New member. Saying hi, and question about electronic architecture

[xgarmothx]

Hello there,

I have always been interested in robotics and am finally taking the plunge. This site has been very helpful. Although I have a long history of professional development/programming experience and some engineering knowledge, I have very little electronics knowledge.

I just finsihed reading the $50 first robot tutorial for the fifth time and plan on undertaking the project next week or so. However, I'm the kind of person who, even for a first attempt, likes to know WHY I'm doing something, and the one part that really threw me for a loop was the electronics. I can follow the schematics (or at least the simplified, colored-dots version), but can't figure out why he made those decisions...what caused him to decide to solder together A and B, and not C and D? Where does one begin to understand that sort of thing?

Thanks very much! I look forward to the experience.
Matt

[cooldog]

it has a lot to do with the certain pins on the microcontroller. only certain pins can handle certain jobs like motor and sensor pins are different because they do different jobs.

[xgarmothx]

Thanks for the quick reply!

Ahhhh, so with each microcontroller, there comes a diagram of which pins do what. That makes sense and clears a lot up for me. Thank you. So what you wire into the breadboard or whatnot has to correspond to the setup of the specific model.

[pomprocker]

read datasheets on electronic components, and read books on basic electronics. that will help

[xgarmothx]

Thanks. I've been scouring the web for resources on basic electronics and think I've found a few good starting points.