Aquaponics is Fun

Tonight I worked on the #3 Jeremy Blum Basics of Arduino video tutorial -- again -- and still didnt finish it. I did learn some things, but didnt stay focused enough to finish the video.

One thing Ive learned while doing these Arduino video tutorials is that maybe I need to learn about time management and setting priorities more than I need to learn about microcontrollers! Theres no way doing these first three videos should have taken me this many nights...

Im enjoying the #3 video review of electrical formulas and concepts. Part of the problem is that Im an engineer, and it seems like I should already know lots (most?) of the stuff Jeremy is explaining in this video. So I end up reading background materials and watching videos to learn more about different aspects of what Jeremy is explaining.

Tonight it was LEDs. I didnt have anything on the MCU wiki yet about LEDs. So I pulled up the SparkFun LED tutorial, read a bit in that, hooked up an LED with the Arduino and breadboard and gave it power, then read the Wikipedia entry on LEDs. I also looked a bit at the ElectronicsTutorials entry on LEDs and the Digi-Key / Atmel "LED Driver Basics" video. If any of you know of an online info resource you think is particularly helpful for beginners (or for people experienced with MCUs), please send me a link to that. Ill add it to the wiki.

Between the above (relevant) diversions and a few other non-MCU things I needed to do this evening, I didnt get anywhere close to finishing the #3 Blum video.

Tomorrow, maybe...