginner or more advanced, please join me on this journey as we dive into creating some really cool projects! I am looking forward to learning from each and everyone of you along the way as there is so much I have yet to learn!
Now, go out there and create something awesome!
Thanks!