is there a tree of knowldege for the woefully ignorant s

[sylvestercat]

I just started haunting this area, and most of the conversation is way over my head. Is there a sort of perian spring that I could visit that would answer things like basic vocabulary questions? Like what is a stamp? The ones I get at the post office have pictures of famous people or important historical events. The ones at the stationary store say this that are repetitive and boring to write over and over and over.<p>
What is a controller? This is not the same kind of person I hear about on Dr. Laura or who works at the airport, is it?<p>This Ohm guy.... Was he a senator or something? And what happens if you break his law... I mean is it something like the Mann act? :p <p>It seems like ground has two meanings here. One meaning seems to be the wire that goes from the finished work of the circut back to the power source to make a complete circut, and the other meaning seems to be he actual dirt of the earth, sort of like the big circut box in the basement is attached to the sewer line for some mysteris purpose. <p>Anyway, is there a good source for finding out the meaning of some of these confusing words in English somewhere?

[ad5mb]

A stamp is short for a BASIC stamp. A BASIC stamp is one of the many controllers out there. Controllers are small computers programmed in various languages that control other hardware.<p>See http://www.oopic.com for info on one of the many controllers.<p>If you search for NEETS ( Navy Electrical Engineering Training Series ) you will find a free online training manual in basic electronics. Some web sites that have it:<p>http://www.tpub.com/neets/<p>http://www.advancement.cnet.navy.mil/na ... titles.htm<p>Look in my Backflip for more info. And get your own account - I travel extensively in my job as an electronics tech; it makes life immeasureably simpler.<p>http://www.backflip.com/members/kd5kfl/11721381

[russlk]

This site should be helpful: http://www.twysted-pair.com/wwwboard/wwwboard.html#MENU

[sylvestercat]

<blockquote><font size="1" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">quote:</font><hr>Originally posted by Russ Kincaid:
This site should be helpful: http://www.twysted-pair.com/wwwboard/wwwboard.html#MENU<hr></blockquote><p>A confession....<p>
This computer on this desk is a Mac. I don't like Wintel machines. I just saw a nice program called Realbasic. since these stamps seem to work off of the USB port, how hard would it be to work off a Mac? or is that a waste of time.<p>I have read in here that some folks are finding nice macines in the trash, or at thrift stores. ($2000 machines in the thriftstore? I can't believe it.) Should I be haunting goodwill for a wintel? As long as it runs 98 and can do basic, I don't think I will be wanting more than that.<p>I saw a Lego set to build robots. My boy's B day is in Sept. Maybe we can get that and do some real male bonding later on.... No crazy glue though....<p>BTW, I ordered the instruction book to my science fair 200 in one. The guy said it is in the mail. Since it is coming from Ilinois, I expect it on Thursday. I hope it is the same book.<p>Are there 9year old projects out there? When I was that age we just took some large nails and a 'C" battery and a lamp and built our own electrical switch set. As I recal there were two switches and three lamps. I still have it downstairs somewhere. I think the battery is dead though. If I have my boy do the same project I would have him do two metal strips for the poles and a holder for the cell and not saulder the cell in place<p>Thanks to everyone

[joezane]

ah.
i can relate my friend.
i too am a mac person.
fear not you are fine with your mac.
there are several solutions for you.
let run them down.....
1. the common answer is get virtual pc.
i've done that. blech. its still windows and makes debugging a pain. your never sure if your fault or the emulators.
2. there are some mac development options.
on the software side look at macpic:
http://www.macrobotics.com/MacPIC.html
currently it runs in classic only, but its being re-written for os x.
3. look at the ez-io board.
http://www.ezio.com/
it is a very mac friendly micro controller that can be programmed in many different ways...including macromedia's director.
4. the lego kit is great idea. there is a mac version of the robolab software...so you are all set<p>
that said. i do have several wintel machines too.
i much prefer mac. but i love ALL computers.
to play with basic stamps and other pic micros you don't need much of machine all. i've used an old 486 laptop to program a robot project.
any $25 pentium machine that can dos and window 9X will do fine.
there are certain advantages to sucking it up going the pc route.
1. you can have the pleasure of building yer own machine (talk about a father-son project!). i built my current pc rig for under $400 (1.4 gig amd xp, 60 gig drive, 512megs of ram, 32 megs geoforce, dvd, cdrw)
2. there's always linux. (although you could run linux on yer mac....but since os x is already a *nix...why?)<p>hope that helps a little.<p>joe

[Bernius1]

My suggestion; buy AND READ the following:
The History of PI by Petr Beckmann
Practical Electronics for Inventors by
Paul Shenck. Both avail.at BORDERS ,2nd avail
@ NUTS_VOLTS bookstore,around $45.00. Keep one
in the bathroom, one in the bedroom, and don't buy a breadboard until the German word for 'EGG'
appears in a dream.
P.S. E=IR (volts=currentXresistance)
Best of luck !!! Another Novice

[MarcMiller]

As far as project with your son I would suggest some of the robot kits from a source like Robot Store My son is 10 and we have done many of the kits. He still has fond memories of building his solar racer when he was 7. Some of the kits have the electronics preassembled and all you need is a screwdriver and some time. These are great bonding projects and the manuals go into details on how the circuits work for reference.<p>[ January 20, 2003: Message edited by: MarcMiller ]<p>[ January 20, 2003: Message edited by: MarcMiller ]</p>

[Donald S. Lambert]

Hi Steven,
Way back in the 1930's I started to learn about electricity and at that time the going thing was radio. I started with a #6 dry cell (like an oversized D battery with screw terminals), some crate banding straps, some bell wire, nails and pieces of wood to mount stuff on. No meter or soldering iron since we lived way out in the country with no electricity. Wind bell wire on a big nail to make an electromagnet and use a peice of the strapping metal with the electromagnet to make a crude buzzer.<p>But to break into electronics now there are a few books to get one started. The Radio Shack "Using Your Meter" 62-2039 $6.98 in the catalog also has instructions on how to test a lot of componets. It is on the technical side but a place to start and at least how to use a meter be it analog or digital.<p>The science fair 200 in one is a good place to start. And the manuals do go into a lot of detail aimed at beginners.<p>Sadly, there is no easy way for a youngster to learn since there are no companies that offer material for beginners. And Nuts & Volts seems to be the only electronic magazine left.<p>There is a company that does offer a course aimed for home schoolers on electronics. But it is expensive in my eyes but is aimed for youngsters. They have the manuals and the kits of parts to go with the courses:
ELECTRONIC KOURSEWARE INTERACTIVE
PO BOX 970431
OREM, UT 84097-0431<p>Hope this helps. Greybie

[Dimbulb]

Most here could have at one time said that the conversation was "over their head".
Because of the variety of skill levels and the diversity of electronics there is alot of terms and equations that without them the science would not have sufficient means to describe it all with purpose. <p>The jargon has grown and it's history of how the principals were approached are often unusual sounding like perhaps some names of items you have in your workshop that are tools or jigs developed for a specific purpose.<p>It was'nt until I read a book on radio physics published in 1930 that I could grasp some aspects of radio. The illustrations and pictures were helpful to visualize the development of what is now something few living either understand or appreciate.<p>A forum for expressing different aspects of electronics is one I feel should be defended because of the indifference I have experienced by many who concider the field odd or jest may feel intimidated by the effects that the technology has had in their life and feel that someone is responsible for teaching them.<p>and the