[conductr]

I've gone the opposite direction (kind of). I started learning web dev (self taught). PHP, Ruby, Python, JS. Full stack but never got into the cloud era much. But pretty confident I could build anything I set my mind to. This began in the 90s and a couple years ago I started messing with Arduino and finally using C after years of using C-inspired things (it's much less fun for me, 90% seamless but at times feels like work trying to figure out the simplest things seems difficult sometimes or the generally accepted solution is way more complex than I really want). During about Fall of 2020, extra bandwidth from COVID WFH, I finally thought of a big project I wanted to pour some effort into (excitement of making lights blink wore of fast). More difficult than the code, is all the EE stuff. And actually having to engineer things together to create a project. At least in my case, I'm using stepper motors, which means stepper motor drivers and secondary power supplies. I'm also using air pumps, solenoid valves, linear actuators, limit switches, rails systems (open builds is awesome), all kinds of things. The breadboard wiring was insane. Then I built a PCB to organize some of it. I still have no idea when or if I should be using resistors, capacitors, etc. I'm super unfamiliar with electronics but I feel pretty confident at this point I can learn/solve anything on YouTube. Emphasis on Youtube. I Google for software and Youtube for hardware; that's a key distinction I've noticed. I need to see how other people are wiring things together. I can't read a diagram at all. I'm pretty close to a working prototype and have somehow pieced it all together.

[tartoran]

Glad you’re making headway and progress on your idea and glad you’re catching up on knowledge on youtube. My honest opinion is that you don’t need to know everything EE to get stuff done and if you indeed have a great idea that can potentially make some money, you can hire someone with experience in the field.