I'd still get that solderless breadboard. Even though you have your main circuit mostly, if not completely wired, it may still come in handy. It can still be used to test out specific little circuit blocks, before you go and take the x-acto knife to your PCB. As you said you're going to try out things like the IR motion sensors and such. Those sections should be tested in isolation first, to make sure they're running properly, before including them in the main project.
A being a software guy is really no excuse. I started as a hardware, mostly because computers back then were as big as a refrigerator. But modern electronics demands that you know how to program, which I've been doing before the first IBM PC came out. Can anyone say CP/M. Also, some of the best hardware I've seen came from a software guy. Moses, a member here, and owner of this site: http://www.neonixie.com He follows the rule of KISS, and I like his approach to hardware. When you're a hardware guy, like me, you tend to like to throw in extra 'bells-n-whistles'. Its almost, NO, it IS compulsive ! Moses keeps it to the basics, and doesn't throw in extra crap. His battery backup scheme is simple, too. A supercap which powers the uC, at a very low clock frequency (using little power), as opposed to throwing in a RTC chip, with battery & extra crystal. Of course, on the software side, his compulsions come in, and he squeezes in all the features the code space will allow. > Err... I'm way past breadboards here, ... I've > already spent too much for all this crap", ... I'm just more of a software > guy, > > Anyway, I thank everyone for helping me to understand this transistor > stuff. I'm sure when I have some free time to think understanding will > hit me. > -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "neonixie-l" group. To post to this group, send an email to [email protected]. To unsubscribe from this group, send email to [email protected]. For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/neonixie-l?hl=en-GB.
