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Ever wished you discovered about Microcontrollers earlier? — Parallax Forums

Ever wished you discovered about Microcontrollers earlier?

John A. ZoidbergJohn A. Zoidberg Posts: 514
edited 2010-11-03 01:17 in General Discussion
The title there.

Too bad I only happened to have a first-hand experience at the age of 22. I wished I tried playing with the Basic Stamp stuff when I was 14. The only thing that I knew about Basic Stamps was when I browsed the Electronics Australia magazine I bought back in 1999, but I couldn't know where to buy it!

If I did get those in my hand at that time, I would be enjoying so much of it!

Never too late for me, right? :lol:

Comments

  • stamptrolstamptrol Posts: 1,731
    edited 2010-10-26 09:27
    Age is no limit! As long as you can keep learning new things, you're in good shape.

    There are several of us here who fit the description of "snow on the roof doesn't mean there's no fire in the furnace!".

    Cheers,
  • pharseidpharseid Posts: 192
    edited 2010-10-26 12:29
    I also discovered microcontrollers around that age, but then, that's when they were first developed.

    -phar
  • logan996logan996 Posts: 281
    edited 2010-10-26 13:20
    I'm 14 and I've been trying to learn the Prop since last year!
  • localrogerlocalroger Posts: 3,452
    edited 2010-10-26 13:25
    When I was 14 an embedded controller was the size of a dorm refrigerator and cost $40,000. By the time I was 22 you could actually get a single chip 8 bit chip with UV-erasable EPROM on board (Intel 8049) for only $100 or so.
  • Heater.Heater. Posts: 21,230
    edited 2010-10-26 13:27
    22 Ha?

    I was 20 when I discovered micro-processors. But that was in 1976:)

    Before that we had to amuse ourselves building calculators like this one from Wireless World in 1972 http://www.vintagecalculators.com/html/advance_electronics.html#Wireless%20World

    Jeez, I can't believe I built that when I was 16.

    Or building digital clocks with Nixie tubes and TTL chips. By which time I had learned how to hack the circuit to my liking and etch my own PCB for it.
  • LeonLeon Posts: 7,620
    edited 2010-10-26 14:29
    I was 29 when the first microprocessor, the 4-bit Intel 4004, became available.
  • sylvie369sylvie369 Posts: 1,622
    edited 2010-10-26 16:50
    stamptrol wrote: »
    Age is no limit! As long as you can keep learning new things, you're in good shape.

    There are several of us here who fit the description of "snow on the roof doesn't mean there's no fire in the furnace!".

    Cheers,

    It's the squinting in the eyes that bothers me the most.

    Almost every day I wish I'd discovered these things back when I could see small objects without having to remove my glasses.

    I did play with some of these things (Z80s) back when I was 20, in 1979, but I wasn't smart or rich enough to do anything interesting with them.
  • Phil Pilgrim (PhiPi)Phil Pilgrim (PhiPi) Posts: 23,514
    edited 2010-10-26 21:46
    When I got out of grad school in 1975 with a C.S. degree, I was sick of computers and never wanted to see another one again as long as I lived. (The academic world can do that to a person.) The advent of the microprocessor and, later, the microcontroller rekindled my interest in computing, and it's been my passion ever since.

    -Phil
  • John A. ZoidbergJohn A. Zoidberg Posts: 514
    edited 2010-10-26 22:23
    Phil Pilgrim (PhiPi) wrote: »
    When I got out of grad school in 1975 with a C.S. degree, I was sick of computers and never wanted to see another one again as long as I lived. (The academic world can do that to a person.) The advent of the microprocessor and, later, the microcontroller rekindled my interest in computing, and it's been my passion ever since.

    -Phil

    I guess during the 70s, computer science was very tough stuff at that time?

    My only first exposures to the microcontrollers were the PIC16F, and then PIC18F, and some rudimentary 68HC11.

    This year I'm experimenting on Parallax Propeller, and will try the other cheap 32-bits. :D
  • Ron CzapalaRon Czapala Posts: 2,418
    edited 2010-10-27 07:39
    sylvie369 wrote: »
    It's the squinting in the eyes that bothers me the most.

    Almost every day I wish I'd discovered these things back when I could see small objects without having to remove my glasses.

    Yeah! I have to take off my glasses so I can see when I'm soldering boards like the XBEE adapters, etc. :)

    And forget SMD soldering...
  • K2K2 Posts: 693
    edited 2010-10-27 07:46
    When we were 16, a mad friend of mine kept yammering about microprocessors. He frequently mentioned how sure he was that I would like them. When I asked him what they were good for, he could never give me a satisfactory answer. Finally I asked him not to bring up the subject anymore - he was boring me to death!

    Long story short, microprocessors are how I've earned a living for the past 30 years. It still amazes me that I told Chuck to shut up.
  • pharseidpharseid Posts: 192
    edited 2010-10-27 08:38
    When I first started programming, the work flow was that you would first go into a room with card punch machines and type in your program, one line per card. Then you'd take your stack of cards to a room with a card reader, hand that to the operator and get a card with a number back. Then you'd go off and kill some time, maybe 45 minutes if you were doing this late at night or early morning, but more like a couple hours in the middle of the day. Then you'd go sit in a room with a bunch of other people staring at a monochrome monitor mounted high on the wall in one corner of the room. Waiting for your number to come up. When that happened you'd go to another room and fish your printout out of a bin.

    My understanding is that the Devil has copied this scheme for the region of Hell reserved for programmers.

    -phar
  • LeonLeon Posts: 7,620
    edited 2010-10-27 08:51
    You forgot to mention that many times one would make a mistake in the JCL, resulting in reams of printout, that one then had to take to a guru in the computing department. He would point out that a comma had been missed out, or something like it.
  • Ron CzapalaRon Czapala Posts: 2,418
    edited 2010-10-27 08:59
    Leon wrote: »
    You forgot to mention that many times one would make a mistake in the JCL, resulting in reams of printout, that one then had to take to a guru in the computing department. He would point out that a comma had been missed out, or something like it.

    A guy that used to work for me left some debugging statements in a program which was put in production. He got back about 20 boxes of printout the next day! He was running all over the building filling garbage cans trying to hide his mistake! LOL
  • RavenkallenRavenkallen Posts: 1,057
    edited 2010-10-27 08:59
    I was 17 when i interfaced my first parallel memory and that same year i got a parallel LCD working, a 555 flashing a LED and worked with numerous 7400 series logic chips. but when i was 18 everything changed...I got the Basic Stamp and i was never the same..5 or 6 months ago i got the Propeller PE kit and i stepped up from the piston engine age to the space age. ..Yeah, i wish i learned about microcontrollers earlier...
  • blittledblittled Posts: 681
    edited 2010-10-27 09:31
    I remember my first sophmore course in college was Fortran using the card punch as well. My school, Penn State, thought the 6502 was going to be the big processor of the future so I took a course on assembly on it. I did have one teacher that bucked the system and taught us the Intel 8080 since he thought that Intel would take off!

    After college I got into Z80 assembly as a hobby and later used it in my career. In the late 90's I was introduced to the PIC chip on my job and have been fiddling around with micro controllers since then.
  • Phil Pilgrim (PhiPi)Phil Pilgrim (PhiPi) Posts: 23,514
    edited 2010-10-27 11:10
    pharseid's description matches my early grad school experience to a T. In my case, the computer center was built on a newer, remote campus that offered no commercial amenities; and it was a long bus ride back to the main campus. Consequently, waiting for one's program output was a total bore, punctuated only by bad vending machine snacks and false hope when one's number finally came up after the nth attempt to submit a working program.

    This period in my education, fortunately, was brief. In undergrad school and in my later grad school years, I had regular one-on-one access to an IBM 1130/1800, which was much more enjoyable.

    I believe that driver's license bureaus still cling to the old computer center model, though.

    -Phil
  • NWCCTVNWCCTV Posts: 3,629
    edited 2010-11-02 20:55
    If they had Microcontrollers in the 70's, I may well have ended up rich and happy rather than working and, well, happy!!!!
  • Heater.Heater. Posts: 21,230
    edited 2010-11-02 23:28
    NWCCTV,
    If they had Microcontrollers in the 70's

    I thought they did, the Intel 4040 is from 1974 and the 4004 from 1971.

    They may only have been 4 bit and they were not single chip solutions as came later (Neither is the Prop by the way) but they were used in embedded applications where we are used to seeing a micro-controller.
  • GadgetmanGadgetman Posts: 2,436
    edited 2010-11-03 01:17
    This brings me back...

    To this thread...
    http://forums.parallax.com/showthread.php?t=62327
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