Speaker 1: All right, dive enthusiasts, welcome back today. We're uh crack
Speaker 1: and open. Excerpts from a book that's all about getting
Speaker 1: hands on with electronics. Getting Started with Electronic Projects by
Speaker 1: Bill Pritty.
Speaker 2: That's right, And our mission, you know, in this deep
Speaker 2: dive is to go beyond just listing what's inside. We
Speaker 2: want to extract the real core knowledge, those surprising insights
Speaker 2: and practical takeaways.
Speaker 1: Stuff that anyone curious about building things with wires and
Speaker 1: components can really.
Speaker 2: Grab hold of, exactly starting simple, you know, and moving
Speaker 2: towards more complex systems.
Speaker 1: And this isn't just theory. It's built on some serious,
Speaker 1: real world experience. Bill Friddy's background is well pretty fascinating.
Speaker 2: It really is. Started in electronics back in the eighties,
Speaker 2: then telecom, aviation, r indeed defense work.
Speaker 1: And even found in his own technical security company. That
Speaker 1: kind of breath really shows through in the projects, doesn't it.
Speaker 2: It absolutely does. And the book's approach is I think
Speaker 2: perfect for learning.
Speaker 1: It builds step by step foundational skills first.
Speaker 2: Yeah, then gets in hardware software and puts them together,
Speaker 2: and he uses mostly through hole components.
Speaker 1: The bigger ones much easier to handle when you're starting out.
Speaker 2: Definitely friendlier than those tiny surface mount things.
Speaker 1: Okay, let's unpack this. He starts right where you'd expect,
Speaker 1: simple hands on stuff to build those fundamentals.
Speaker 2: Soldering especially absolutely, the very first project is incredibly accessible.
Speaker 2: It's about modifying an expensive you know, off the shelf
Speaker 2: led flashlights or headlamps.
Speaker 1: And the core idea just swapping LEDs.
Speaker 2: Basically, Yeah, replace the visible white LEDs with infrared or
Speaker 2: IR LEDs, which give you invisible light exactly. The result
Speaker 2: is a truly practical application. You create these invisible light sources.
Speaker 1: Okay, but why what's the use case?
Speaker 2: Well, think about discrete lighting maybe for nature observation at night,
Speaker 2: or even some leash security or gaming scenarios where you
Speaker 2: only want light visible to certain cameras, right.
Speaker 1: Because a lot of cameras can see IR light even
Speaker 1: if our eyes can't, like black and white cameras and
Speaker 1: night vision stuff.
Speaker 2: Precisely, it's a spectrum trick, and it's cheap. The book
Speaker 2: says around five bucks per project.
Speaker 1: Wow, and you immediately practice key skills.
Speaker 2: Yeah, taking something apart, desoldering, soldering the new parts in.
Speaker 2: It's a perfect way to get comfortable with the iron right.
Speaker 1: Away, straight into the fundamentals with something you can actually use.
Speaker 1: Love it. What's the next big concept.
Speaker 2: He tackles, ah, A true cornerstone of electronics, the LM
Speaker 2: five five five time.
Speaker 1: Er ic, the five five five. Yeah, that thing's legendary
Speaker 1: but around since the seventies, right it.
Speaker 2: Has, and it's still incredibly popular, just so versatile, a
Speaker 2: real warhorse chip you see everywhere, and.
Speaker 1: The book uses it to show two really different things
Speaker 1: it can do. Yeah. First up, an infra red beacon.
Speaker 2: Yeah, this builds on the ir LED idea but makes
Speaker 2: it flash. It uses the five to fifty five and
Speaker 2: it's as stable.
Speaker 1: Mode astable meaning unstable. Why you just keep switching exactly.
Speaker 2: It's free running like an oscillator, continuously switching on and
Speaker 2: off without needing an external trigger.
Speaker 1: And you control how fast it flashed.
Speaker 2: With just a few external parts, a couple of resistors
Speaker 2: and a capacitor. They set the timing, the flash rate,
Speaker 2: the onof.
Speaker 1: Duration, simple components controlling the chip's brain.
Speaker 2: Well, the chip has some clever internal bits, comparators and
Speaker 2: an RS flip flop, which is basically the simplest kind
Speaker 2: of digital memory. It just remembers a.
Speaker 1: State, so changing those resistor values changes the whole flashing pattern.
Speaker 1: That really shows how you customize a chip's behavior.
Speaker 2: It does, and even the case is simple using common
Speaker 2: plumbing pipe parts. The insight isn't the specific size, but
Speaker 2: using easy to find stuff.
Speaker 1: Okay, so that's a stable mode making it flash. Yeah,
Speaker 1: how does he use the same chip for the motion alarm?
Speaker 1: That sounds completely different.
Speaker 2: It is a completely different setup, often called a modified
Speaker 2: monastable mode. And what's fascinating is it doesn't even use
Speaker 2: the full five five five. It basically just uses the
Speaker 2: internal RS flip.
Speaker 1: Flop part, just a piece of the chip. How does
Speaker 1: that become a motion sensor?
Speaker 2: It's triggered mechanically a simple mercury switch, kind of like
Speaker 2: the tilt sensors and old car alarms.
Speaker 1: Uh okay, like a little blob of mercury rolling around. Yeah.
Speaker 2: When motion disturbs it, the switch momentarily grounds the five
Speaker 2: fIF five's trigger input. That pulse sets the RS flip flop,
Speaker 2: drives the output high, and bang turns on a buzzer.
Speaker 1: So instead of oscillating, it just waits and when tilted,
Speaker 1: it fires once the buzzer stays.
Speaker 2: On, stays on until it's reset. Yeah again, common pipe
Speaker 2: for the case, keep it hidden, and nice practical touches
Speaker 2: like a little diode for a verse polarity protection.
Speaker 1: Similar things that make it more robust. Definitely, it really
Speaker 1: hammers home the versatility of that five point fifty five
Speaker 1: flashing beacon. One minute hid an alarm the next, same chip,
Speaker 1: just connected differently. Amazing.
Speaker 2: Moving on, the book then transitions into projects that combine
Speaker 2: the physical electronics with computing power. This is where things
Speaker 2: get really interesting. I think creating custom instruments.
Speaker 1: Right, like turning your computer into an ascilloscope using its
Speaker 1: sound card. I remember hearing about that.
Speaker 2: It's a brilliant concept in its simplicity, isn't it? Using
Speaker 2: the an a digital conversion that's already built into most computers.
Speaker 2: Though the author does recommend using an external USB sound card.
Speaker 1: Why external better quality.
Speaker 2: Better quality generally, and it avoids any risk of accidentally
Speaker 2: damaging your main computers built in sound hardware safer makes sense.
Speaker 1: But there's a frequency limit, right. Sound cards aren't super fast.
Speaker 2: Correct, You're limited by the sampling rate. The Nyquist theorem
Speaker 2: tells us you can only accurately measure frequencies up to
Speaker 2: half that rate. So yeah, it's not for high frequency
Speaker 2: RF stuff.
Speaker 1: But okay for audio frequencies, maybe some lower speed digital signals.
Speaker 2: Exactly perfectly capable for a lot of hobbyist electronics. But
Speaker 2: and this is key, you can't just plug your circuit
Speaker 2: straight into the sound card.
Speaker 1: You need an interface, ah, some hardware in between.
Speaker 2: Why protection protection, yes, but also signal conditioning. This interface
Speaker 2: hardware does a few things. If you use the sound
Speaker 2: card to generate signals, there's an output buffer to isolate
Speaker 2: the card, okay, But for using it as a scope,
Speaker 2: the input section is crucial. It uses things like oppams
Speaker 2: to give you high input impedance.
Speaker 1: Meaning it doesn't mess with the circuit you're trying to.
Speaker 2: Measure precisely, it doesn't load it down. It also usually
Speaker 2: includes AC.
Speaker 1: Coupling, which removes any steady DC voltage. Let's you focus
Speaker 1: on the changing.
Speaker 2: Signal, right and sure as only the AC part gets analyzed.
Speaker 2: And the book also mentions handling standard aciliscope probes.
Speaker 1: Yeah, the X one and X ten settings.
Speaker 2: Yes. Scope robes often have that X ten setting, which
Speaker 2: cuts the signal by ten but increases impedance. The DIY
Speaker 2: hardware includes circuitry to compensate for that attenuation, so the reading.
Speaker 1: On the screen is correct regardless of the probe setting.
Speaker 2: That's the idea, keeps the level consistent for the sound card.
Speaker 2: There's also a neat trick mentioned, using a voltage reference
Speaker 2: and capacitors to shift the signal so it fits within
Speaker 2: the sound card's input range, then removing that offset later.
Speaker 2: Clever stuff.
Speaker 1: So you build this interface, plug in your USB sound card,
Speaker 1: connect it all up.
Speaker 2: Then what software, yep, software is where the magic really happens.
Speaker 2: The book mentions several options, and these aren't just basic
Speaker 2: scope displays.
Speaker 1: Oh what else can they do?
Speaker 2: Many add powerful features signal generators so your setup can
Speaker 2: create test signals, audio spectrum analyzers to see the frequency content.
Speaker 1: Like seeing the different notes in a sound sort of.
Speaker 2: Yeah, and even things like a ZRLC meter for measuring impedance, resistance,
Speaker 2: inductance capacitance.
Speaker 1: Wow. Okay, even if the author didn't build the extra
Speaker 1: jig for that, the software capability is there. Your DIY
Speaker 1: tool gets way more powerful.
Speaker 2: Exactly, and functions like a sweep generator are incredibly useful.
Speaker 2: It automatically sweeps through frequency go for.
Speaker 1: Testing filters right, seeing how they respond at different frequencies.
Speaker 2: Perfect for that, or testing amplifier response. The software really
Speaker 2: completes the picture, turning fairly simple hardware into a quite
Speaker 2: capable test instrument.
Speaker 1: So you can turn your computer into a basic lab instrument.
Speaker 1: Very cool. Yeah. Building on that, the book then moves
Speaker 1: into radio frequency or RF projects.
Speaker 2: Yeah, RF, which you know, for a lot of people
Speaker 2: feels a bit like black magic.
Speaker 1: It does have that reputation. Yeah, but you're saying it's
Speaker 1: just electronics principles.
Speaker 2: It absolutely is. Just follows the rules of physics. And
Speaker 2: the first RF project provides a really critical tool, a
Speaker 2: calibrated RF source.
Speaker 1: Why do you need a calibrated source? What does it do?
Speaker 2: Its job is to outprint a known stable RF signal
Speaker 2: like fifty meli hurts in the example, at a very
Speaker 2: precise power level. This becomes your reference point, a reference
Speaker 2: for what for calibrating other RF measurement tools like the
Speaker 2: RF power meter project that comes next. You need a
Speaker 2: known input to calibrate the meter accurately.
Speaker 1: Gotcha. So how does it make this known signal?
Speaker 2: It uses a stable component, a crystal oscillator to get
Speaker 2: the exact frequency then to get the precise power level.
Speaker 2: It uses a simple but effective circuit called a pipad attenuator.
Speaker 1: Pipad like the Greek letter yeah.
Speaker 2: The resistors are arranged kind of like a PI symbol.
Speaker 2: It's just a few resistors used to trim the output
Speaker 2: power down to a standard reference level, often zero dB.
Speaker 1: And zero dBm is one milli wont.
Speaker 2: Correct a standard RF power unit. Very convenient reference. The
Speaker 2: PCB design for this also shows good RF practices, like
Speaker 2: using lots of vias those little plated holes to connect
Speaker 2: ground planes together for stability.
Speaker 1: Little details matter in RF.
Speaker 2: They do, and the book also shows how you can
Speaker 2: add external attenuators fixed or even programmable ones to get
Speaker 2: different known power levels out of that source.
Speaker 1: Programmable meaning you can control the attenuation.
Speaker 2: Level electronically exactly, which is key because you can then
Speaker 2: control it with something like a beagle bone.
Speaker 1: Which leads nicely into the RF power beater hardware I
Speaker 1: assume it does.
Speaker 2: This project is all about measuring the strength of RF signals.
Speaker 1: Okay, what's the core component doing the measurement?
Speaker 2: It uses a specialized chip, an RMS RF power detector.
Speaker 2: The book mentions one from linear technology the LTC five
Speaker 2: five eighty two RMS detector.
Speaker 1: What's the advantage.
Speaker 2: What's great about this type of chip is it hugely
Speaker 2: simplifies things. It outputs a DC voltage that's directly proportional
Speaker 2: to the RMS power of the RF signal coming in,
Speaker 2: so you.
Speaker 1: Don't have to deal with the high frequency RF signal
Speaker 1: directly in software. You just read a DC voltage precisely.
Speaker 2: The chip does the complex RF to DC conversion. The
Speaker 2: software just needs to read that relatively slow changing DC
Speaker 2: voltage much easier.
Speaker 1: And how does that DC voltage get into the beagle Bone?
Speaker 2: It gets fed into one of the beagle Bon's analog
Speaker 2: input pins. But there's a crucial detail here.
Speaker 1: Uh oh, what's the catch?
Speaker 2: The beaglebones analog inputs have a maximum voltage limit around
Speaker 2: one point eight volts. The power detector chip can output
Speaker 2: more than that, maybe up to two point four v ah.
Speaker 1: So you'd fry the beagle Bone input potentially.
Speaker 2: Yes, So you need a simple voltage divider just two
Speaker 2: resistors to scale the detector's output voltage down into the
Speaker 2: safe range. The beagle Bone can read like zero point
Speaker 2: six to one point two volts in the example.
Speaker 1: Okay, simple fix. So hardware built connected now software to
Speaker 1: make sense of that voltage.
Speaker 2: Right. The book details setting up the beagle Bone, installing
Speaker 2: Debian Linux, getting development tools like no js, and using
Speaker 2: a library called bone script.
Speaker 1: Bone script that's JavaScript for the beagle Bone hardware.
Speaker 2: Yeah, makes it easy to control the pens using JavaScript.
Speaker 2: They use the cloud nine ID, which is cool because
Speaker 2: it can run right on the beagle Bone itself. Makes
Speaker 2: it a self contained development box.
Speaker 1: Okay, so the software runs on the beagle Bone. How
Speaker 1: do you interact with it?
Speaker 2: See the power reading through a web interface? This is
Speaker 2: pretty neat. They use something called socket dot io.
Speaker 1: Socket dot io that lets a web page talk to
Speaker 1: the code running on the beagle Bone exactly.
Speaker 2: It creates a real time communication channel between an HTML
Speaker 2: web page you open in your browser. That's your graphical interface,
Speaker 2: your GUI, and the JavaScript program running on the beagle Bone.
Speaker 1: So the web page is the control panel in display.
Speaker 2: You got it. The JavaScript program on the beagle Bone
Speaker 2: continuously reads the analog input voltage from the RF detector.
Speaker 2: Then it applies a calibration calculation.
Speaker 1: Based on that reading you got from the calibrator source earlier.
Speaker 2: Right, it knows what voltage corresponds to zero DBBM, so
Speaker 2: it calculates the power level and dBm based on the
Speaker 2: current voltage reading. Then it sends that dBm value over
Speaker 2: socket dot io to the web page, which displays.
Speaker 1: It almost like a live meter reading in your browser.
Speaker 2: Pretty much. Yeah, updated frequently. And if you included that
Speaker 2: programmable attenuator we mentioned.
Speaker 1: H can the webpage control that too?
Speaker 2: Yes, the guy can have controls like sliders or buttons
Speaker 2: that correspond to the attenuator's settings. You change a setting
Speaker 2: on the web page, click apply or load, and.
Speaker 1: The JavaScript on the beagle bone gets the.
Speaker 2: Message and toggles the correct digital output pins connected to
Speaker 2: the attenuator to set the new attenuation level, so you
Speaker 2: can control the input level being measured right from the browser.
Speaker 1: Wow, that's a really powerful combination. Specialize RF hardware a
Speaker 1: small Linux computer do in the processing a web interface
Speaker 1: for control and display. Very neat.
Speaker 2: It really shows how you can integrate these different pieces
Speaker 2: taking a physical RF signal, measuring it, process it, presenting it.
Speaker 1: Okay. The final major section of the book seems to
Speaker 1: shift gears again into wireless communication. Building a network.
Speaker 2: Yeah, using Zigbie sensors, specifically Zigbi.
Speaker 1: That's like low power wireless stuff for smart homes.
Speaker 2: And things exactly the low power mesh networking capabilities. Usually
Speaker 2: the goal here is to create something like a wireless
Speaker 2: security system using these small ZIGBRF modules.
Speaker 1: How do you start with those? They need setting up
Speaker 1: they do.
Speaker 2: The process starts with configuring the modules. You use software
Speaker 2: from the manufacturer often called XCTU, connect the modules to
Speaker 2: a computer, usually via USB adapters installed drivers.
Speaker 1: And then tell each module what its job is.
Speaker 2: Pretty much, you set up their roles. One module needs
Speaker 2: to be the coordinator. That's the central hub the network,
Speaker 2: the boss kind of yeah, and the others become end units.
Speaker 2: These are your remote sensor nodes. But the really key
Speaker 2: step in the configuration, especially for this project, yes, is
Speaker 2: enabling a feature called digital ioline passing.
Speaker 1: Ioline passing, what on earth is that sounds important?
Speaker 2: It is the insight that makes this whole project much simpler.
Speaker 2: It means if a digital input pin on a remote
Speaker 2: end unit module changes state, say a sensor pulls it low, okay,
Speaker 2: then the corresponding digital output pin on the coordinator module
Speaker 2: automatically changes state to match it wirelessly.
Speaker 1: Wait, so the module itself handles the radio transmission to
Speaker 1: mirror the input state over the air onto the coordinator's output. Yes,
Speaker 1: you don't have to write code to constantly pull the sensors.
Speaker 1: Of course, it packets back and forth saying sensor x
Speaker 1: is open.
Speaker 2: Exactly. That's the power of ioline passing. The Zigbie module
Speaker 2: firmware handles all that wireless communication invisibly. Your main controller,
Speaker 2: the beagle doone connected to the coordinator.
Speaker 1: It just has to watch the output pins on the
Speaker 1: coordinator module.
Speaker 2: Right, those pins are now effectively mirroring the state of
Speaker 2: the remote sensors. It hugely simplifies the software you need
Speaker 2: to write on the beagle bone.
Speaker 1: That is clever. What kind of network work setup or
Speaker 1: topology does the book use to make that work? A
Speaker 1: star topology jar like everything talks directly to the center. Yeah.
Speaker 2: In a star network, all the end units communicate directly
Speaker 2: only with that central coordinator, like spokes on a wheel.
Speaker 1: Not like a mesh network where messages can hop between nodes.
Speaker 2: Right, Mesh networks can be more robust, messages find other
Speaker 2: paths if one node fails. But the book chooses the
Speaker 2: star topology here specifically because.
Speaker 1: Let me guess that ioline passing feature works best or
Speaker 1: maybe only in a STAR setup.
Speaker 2: You got it. That's the crucial trade off. The massive
Speaker 2: software simplification gained by using ioline passing in a STAR
Speaker 2: network was prioritized for this specific project's goals, even if
Speaker 2: MESH offers other advantages.
Speaker 1: Okay, makes sense. What about the actual hardware, the sensor
Speaker 1: boards and.
Speaker 2: Things well beyond the XB modules themselves, which are physically
Speaker 2: identical but configure differently, You need some custom electronics. The
Speaker 2: book details building things like a zone monitor.
Speaker 1: Board, a zone being like an area you're protecting a.
Speaker 2: Group of sensors exactly, And this board uses a pretty
Speaker 2: clever technique to monitor the actual sensors connected to it.
Speaker 1: Oh, what's the clever bit.
Speaker 2: It uses LM three thirty nine comparators. We talked about
Speaker 2: comparators earlier with the five point fifty five. They just
Speaker 2: compared two.
Speaker 1: Voltages, right.
Speaker 2: The clever part is how they're used with end of
Speaker 2: line EOL resistors. These are resistors you place physically at
Speaker 2: the very end of the sensor wiring loop.
Speaker 1: Okay, why put a resistor way out there?
Speaker 2: By arranging the circuit as a voltage divider, including that
Speaker 2: EOL resistor, the comparators can actually detect three different states
Speaker 2: on the sensor wiring loop, not just open or closed.
Speaker 1: Three states like what.
Speaker 2: Normal contacts closed wirecut an open circuit, and wire shorted
Speaker 2: together like someone trying to bypass the sensor.
Speaker 1: Uh So it can spot tampering, not just as simple
Speaker 1: break exactly.
Speaker 2: Each state normal open, short produces a distinctly different voltage
Speaker 2: at the comparator inputs. The system can tell them apart.
Speaker 2: It's a classic very effective security technique.
Speaker 1: Very neat. So these zone monitor boards connect to the sensors,
Speaker 1: check their status using the EOL resistors and comparators, and
Speaker 1: then feed that into the remote xp end unit. That's
Speaker 1: the idea.
Speaker 2: And there's also a separate board described an optically isolated
Speaker 2: output board.
Speaker 1: Optically isolated like using light.
Speaker 2: Yeah, it uses components called opto isolators. They transfer a
Speaker 2: signal using an internal LED and photo transistor, so there's
Speaker 2: no direct electrical connection.
Speaker 1: Why is that important?
Speaker 2: Safety? This board provides outputs that can control external devices sirens, lights,
Speaker 2: maybe motors. These might run on much higher voltages, even
Speaker 2: mains power. The opto isolation keeps the low voltage beagle
Speaker 2: bone and Zigbie stuff electrically separate and safe from the
Speaker 2: high voltage.
Speaker 1: Side crucial if you're switching mains power.
Speaker 2: Absolutely, and the book correctly stresses, you know, high voltage
Speaker 2: work needs a qualified electrician, but this board gives you
Speaker 2: that safe interface point maybe to control relays which which
Speaker 2: then switch the big loads.
Speaker 1: Makes sense. Okay, so hardware sorted, network configured. Bringing it
Speaker 1: all together is the software on the beagle bone talking
Speaker 1: to that coordinator XP. Right.
Speaker 2: The software set up on the beagle Bone involves, you know,
Speaker 2: installing some necessary libraries, like for talking to the serial
Speaker 2: port where the XP coordinator is connected. But the core
Speaker 2: logic it's incredibly.
Speaker 1: Streamlined because of that iolne passing exactly.
Speaker 2: The beagle Bone doesn't need to worry about ZIBI packet
Speaker 2: formats or addresses for the basic alarm function.
Speaker 1: It just needs to read its own input pins, which
Speaker 1: are connected to the coordinator's output Precisely.
Speaker 2: You use bone script in JavaScript again to find which
Speaker 2: beagle Bone pins are connected to those coordinator XP outputs.
Speaker 2: And the really efficient part is using interrupts.
Speaker 1: Interrupts, yeah, instead of constantly checking the pins.
Speaker 2: Yeah, think of it like setting an alert. You tell
Speaker 2: the beagle bone, hey, let me know immediately if the
Speaker 2: voltage on this pin goes low.
Speaker 1: So it's not wasting time checking checking, check it right.
Speaker 2: It can do other things or just sit idle the
Speaker 2: moment an input pin goes low, which which happens automatically
Speaker 2: when a remote sensor triggers its end unit thanks to
Speaker 2: ioline passing, the beagle Bone hardware generates an interrupt.
Speaker 1: And that interrupts triggers some code.
Speaker 2: A specific piece of code you've written called a callback function.
Speaker 2: The interrupt happens, the beagle Bone immediately jumps to your function.
Speaker 2: Inside that function, you do whatever needs to happen. Log
Speaker 2: the event, turn on an alarm LED connected to a
Speaker 2: beagle Bone output pin, maybe send a notification so it's
Speaker 2: very responsive.
Speaker 1: Sensor triggers, signal passes wirelessly via ioline passing, coordinator pin changes,
Speaker 1: beagle Bone interrupt fires, code runs almost instant.
Speaker 2: That's the beauty of it. And while the main system
Speaker 2: relies on that simple io mirroring, the book does mention
Speaker 2: as a going further idea that the raw Zigbie packets
Speaker 2: do contain the address of the specific remote module that
Speaker 2: sent the signal.
Speaker 1: Ah, so you could write more complex software to parse
Speaker 1: those packets if you needed to know exactly which sensor
Speaker 1: or zone triggered the alarm.
Speaker 2: Yes, the basic system doesn't need it, but the information
Speaker 2: is there if you want to build a more sophisticated
Speaker 2: system later.
Speaker 1: This project really feels like a great capstone. It pulls
Speaker 1: together hardware design, analog sensing tricks like EOL resistors, configuring
Speaker 1: wireless modules, understanding network topology trade offs, and.
Speaker 2: Then tying it all together with efficient software on a
Speaker 2: single board computer using interrupts. It's a full system.
Speaker 1: Yeah. Really demonstrates how all these different electronic building blocks
Speaker 1: and techniques can combine to solve a pretty practical problem.
Speaker 1: Mmmmm wow. That's quite a journey we've taken through these excerpts.
Speaker 1: Started with the absolute basics soldering modifying a simple flashlight.
Speaker 2: Then understanding a fundamental chip like the five five five timer,
Speaker 2: seeing its incredible versatility.
Speaker 1: Right from a simple flasher to e motion alarm. Then
Speaker 1: bridging into the computing world, building instruments like the sound
Speaker 1: card of celloscope and the RF tools using the beagle.
Speaker 2: Bone, combining hardware measurement with software processing and display.
Speaker 1: And finally, yeah, building a complete wireless sensor network using
Speaker 1: zigbieving module, contiguration, network choices, clever sensor monitoring, and that
Speaker 1: really neat interrupt driven software.
Speaker 2: It's a really clear progression, isn't it, From simple hands
Speaker 2: on tasks right up to integrated systems, building skills and
Speaker 2: concepts layer by layer, and.
Speaker 1: The focus all the way through seems to be on
Speaker 1: building functional, practical projects, things you can actually use.
Speaker 2: Exactly. It's not just theory for theory's sake. You're applying
Speaker 2: it to create things that do something useful.
Speaker 1: So here's the thought. Maybe it'll leave you with h
Speaker 1: We've seen how these fundamental components, you know, the five
Speaker 1: to five to five op amps, micro controllers like the
Speaker 1: beagle Bone, wireless modules like zigby, how they can be
Speaker 1: combined in the specific ways shown in this book. But
Speaker 1: what other kinds of practical problems could you solve or
Speaker 1: what unique gadgets could you maybe invent by taking these
Speaker 1: same underlying building blocks and applying them to challenges or
Speaker 1: just curiosities in your own world? What could you build