10:48 a.m.
Greetings,
Well, I have just subscribed to the list, so I think that it is time to
introduce myself.
First of all: I have not downloaded yet "Electronic Lab". I downloaded last
week the "main" fedora (The live CD, but installed shortly after trying) but
I will download this when I arrive home (Now writing from work, don't tell
my boss ;) ). Electronics are both a job and a hobby for me. At work, mainly
used 8 bit microcontrollers (PIC18 always, or nearly always) until a few
months ago. And always developing on windows machines. I tried Linux at
home, time ago, but the computer was shared, and, well, my brother did not
like having a bootloader. And I was a poor student. Probably most of you
know what I mean ;). Later, I almost forgot Linux, and went on using
different windows OS. But as I said, a few months ago it changed: we needed
(at work) to develop a kind of set-top box, and video & audio streaming
software, and as I am the younger here, and the only one speaking english
-kind of ;)- it ended assigned to me.
Oh, about speaking english: I am spanish. I always though that english was
important, and also needed it for understanding the songs whose music I
loved. That songs were from Blind Guardian, Iced Earth, and some more.
Understanding the letters made me lome even more those songs, but thats
another topic.
Well, let's return to the point. The project was assigned to me, so I
started learning about embedded linux -The hardware used was a kind of
beagleboard clone- and linux cross-compiling. Also it meant to leave Visual
Studio in the host PC, and go back to writing C apps in a text editor (Hey,
as i used to do when I was 12 or 13 years old. Well, It was Pascal those
days, but...). I have almost leaved electronics as a hobby lately, but this
project made me wanted to switch back to the days when I developed robots at
home, and programmed for the pleasure of it, not for work. But now, using
Linux, Open Source tools, and so on.
Let me summarize: After getting Fedora as the OS (well, dual boot Fedora 15
& Windows 7) for development, it was time for the tools. For programming the
PICs, now exist Microchip MPLAB X. I have to try it yet, but it does not
worry me much. As the PIC18 are well known to me, and mainly i want to try
new things, I think I will use it only few times. Maybe with PIC32 I will
use it more. Even if I had lost the will for doing such home projects at
home, I never stopped buying develpment boards (low cost ones, only ;) ) and
now have PIC32 boards for playing, PIC24, STM32 for developing with ARM, a
launchpad (TI MSP430 value line) and homemade boards. So now I am looking
for toolchains for those families. That´s for programming. For the hardware,
I used to desing schematics and pcb's in homer or University with OrCAD or
PROTEUS, and, in the work, CIRCUIT MAKER 2000 (Yup, STILL they use this...
imagine how I feel....). Now i searched, and think that KiCAD is the best
available option.
Mmm, I think that I have procrastinated enough (Time to go back to work...)
but, as a last think, probably should tell something about me. As I said, I
am from Spain, have studied Electronics Engineering, and have recently
reached 27 years. I work a lot, earn few money, but, hey, I really love what
I do. Sure, if I had more time probably would do more things at home (At
this moment i reach my work at 9 hours and leave at 19...), but as I said, I
love this stuff :) Another things I like are Basketball, SciFi and Fantasy
books (Which mainly I read in english since a few years ago), and some TV
series (SciFi mainly) but downloaded to view it when I can. I have Tv at
home, but feels terribly alone hehehe.
Ah, and I want to apologize for the mistakes I had made (In this post, and
in all that may come after ;) ). I try my best to write (and speak)
correctly, but it is not always easy. Feel free to point me any mistake that
makes your eyes hurt.
As soon as I get my computer ready, and start doing anithing be sure that I
will post here both questions and results. Since then, I will be reading ;)
See you guys!