If I could go back (about 9 months ago) and tell my Newbie self what I know today...

I have been thinking of posting this for quite some time. Hopefully someone who is still new to this hobby will find this one day and say "Ah!". There are a few things I would have loved to tell myself back before I got started on this digital electronics hobby. I know it is all about the journey, and through that journey you learn. But still, if I could go back, I would tell myself:

1) Buy an EEPROM programmer. This was absolutely the stupidest thing I should have done early on. I was trying to use the Raspberry Pi and a breadboard, and though it worked, the breadboard side of things failed me and I gave up on it. A TL866II+ is less than $50 on Amazon, it runs with 'minipro' in Linux, and it is the grandest thing ever.

2) Get an oscilloscope. A multimeter is neat, but the 'scope is my eyes and ears on the circuit. I'm happy that the college provided (two) for me there, but I should have asked for it earlier. Many things could have been found out quicker if I had acquired it sooner and learned it better. I thank Bill (plasmo) in particular for his help in debugging V1, as that was a very pivotal point in my journey.

3) You *will* make multiple boards. This should probably be #2 honestly. I came in thinking "I'll print this one board and it will work, and I will be done forever." Nope. My Acolyte 6502 board is technically V5, my *fifth* board. And though I'm happy with it, I will be printing another revision of it soon to adjust tiny changes.

4) This hobby costs money. I am primarily an amateur video game programmer, and that costs exactly $0. I feel VERY guilty about spending money on myself, but that is just the nature of the game here. It doesn't have to cost $1000 or something, but expect to pay a couple hundred at least, if not more. Don't be afraid to spend a couple extra dollars to make it right.

5) Start with a working model. Though I did that with Garth's "potpourri" circuit, I had nothing to go off of for VGA. George (gfoot) helped me a great deal there. For months I was floating around, with no solid ground to stand on. I could have shortened my confusion considerably if I just humbled myself and looked to others for their help and guidance (even passive guidance).

6) Don't trust breadboards. I know many of you guys use breadboards extensively. And you can tell me that if I get a good quality breadboard, they work fine. I myself am not a breadboard fan. It was good to have one, to test little things on it, but I relied on it, and it failed me at critical times.

And now, some things I would *not* tell my Newbie self. These are things that were important for my journey, and though they took time, I am glad to have made mistakes to learn from them.

1) Start with a microprocessor. Before coming here, I was planning on making a TTL-only calculator thing. 74LS' for everything. That was stupid of me, it is much more complicated than what I though it out to be. But, I learned a lot about how things work, and so when I started looking into 6502 stuff I was not nearly as overwhelmed (still overwhelmed, just not AS overwhelmed). Remember that I started from zero.

2) Use printed boards. My V1 computer is a mess o' wires, and though I look back with fondness at the contraption, I will *never* do that again. I can't fathom how I did it in the first place! It was a good experience, I'm glad I did it, so I would have my Newbie self still go through that pain.

3) Use a real Assembler. For a good while I made my own Assembler in C, and wow, that was interesting. It improved over time, but everything was so manual. Though it was tough, it REALLY made me learn the bare metal side of things, and I am happy to have gone through that bit of suffering. Thanks to Garth in particular (in all of his patience) for pushing me into using as65, even while I was kicking and screaming.

4) Stick to your goals. I recently went back and found the first email I sent to Garth, many many months ago. I had found his site, and he introduced me to the forum. Apparently I was looking to make a 6502 computer with VGA, keyboard, and SD card support. So far I have two out of three Though, I am happy to have learned LCD screens, tactile buttons, CPLD's, and audio circuits, and other things along the way. I would have come back to my goals anyways, but taking a side path once in a while is fun and exciting.

5) You'll enjoy the software side a lot more. I am a programmer by nature, not a hardware guy. If I would have pushed myself more into software, I would have settled on using some pre-fab board/kit. It would have sped up the time considerably, but I wouldn't have learned all that I know today. I am so very happy to have learned the hardware side of things, and NOW I can enjoy the software side looking back with a smile

I know that I am fairly new, and most of you have been doing this for many years. But, do you ever have similar thoughts? What would you tell yourself back some time ago? Or, what would you have made yourself still suffer through?

Thanks for everything you guys have done for me along my journey.

Chad

Great to see these notes - in another year or two you probably wouldn't remember this part of the journey so clearly.

And very good point about the need to do some things sub-optimally, and make mistakes, and learn. It's all about keeping the enthusiasm going, and not being overwhelmed. So, again, a good point about seeking assistance, either active or passive. It helps with not having to fight every battle yourself, from scratch.

A lot of my learning, I think, was from reading. I had books and magazines, and they were much more affordable than hardware.

_________________
x86?  We ain't got no x86.  We don't NEED no stinking x86!

It's a great list and pretty much exactly what I found and wish I had done too. Just to re-iterate two of your points:

6) Don't trust breadboards!
I had no idea how bad the parasitic capacitance could be or how much current they could produce until tried a high speed clock in one and it destroyed itself. (The same circuit on strip-board with PCB adapters worked fine).

4) This hobby costs money.
I'm also a software guy and the cost was quite a shock. But not spending the money is also not worth it as it tends to make things way harder or even impossible

And add a couple more things to your list:

7) Buy a magnifying glass. Ideally one with a light.
I spent way to much time trying to read ICs using my cellphone camera with its horrible auto-focus whilst telling myself a digital microscope would be too expensive. I eventually picked up a magnifying glass for in (US terms) a few dollars and it's honestly all I needed.
8) If doing any surface mount PCB work get a good soldering station and learn to use the hot air pencil. This has made soldering TSSOPs etc... a breeze and something I no longer avoid.

To quote a wise character:

_________________
Modules | Processors | Boards | Boxes | Beep, Beep! I'm a sheep!