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.

Electronics - PICAXE vrs Arduino

I've been madly reading everything I can get my hands on to compare these two mini computer systems. 

Scanning electron crayon image of actual electricity

Arduino is an open source platform where a stack of different people build lots of different bits that all plug into each other and do all kinds of amazing things. You program them in a computer language called "C".


PICAXE is a company that does lots of work with the education system in the United Kingdom, which is run by a queen, and is programmed in a computer language called "BASIC". [the chip not the queen]


She's also the queen of Australia. 


Which is odd. 


I'm not normally a fan of non-democratic state organization, and the queen is far from democratic. But I'll buy stuff from her country in spite of all that. As far as I know the people of PICAXE don't actually know the queen or have anything to do with her. And she does seem like a nice enough old lady. 


So I'm going with PICAXE.


Another reason I'm going with PICAXE is they were the first people I found, and I've already read a lot of their manuals and things. They are also cheap (to buy bits from, not as individuals (well maybe, I have no idea)), have a good reputation for prompt delivery, and the big seller from my point of view, they make a board called a shield base that is open source compatible. I think that means I can use the best of both worlds. 


A shield is a pre-built device that talks to, and plugs into, the main device. So if you want to control something like a fan in a glasshouse, you can use a thermometer connected to your main device (that might be called a shield base), then plug the motor control shield into it. This way you could perhaps turn the fan on in the glass house if the temperature got over 30c or something. The bit that controls the higher voltages of the fan, can be all dealt with without me having to reinvent the wheel. 


I'll be reinventing the wheel though, as I want to learn electronics. I'll probably end up using a bit of everything. 


A lot of people have made a lot of different things that already do interesting stuff, so you can plug that interesting functionality straight into your project.


But doing something like using a shield is a long way off. I have to learn to solder, and make pickles first. I suspect my first real world project will be to revisit my automatic fish feeder, that the fish operated by pressing a lever.


So, in short, PICAXE seems to be able to do whatever it is that I think I might want to do, and wont cost very much. Cost is important, because my entire 120 Things in 20 years have to be self financing. I borrowed the set up cost of the aquaponics system from myself, and roughly work out savings based on the supply of vegetables etc. coupled with some advertising revenue and my aquaponics pump and other goodies I won from the photographic competition, After buying my glasshouse and some extra plumbing, I have just enough left to refill the sugar bowl after making my first marmalade, and start on my new electronics "thing".