Thanks! I've always been fascinated by electronics and I so envy people in that domain. I bought an Arduino board (sorry if that's totally kiddie to you) and some parts and so far, my son and I have made a little robot that runs very inefficiently on 9-volt batteries. I just want to plug the damn thing in to overcome the power issue.
(I don't know how much you know about electronics so sorry if I'm stating the obvious here)
9V batteries sound and look like they should last long, but putting 6 1.5V batteries in series should last much longer.
9V batteries have a typical capacity of ~550 mAh, 1.5V batteries (even rechargeable ones) have a typical capacity of 2000~3000 mAh.
I'm glad my lil research has been validated. Last week I bought one of those adapter cases that accommodate 6 1.5Vs but have 9V terminals. Now how to tape that case to my little robot.
The Arduino regulator can very likely take 10 Volts - although do check first.
Advantages: fairly cheap, rechargeable, and you can give PowerBanks to kids or whatever when finished or if you upgrade to something better. Maybe get kids to help!
> sorry if that's totally kiddie to you
Things are only kiddie if you think they are (personally I enjoy learning from children).
Worrying too much about what others think will hold you back from having fun! Enjoy the game programming!
Thank you. I guess a lot of people (including me) can be apprehensive about wading into technical domains. I've run into some hostile online environments, for sure. But a great majority of people are are always enthusiastic to help anyone who wants to learn.
> But a great majority of people are are always enthusiastic to help anyone who wants to learn.
That's one of the things I miss about "the old Internet". I remember when I first started using it around ~2000 to communicate with other electronics hobbyists, back when avrfreaks was big or just random people's widget shops has forums. There seemingly wasn't the level of toxicity that exists today. The first time I think I ever ran into someone being toxic (directly to me) was about 2009. IIRC they were saying that because I wasn't an EE I shouldn't be attempting to help people or something (I was halfway though high school at that point).
If a friend who knows nothing about computers asks me for help, they are often ashamed of their lack of knowledge. I usually can fix the problem. However I feel even more deeply ignorant than them, since I have spent my life working with computers and electronics. For example I might reinstall Windows, and my friend thinks I am a computer wizard, but I am fraudulent in my own mind because I didn’t actually diagnose the cause of their problem. By learning more we discover the depths of our own ignorance.
I’m not sure how to nurture my own inner child of discovery and protect it from the unconstructive bullies in the world, or my own negative inner voices. We all have to learn our own techniques, since they have to be personalised to our own personalities.
Anyway, good fortune on your own path of discovery, and thank you for publishing your journey. I do find it inspiring!
> I bought an Arduino board (sorry if that's totally kiddie to you)
Not kiddie at all, AVR microcontrollers have been used commercially for ages and they have some properties that can be nice, e.g. they are fairly simple cores, they operate at 5V and their output pins can sink ~40mA, so you can easily e.g. drive a MOSFET gate.
The Arduino ecosystem is huge and it's great to get things up and running quickly.
Barely scratching the surface of that domain. I'm mostly enamored of enabling little automations in my other hobbies. Like moisture sensors and auto sprinklers for my indoor grow.
