Electronics - PICAXE 08M Proto board additions

I'm not really sure the level of detail I should go to with this electronics thing.

For instance, the PICAXE system uses a form of a programming language called BASIC, and I think I should at least discuss it a little, but I don't want to bang on about it too much.

What I think I'll do is promise to only put up two posts with computer programming examples.

I think I'll describe the reuse of bits of programs and why its a really efficient thing to do, and I think I'll also describe "If Then"" statements, because conditional branching of program flow is really the way computers do what they do. And maybe variables.

But that's it. Three posts.

And they wont all be in a row.

I'll explain those things later.

But in the mean time I've been learning an amazing amount of stuff and reading everything I can lay my hands on. In fact I've been reading so much that I've forgotten to write about it.

I've also been working on my mini computer.

I removed some bits of my little kit and added a few things to make it a bit more useful to me.

It now looks like this...

I realise you don't know what it looked like before, so you will just have to trust me that this is much better now.

Actually, the previous post has an image of the back of it, but that also fails to incite the excitement in the viewer that I feel, having put the thing together.

Instead of making a torch, I can now make a digital, computerised torch. It works the same, but is much more high tech, and costs a bit more.



The main thing I did was to put a row of contacts on the bottom so I could plug it into a breadboard and play around a bit without the need to solder things.

The breadboard is the white thing, and allows you to poke bits of wire in where clips hold them in place. You can also add electronic components the same way.

This way you can build a fully functional project without committing to soldering it before you have tested it, so you can have everything working the way you want it.

It's amazing to think that in a few months I'll have a new skill. It will be one that I'll spend the rest of my life learning, but I'll be able to do useful stuff with my new electronics skills soon.

I cant wait.

Doing 120 Things in 20 years has turned out to be a very worthwhile thing to do. It takes almost all my time, but I get to learn so much amazing stuff.

It turns out if you stop watching TV, you free up a stack of hours in your life.