electronics...

Basic stamp is your friend, and you should probably go to radio shack and aquire a book on basic electronics and another on digital electronics. Read both of those, and learn the theory. The basic stamp will save you the trouble of getting together a microcontroller setup, and should have motor controllers or you will at least be able to control servos.

Basic stamp = not a good starting point.

I started with electronics in sixth grade...that was my pre-coding era. Radio Shack has some books for you to check out. They''re rather simplistic, and will skip pretty much everything important that you''ll learn in an EE class or something, but it''s more than enough to get some pretty nifty circuits together.

Radio Shack also has all the parts you''ll need for a while. All in all, Radio Shack is your friend.

I would suggest checking out some of the lego kits. I know that some of them are pretty cool in what they provide. Robotics Invention

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LEGO® MINDSTORMS™ lets you design and program real robots that do what you want them to. With the Robotics Invention System 2.0™, the core set of the LEGO MINDSTORMS product range, you can create everything from a light-sensitive intruder alarm to a robotic rover that can follow a trail, move around obstacles, and even duck into dark corners.

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Andrew
PlaneShift - A MMORPG in development.

Search radioshack for their little books by a dude named Forest Mimms. He writes these little books full of hand-drawn schematics for various simple projects. Good stuff

He said he wanted to build a mechanical device not a circuit.

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Original post by Man_with_a_Plan
He said he wanted to build a mechanical device not a circuit.

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Then he must learn how to build circuits first.

cool, thanks for far guys. Actually, Ive made a basic sound effects board for my guitar once with the help of radio shack and the public libreary. (my spelling sucks sorry ) It took a while to make, but was fun. Anyway, im talking about like making little robots and programming them...

Ive seen many people here at gamedev and all over the net that are roughly my same age that have made all of these awsome things, I always think to my self "how the hell did they do that!!??".

My ultimate project would be to build a mech warrior type machine. When I say build something machanical, I meen, from the structure/frame, to the servos and wires to the programable circut.

Im not looking to do this for a living or taking it in college (already going to be taking software engineering starting may 17) but as a fun side hobby.

Thanks a ton so far guys!

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Original post by Xtremehobo

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Original post by Man_with_a_Plan
He said he wanted to build a mechanical device not a circuit.

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Then he must learn how to build circuits first.

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He just needs to learn how to use some electrical components like electric motors, microcontroller, etc.. You don''t need to know how to build circuits to put together a computer, this is very similar.

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Original post by Man_with_a_Plan
He just needs to learn how to use some electrical components like electric motors, microcontroller, etc.. You don''t need to know how to build circuits to put together a computer, this is very similar.

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The only real way to avoid needing that basic knowledge is to use Mindstorms, and only use their official components. And that''s no fun.

CM

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Original post by Man_with_a_Plan

He just needs to learn how to use some electrical components like electric motors, microcontroller, etc.. You don''t need to know how to build circuits to put together a computer, this is very similar.

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No offense but how would he go about using a 1.3-3 volt motor in a project with a 12 volt power supply without knowing how to use resistors. Then you have LEDs to worry about, they can be sensitive to voltage and they don''t like too much.

Also, aside from putting it into a circuit what can you do with a microcontroller?

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Original post by Man_with_a_Plan

He just needs to learn how to use some electrical components like electric motors, microcontroller, etc.. You don''t need to know how to build circuits to put together a computer, this is very similar.

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If building projects such as this were as simple as putting together a computer, I don''t think he''d be here asking for help

Really, Im just asking for maybe some advice as where I should start, like some small project suggestions and maybe how I might go about making it (ie. parts and tools etc).

Hmm, answers are only as good as the questions asked, so lets see here. Say I wanted to make a small robot that moved around on its own without a physical human connection of any kind, say i wanted to be able to program certain rules/logic routines, how might I do this?

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Original post by no one
Really, Im just asking for maybe some advice as where I should start, like some small project suggestions and maybe how I might go about making it (ie. parts and tools etc).

Hmm, answers are only as good as the questions asked, so lets see here. Say I wanted to make a small robot that moved around on its own without a physical human connection of any kind, say i wanted to be able to program certain rules/logic routines, how might I do this?

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I assume you have a working knowledge of gears and such from your experience with cars and whatnot. I have a lot of trouble visualizing the physical bits of my projects, but that''s just me. My teammates always jump right in and start building stuff. So depending on where you fall in that gambut, you may want to figure that out. You can do a little with just plugging wheels onto motors, but not much.

For the electronics, there''s a wide gambut of choices. As has been mentioned, Mindstorms can get you a long way if you don''t want to worry about that portion of it. the RCX Brick is fairly powerful, with more than enough options to get you going. The lego parts are shit, but are good for prototyping and just messing around so long as you don''t expect too much. If you want more functionality than Lego provides, its not too hard to modify sensors to work with the RCX Brick''s input ports. But it will require some circuitry.

If you want a more hands on approach, but you don''t know basic circuitry, you should probably start with a simple kit and play with DC motors and switches and whatnot. Watch out for LEDs, or any components that use them. Its pretty to fry them. You don''t need a microcontroller for this part, just a multimeter and a powersupply.

If you think that''s a waste of time, buy a pic controller or basic stamp and start programming it. There are kits available with everything you need if you''re willing to throw money at the problem. If not, I can''t really help you. There are also numerous books to help in this area if you want them. At this point, you can really plug some motors into it and start playing. The microcontrollers will handle any logic you want to have, and you know how to code. So you''re ready to go. Enjoy.

CM