As someone who runs a failing company that loses 10k a month trying to build IoT devices, I’d recommend starting with the basics. Get an ESP32 development board — it has built-in Wi-Fi and Bluetooth and can be programmed via USB (no need for a separate UART-to-Serial converter or any extra hardware). You can buy breakout components like sensors, relays, and other modules that easily connect to the dev board. Once you’re ready to design your own PCB, check out KiCad and YouTubers such as Phil’s Lab, Made by Morten, and Robert Feranec — they have fantastic content on circuit design.
3 weeks ago | 51
My dad is the goat of this, he loves circuits diagrams and designing PCB boards because although you can get a raspberry pi to do a lot of things, a PCB can be better for price, space, efficiency, or any number of other reasons. Learning kicad seems like a pretty big W for this (or some other similar software)
3 weeks ago | 12
It's definitely worth and gives an actual idea what is, and how much your pc is doing under the hood. Buy some microcontrollers, wires, some modules and you already can do a lot of things. It's nice to have BT or WiFi, so you can use your current knowledge and create an app or interace to interact or control your device:) For example status oled display in 3d printed case that will show ur pc notifications/time/wpm etc.
2 weeks ago | 1
Its totally easy to use raspberry pi for alot of things, its basically a debian system with video, audio, and gpio ports. You can get alot done around the house with that power. Additionally, of you want more tailored and clean ssystems, yoy can use embedded microcontrollers like arduino or esp32, which just run c/cpp on small arm processors. You can pretty much do anything with them, if you have the idea of course. Then theres the next tier beyond that, turning fun little proejcts into a thing you actually use daily around the house. This involves 3d printing, wire harnessing, pcb design and cadding, among other aesthetic choices.
3 weeks ago | 6
I think for most microcontroller platforms, the bottleneck is in understanding whatever library is provided to abstract the hardware rather than the hardware connectivity itself, unless you're designing a PCB around a microcontroller chip rather than using a development board. Using an Arduino dev board is super straightforward because there are a ton of breakout boards for sensors and controllers that are accompanied by Arduino libraries. My experience is with STM32, and while manufacturers sometimes make C libraries for sensor chips and controller boards, you often have to write your own, which is really only tedious (and not hard) as long as you have a basic-intermediate understanding of C, the HAL, and the communication protocol used by the chip being communicated with. If you later want to design a custom PCB, all of the code written for the dev board is reusable. For hobbyists, I think it's fairly easy to get started, especially with Arduino. I had a bad experience with a servo motor from a chinese company that used half-duplex uart to communicate and had a really hard to understand user manual, but the struggle there is really just that there wasn't enough research done before buying the motor.
3 weeks ago | 3
I barely considered microcontrollers to be EE, I thought it was borderline CS/SWE. If you design custom PCB's there's quite a lot of pitfalls to hit if you don't know how electricity works properly, but for amateur projects it's better to just get started and learn by doing. You'll notice interference in your signals if you've done it very wrong and pcb's generally aren't expensive. Programming MCU's is just normal programming on a low level, you'll have no problem with that. If you want to design analog circuits it's a different story, far less intuitive to do in my opinion. But for IoT I don't think you need much analog. Start with arduino (esp32 or smth) and a breadboard, then with a soldering iron and some pcb breadboards you can start to make some rather cool stuff. Basic pcb design is also easy, it gets about as complicated as you want it to be, just how it is with everything.
3 weeks ago | 2
I'm not an electrical engineer but my grandpa was and he made an automatic lightswitch for the bathroom and the closet. Bathroom light is on as long as it isn't locked from outside, closet light is on when the door is open
2 weeks ago (edited) | 0
As stated before, esp32 is a great starting point. They have entire frameworks built around IoT applications. They also provide Arduino support, so there is less of a learning curve to get started. I would recommend getting an esp32 development board and set everything up using esp-idf. Look into example code (available through the installation or their repository) on mqtt. This probably is the easiest way to get things working on a home system. If interested, you can integrate all of it in Google Home Assistant. The next step will likely be looking at making your own PCB for your specific task, just slap a module on it initially and go for individual components if you ever want to, but completely unnecessary. If you have specific questions, feel free to send a message.
3 weeks ago | 0
Youll certainly have the most fun and learning if you go the full-bespoke pcb+3d printing route, on a barebones arm system like esp32 (soem of these have support for CV and wifi/blue tooth, with additional things yoy can add too)
3 weeks ago | 2
Bought a megacheap ledstrip from aliexpress and added scheduling and wifi connectivity myself with a basic arduino. Strip would gradually turn on in the morning to ease my wakeup, and change colour to signal bedtime in the evening. Probably used 12$ in components, cheap fun.
3 weeks ago | 0
Not an EE, but a CE. I got exposed to microcontrollers and electronics through messing with old electric keyboards (the musical kind), and then later PCs, when i was kid. It's pretty easy to wire some passives and and some op-amps and make filters, amplifiers, or whatever. The Teensy 4.0+ is a great MCU to start working on audio related projects.
3 weeks ago | 0
Employ esp32 (esphome) for things that dont already have integrations Look for home assistant integrated devices and use special electrical box modules if you need that kind of control (relay modules with esp32 control)
3 weeks ago | 0
I recommend Electronic Devices and circuit theory - Boylestad The Art of electronics-book Morris Mano-books Know the diference about Digital and analog circuits then go straight to uC, feel the bare metal C, understand a little bit of arm assembly, start with arduino of course, learn how to build your first PCB using KiCad, learn how to use the tools oscilloscope, multimeter, function generator From there you'll know where to follow next Always pursue a tangible goal, make a lot of mistakes learn from them 💪
3 weeks ago | 0
Not an EE, but this is near and dear to me. I think it's totally worthwhile and rewarding to learn. Much like programming, very little of it is hard, but it can be complex. The most difficult part for most folks is the math and you likely have that covered. Two points: #1 - microcontrollers on their own are pretty useless, tiny paperweights. Anything that interfaces with the outside world needs surrounding circuitry to do anything, whether that's over a digital interface like I2C or just a DAC to deal with analog signals, almost all products are a MC surrounded by the bits that it needs to function. Learning about micro controllers in a vacuum is interesting but ultimately unfulfilling. Learning about both shines a light on how most modern things function. #2 - everything you own has this stuff in it, even things without digital controllers. Knowing how they work, what the parts do and how to fix them lets you repair all sorts of things that would otherwise end up in a landfill and cost money to replace. Last month I fixed my $1200 dishwasher by replacing a failed $1 timer chip --- even if you consider my time at something stupid like $200/hr, I still came out money ahead and didn't have to haul off an otherwise perfectly functioning thing. Even if you never design anything of your own, just the potential knowledge to troubleshoot and repair is worth a bit of a rabbit hole. To the how, it's like anything else. Grab a book or two, watch some youtube 'basics' tutorials and start tearing things apart to explore. Given the amount of resources out there these days, you can get a long, long way before you need to dive into academic theory.
3 weeks ago
| 8
i just mess around with an esp32. its probably more powerful than the computer that made the first moon landing possible so you can do basically anything with it
3 weeks ago | 0
Mate of mine hooked up chop sticks to a motor controlled by his raspberry pi to turn the thermostat in his flat.
3 weeks ago | 2
I have experience in microcontrollers. arduino, pi and esp32. I can setup half of the things stated. I think it demands you to design a circuit after you setup your variable ie. I can also do the stated things without microcontrollers
3 weeks ago | 4
I would say that doing the wiring for a house (electrician work) and automating/building cool things for the home are two completely different domains, neither of which requires an electrical engineering degree. If you want to learn how to work with microcontrollers, everyone else here has given great suggestions, but coming from an EE: DO NOT TRY TO WIRE THE HOUSE YOURSELF. Even after going through engineering school, you will not learn how to wire mains voltage safely and to code. From my electrician friends, the worst houses they've ever seen were engineers who thought they knew enough to wire their own homes. Sure, I know the physics of electricity but I don't know how to build it to pass inspection.
3 weeks ago (edited) | 3
Sylvan Franklin
Is anyone here an electrical engineer who builds real world lil machines and gadgets to soup up their house? I'm talking custom Bluetooth light switches, putting micro controllers all up in your cabinets, etc etc. I don't have a ton of ideas yet, but I'd love to hear your experiences with applied EE. Is this something worth learning, and if so how did you pick up these skills? Someday I just wanna help my mom not have to call an electrician, but for now it's all about goofy hi-jinks with MGFJ.
3 weeks ago | [YT] | 126