I’m in a writing mood, so I’d thought I would share my thoughts on how I started to become fascinated with electronics and include some helpful advice to beginners.

I’m a code monkey. I liked to program because everything I produced was (virtually) free. I programmed maybe 20% of the time I was at a computer for the past 7 years. It started to get kind of old, but the thought of creating and hacking at things still lived in me. I wanted to build something physical that can interact with other people. I knew I had to learn electronics, but I didn’t have the time or the idea on where to start.

1) My first bit of advice is College. I’m currently attending Tennessee Tech University as a Junior in Computer Engineering. The biggest point of college is to start you off with a career. You will end up learning at least 70% of all field-related knowledge while in the work force. If you don’t believe me, go up to a graduated engineer and just ask. It’s true. So, go to college but only use it as a crutch.

2) Can’t go to college? Well, experiment! Play with electronics, study how each component works, and make sparks!* The best way to learn something is by doing it. A little side story.. during Circuits I, I played with capacitors. They are basically “temporary” batteries that can store charge and release it virtually at once. This made sparks, even at low voltages. I had a lot of fun with those things, and a whole new respect for higher voltages (ouch!)

* Be reasonable, don’t get hurt. Don’t sue me for something stupid you did without research.

3) Make something! I suggest starting with an Arduino. These things are very basic microcomputers that you can program with any PC. What is great is that these things are the real deal. You can prototype plenty of electronics gadgets with them and the community is HUGE. If you ever have a specific problem there is a great chance someone already posted a solution on the internet. On top of all of this, an Arduino costs only about $30. From the same retailer (Adafruit Industries), you can also get an awesome experimentation kit for $85.

About 3 months ago, I had the most random idea — I wanted a real time music visualizer. However, I just didn’t have the time to do the research necessary for this project because of homework. Well, now that I am on spring break, I decided to make a reality. And it worked! The first time too!

There are two sides of this project, the hardware and the software. The hardware part was the easy part. Mike had an Arduino board laying around and I went to radioshack to buy a relay, a 9 volt battery, a diode, and a transistor. Thats basically all that is needed for the hardware side. I used the schematic found on http://www.glacialwanderer.com/hobbyrobotics/?p=9 to make sure I’m doing everything right. Putting this together only took about 2 hours.

The software side was a little bit more tricky. I tried two differently languages: MATLAB and C#. Both turned out to be quite a big failure. Then I stumbled upon Processing, which is basically an extension onto Java that made it easy for visual artists to create programs. Processing included a library called Minim, which had lots of built in features for audio analysis. I used the beat detection algorithm from Minim and then used that to send a signal to the Arduino board over USB to turn on or off the lights.

Basically thats all! Later I plan to find a better relay, something that lasts longer [solid state relay?], and then put it in a box so it is safer and looks better.

For now, enjoy the video!