My First Forays Into Coding

Computer programming is a fairly new hobby of mine. I have always been quite technically oriented, but it wasn't until February of 2015 that I really started to write code. At the time I had taken my motorcycle apart for the winter and I was trying to redo the auxiliary electrical system because it was currently a mess. After spending a bunch of time at Radioshack looking at relays and such, I spied something on the wall called an Arduino. I had heard of Arduino before, but always wrote it off because I thought the learning curve would be too steep. However, after explaining my current ideas for my electrical system to the friendly sales associate at Radioshack, he assured me that an Arduino would be perfect for my needs and that anyone could learn to use one. After much debate I decided I would give this little(and fairly cheap gizmo) a try. Fast forward two hours and I was already manipulating code on my computer.

The first Arduino Sketch (the Arduino term for a program) for most people is called "Blink". As the name suggests, the only thing this Sketch does is Blink an LED built into the Arduino board. To achieve this, the Sketch simply assigns a specific pin as an output, sets that pin high, delays for 1000 milliseconds, sets that pin low, delays for another 1000 milliseconds, and repeats. How simple! To natural tinkerers like myself, my first thought was to modify and rethink the program. In not too long I was changing the delay value, assigning multiple pins to multiple LEDs, and even adding buttons that control the LED behavior. I was hooked.

My present Arduino projects mainly involve automated machinery. My father owns a Fabrication Shop and he has many old machines to which he would like to add modern CNC (Computer Numeric Control) motion controllers. My current project is to use a PC, an Arduino board, servo motor drivers, and industrial servo motors in order to add very exact motion control to an industrial press brake, all controlled by a simple GUI that I am designing myself with Processing. This project mixes both "lite" Electrical Engineering with Arduino and Processing programming to make a fully functional and professional machine.

Beyond my industrial control projects, I am very interested to start experimenting with IoT(Internet of Things) projects. It is this pursuit that brings me to this class. If I am to understand how to connect physical objects to the internet, I had better know how to implement these connections into appealing web experiences.