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Topic starter
2022-03-10 2:00 am
Hello,
I am retired. I have spent a fair amount of time in my life working in electronics, instrumentation, and software development, but certainly not enough to be expert in any of them. I have been interested in Science since I can remember, and I became interested in electronics around age 6 while watching my dad fix TV sets belonging to the folks in the neighboring community. I would spend many of my summer vacation days at the library trying to understand what I could about science and electronics, then go home to my little lab in the basement and experiment and build stuff. Having to go back to school in the Fall was always a great disappointment as it interrupted all the learning and discovery I was doing to go and be bored in a mostly time wasting environment. Ah but I digress...
Fast-forward many years, I have been discovering the technology that is now available to the ordinary man for cheap. It is my nature to engineer stuff, and I am amazed at how easy it can be now. But I am still quite new to this stuff, and I have been experimenting with Arduino, ESP32 and LoRa trying to get familiar with it all. I have also been trying to learn the stuff (mainly RF theory and application) I wish I would have learned when I had much opportunity to do so; when I was younger, and had a more elastic mind. It is not so easy now 🙂
I have watched Bill's video presentations/tutorials (I assume Bill is the one doing those) and have found them to be very good. At least they work well for me and how I process. Very thorough without being boring, and without nonsense. And very easy to listen to. When he mentioned there was a dronebot forum I thought, "I want to sign up for that one." And here I am...
This topic was modified 2 years ago 4 times by KevinJones
2022-03-10 4:27 pm
@kevinjones, Welcome to the forum... yor in good company, as there are many here with the same goals as you, mainly learning, and wanting to engineer ,"build things", lol
I myself have been in electronics/ instrumentation and electrical for over 49 years.. started back in 1965 while I was in the Navy.. worked in EWS (Electronic Warfare Systems) D.A.S.H and Asroc anti-submarine warfare systems.. and then in heavy industrial Instrumentation/electrical systems in different plant environments from petrol-Chemical,Refineries, Off-shore oil & Gas, Power & utilities,and finally to the Pulp and paper industry where I worked for the last 28 years before retirement in 2014.
You'll find many people here with a variety of skills and knowledge that are willing and able to help you ( and me) with learning all this wonderful technology. Looking forward to hearing from you on what projects you'll be pursuing..
Have fun, and be safe...
kind regards,
LouisR
LouisR
ron bentley reacted
2022-03-10 10:19 pm
Welcome on board, I am sure you will find the forum informative and helpful, it has many like minded members
Ron Bentley
Creativity is an input to innovation and change is the output from innovation. Braden Kelley
A computer is a machine for constructing mappings from input to output. Michael Kirby
Through great input you get great output. RZA
Gauss is great but Euler rocks!!
Inst-Tech reacted
2022-03-13 3:41 pm
A lot of us are wrestling with minds that have gotten a tad creaky with age - but the concepts do eventually get in there, lol. Why the focus on RF theory? Do you have a specific project in mind?
I edit my posts to fix typos, correct grammar, or improve clarity. On-screen keyboards are evil.
Inst-Tech reacted
Topic starter
2022-03-14 11:42 am
@binaryrhyme I started becoming interested when trying to solve a problem of getting cellular signal in a remote area, as well as improving wifi connectivity across long spans without just plunking down lots of money for advertised equipment. I made attempts at building high gain antennas which revealed how much there is to know about RF (and electromagnetic wave theory in general) and how it is affected by many unsuspected and unintuitive factors. I found out how woefully bereft of knowledge of the subject I was.
During my youth I was fascinated by radio and played around with it a bit (though never got a HAM license) but during my college years I became more interested in other aspects of electronics. I had a very surface knowledge of it all the while thinking I knew enough about it, so I skipped out the courses on it not realizing the vast extent of what there is to know and all the nuances there are (and what an opportunity I had.) Now I am wishing I really would have paid attention to that stuff and applied myself to properly learn it. Electromagnetic wave theory seems to be a whole 'nuther world of electronics, sometimes seeming like magic, and it seems like one of those things that just takes lots of experience over time in order for your brain to shift into the realm of thinking in another dimension.
I've since bought a NanoVNA and have been learning although I still consider my knowledge to be not much below the surface. Currently I am trying to implement Lora modules to do some remote controlling of stuff.
ron bentley and Inst-Tech reacted
2022-03-14 12:53 pm
@kevinjones Fascinating - thanks for the background on your interest. My smarter half wrote her thesis in the field of digital wireless - I have always found the field to be fascinating. I'm trying to figure out what wireless tech to base my home automation projects around - was only recently googling down antenna options for DIY. 😉 Your interest and expertise are most welcome!
I edit my posts to fix typos, correct grammar, or improve clarity. On-screen keyboards are evil.
Inst-Tech reacted