Itching to start an electronic project
Lately I have been feeling the itch to start a new micro-controller or Raspberry Pi based project. In the past I constantly had multiple EE projects going on at any given time. These projects ranged from diode/opamp based signal splitters and combiners to converting an old digital radio scanner to be computer controlled. Of course now the technology has moved beyond that with SDR and micro-controller/DSP based signal processors. There were more projects, when I was 14 I wrote out all of the mechanical and electronic schematic’s to build a partially autonomous robot based on an 8088 computer with custom built IO boards. I still have the plans for that project somewhere, yes I have carried them around for 28 years in the original folder I kept them in when I was in high school. I will take some time to scan all of the pages and upload them soon.
Then real life started and for the last 13+ years I have given everything I had to give and more to my day job as a System Admin. I mothballed all of my projects and have not started another true EE based project or any other personal project since then.
Recently I was off work for two weeks after surgery. I had a lot of time to think and the resounding answer from my own mind and my wife has been that I need to give some time back to myself. So I have decided to do that with my favorite hobbies. They all revolve around the same thing and mainly consist of anything electronic that I can build or hack, SDR, Raspberry Pi, discreet electronics, ttl based computers and so on.
I already have an RPi running Emulation Station and Kodi, that was easy since I maintain Linux based systems all day. So maybe it is time to finally tap into the GPIO port and do something cool. Or I may just head the path of raw micro-controllers, I so remember the heyday of the picmicro which I used for legitimate and not so legitimate reasons (PS1 hack).
Now to decide what project would be the most fun and rewarding when finished. Updates when I finally make a decision.