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naraburns  nihil supernum  11mo ago (text post)   2950 thread views

Friday Fun Thread for April 28, 2023

Be advised: this thread is not for serious in-depth discussion of weighty topics (we have a link for that), this thread is not for anything Culture War related. This thread is for Fun. You got jokes? Share 'em. You got silly questions? Ask 'em.

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I'm interested in taking up a hobby which involves creation or building things. I like to write, and learning how to code seems cool, but I'd like to build. I thought about taking up chemistry, but I live in military dorms and I'm pretty sure that'd be a huge headache. There's no place to really store a bunch of crazy chemicals.

Building machines or robots seems cool. But I just don't know where a newbie with basically zero mechanical inclination is to begin. What hobbies have filled that craftsman's itch for Mottizens? I'd love to hear about your cool pursuits.

Seconding the Arduino rec. Or a similar microcontroller. The floor for entry is pretty low, and at the end, you’ll have a stupid robot that putters around or follows a line. It’s good fun. Analog electronics are also an option, but I can’t say I recommend it.

Don’t try to get into chemistry. At least not without a garage or shed. Also, you have to spend way more time and space cleaning up.

Third this. Microcontrollers are incredibly cheap, take up little space, and are well-documented but capable of suprising complexity. I greatly enjoyed building several projects out of $2 PIC microcontrollers in assembly code. (One of which, which interfaces with a cheap Wiegand RFID reader, I still use a decade later as a garage door opener).

Sounds like the barrier for entry is low. Also, I've never followed through with learning to code and building machines might give me the incentive I need to do so. Plus I am looking for something small-scale and relatively mess-free, so microcontrollers sound great.

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