3 year old

[bnicely]

So instead of possibly confusing you, I invented what I call a colored dot schematic. I'm willing to bet a 3 year old can understand this enough to build the circuit . . . (apologies to all 3 year olds reading this tutorial)

Building first $50 robot and following directions.  Almost laughed my A$$ off.  Thought for sure you were going to say

" Even a CAVEMAN could do it!"

[superchiku]

sometimes being optimistic is gud...why dont u try it...it is a gud way to start

[Admin]

What shocked me is the large number of people posting to this forum saying they couldn't figure out the $50 dollar robot dot schematic, and requested a schematic with lines connecting everything . . .

 

[superchiku]

actually many ppl would get confused if they dont have basic idea of electronics and all

[chelmi]

actually many ppl would get confused if they dont have basic idea of electronics and all

I've always found that when you know a domain very well, it's very hard to imagine
 how somebody totally ignorant in that domain will react. This is why it's so difficult to write
a good documentation/tutorial targeted to total beginners.
Maybe we should add a very basic electronic/electricity tutorial before the $50 robot one.
Or a link to a few good ones.

I'll check my bookmarks to see what I can find.

Chelmi.

[Metal Slug 2]

That is very true...many things which are just basics to experts are ussually confusing as ever for beginners.  Perhaps if someone who was a complete beginner documented their work as they built the $50 robot, from soldering to programming, and wrote a tutorial on it (assuming the end result was successful)...maybe the logic they use to explain how they understood things would also apply to other beginners trying the same $50 robot project.

[HDL_CinC_Dragon]

I like to think im very good at writing tutorials. I havnt written too too many but Im told im good at it. Perhaps I can rewrite the $50 robot for John(admin)

[chitniss]

I am not sure if I just missed the line of text...but the schematic for $50 robot asks for pins 4,6,8,10 to be grounds on the programmer header. However, I did not find the instructions saying that in text anywhere. I was confused a bit as I just followed the text instructions at first, and was left with pins for the programmer going to nowhere. when I saw the schematic later on, I realized that 4 of the pins were grounded...

[Razor Concepts]

Number of dot schematics on the internet:   1
Numberof wires schematics on the internet: 21,800,000

I prefer the normal schematics also, the dots may be useful as a compliment to the wired schematic (so people can look at their parts and figure out what goes where), and still use the wired schematic to get an overview of where to place stuff.

[Admin]

What I assumed is that if people wanted a line schematic, they'd simply print it out and draw a line between the colors . . . . for someone who has never seen a line schematic before, they can be a little confusing.

Anyway we got both now, so people can choose what is simpler for them to understand.

[madchimp]

I think part of the issue also comes down to beginners being intimidated by any schematic. It's a little like computers, you take an average computer user and tell them to type in a command on the command line and they freak. Even if you tell them exactly what to type. You can hold their hands all you want but it boils down to people have to get over being intimidated by this stuff, take a bit to actually digest things and realize it's not that scary. Just make sure you have your safety glasses on for the occasional chip exploding (learning experience) and all is good, and yes the occasion chip exploding is from experience. Real quick way to learn how not to hook something up lol.

[Joesavage1]

i still dont get the dot one!!! i just use a line one.
LOL, im stupider than a three year old. D= Lol




Joe

[Asellith]

Number of dot schematics on the internet:   1

hmm check out www.solderbynumbers.com they have like 12 or 13 dot schematics If I can get some free time and not be sick during it I want to finish my several projects and post them there.

Also I did not get the dot thing. The dot thing is good for connecting things together but to understand the circuit and be able to change it the dots are way to annoying. I gave up trying to build a pcb design for the dots schematic and drew a line one. I guess its what your familiar with.