/cyber/ - Cyberpunk & Science Fiction

Well for starters it would be nice if you actually said something.

Get some SBC or SBMC kits and get some schematics for any laptops/computers you have access to.

>>50528

get a soldering iron and learn how to solder faggot

>>50528

> Wasting that much on silkscreen

The only way I would be more mad is if this board didn't do anything.

Anyway, if you want to get started, you probably want to learn a little about hardware, and assembly. I was taught with Logisim (http://www.cburch.com/logisim/) and MARS (http://courses.missouristate.edu/KenVollmar/mars/). I hear my uni has moved from MIPS to ARM since it's more relevant nowadays. I don't know of any good simulators for it though.

If you want to design your own boards eventually (and don't work at a big company that can shell out for E N T E R P R I S E software, check out LibrePCB (http://librepcb.org/) or go hardcore and learn VHDL/Verilog

>>50540

VHDL isn't that difficult, really.

You just have to get used to defining your hardware as text.

Returns are amazing, as it's very powerful and you can parse it easily in case you want to work with the format in your own software.

>>50537

I remember seeing my father solder a laptop circuit bord back together and i thought it was the coolest thing i ever saw in my life.

He winged it, never done it before, and it worked.

Get the book: Practical ELectronics for Inventors by Simon Monk & co. It is an information gold mine. A good reference when you need basic well phrased definitions and equations.

Get an Arduino/Teensy/ESP32 and start writing microcontroller code. The IDE is very simple and it automates many operations to allow beginners to stay focused on their project. Later on, you can tweak the compiler flags for better code quality or even ditch the IDE and use gcc & avrdude or whatever suits your evolutionary needs at that point.

You should get a sensors pack and start building a device that measures and acts upon the measured data. This would require you to read datasheets and familiarize yourself with the process of discovery.

Once you understand the basics of digital and analog (Debouncing, Sampling, Pulse width modulation, Interrupts, Timers, …) and communications protocols (Serial, SPI, I2C, I2S, …) the rest is up to your imagination.

Get a Raspberry Pi and get aquainted with the environment and stay low level.

Avoid Python at the beginning, do everything in C and assembly if you can.

Get a Lattice ICE40 FPGA (cheap: 1K, 4K, 8K logic elements) and use the "icestorm" open source toolchain to synthesize verilog, generate a bitstream and upload it to the chip. There are many ICE40 boards available: Ico board, ICEZero for Raspberry Pi, Lattice ICEStick, …

Sharpen your coding skills by writing as much code as you can with two optimizations in mind: smaller code size possible, fastest program possible. Also, study whataver code you find in the wilderness and learn to use GDB & objdump (or any equivalent tools).

Take a look at parallel programming: OpenMP, MPI, vectorization, …

Read the underlying hardware's documentation to understand its potential and how to exploit it properly.

I would recommand:

. Introduction to Algorithms, Cormen & co.

. The C Programming Language, Kernighan & Ritchie.

. ATmega (128, 328p, …) data sheets.

. Teensy 3.6 (amazing board) documentation and exmaple projects.

. ESP32 (dual core, WiFi, bluetooth, Ethernet, …) data sheet and example projects.

. Agner Fog's work on optimization: agner.org

Projects I would recommend:

. Write in C a modular program that takes as input an arithmetic expression and outputs its syntactic tree and postfixed notation.

Also, the program must report subexpressions that can be run in parallel and generate an assembly code for the given expression.

. Write in C a program that takes as input a file and outputs the Huffman tables and the compressed file.

The program should be able to decompress the output file also.

. Design your own Arduino board using the ATmega 328p and a USB to Serial converter.

. Design a phone using the SIM800L module with a switch matrix and a display. (check out ZeroPhone)

. Write a program that idsplays Mandelbrot fractals on an TFT.

. Design a CPU and implement it in an Arduino then an FPGA.

. Design a compiler from a language of choice to the CPU instruction set.

. Design an OS:

I/O (Serial, …)

User management

Filesystem (SD card module)

Process management

Memory management

. Design a board that runs on all of your previous designs.

. Design a parallel architecture using your previous designs.

I can keep going on but this is more than enough to stimulate your neurons.

Have fun.

>>51407

Not OP, just wanted to say:

It's great to see a post with this much effort. Nicely done, anon.

Although you may have overshot it a bit. After you're done with the first half, you'll know what to do next to hone your skills yourself. While the other half (C projects) contains great suggestions, at that point you should just focus on what you personally find interesting.

>>50528

Slap RiscOS on a Raspberry Pi. They have some real nice ARM assembly guides.

>>51407

i like the cut of your jib anon

>>51407

Yeah. Don't do this. You will get a Computer Science Education and be making iPhone apps before you know it.

Really it depends on what you actually mean by "hardware".

If you mean you want to do embeded systems, learning C, ASM, OS DEV, algorithims isn't horrible. But you will be doing embedded systems OS stuff. You could read Patterson, learn some electronics (Art of Electornics Hortwiz, Micro Electronica Circuits Sedra Smith), and go learn some logic design, then FPGA's and protype CPU's, but very few people end up designing CPUs.

If by hardware you mean "electronics" , then your fucked. Because , as far my inexpert mind can see, "Analog" is basically dead inasmuch as virtually any signal processesing you want to do is cheaper to do digitally, and easier to do by far digitally than analog. What effectively that means is analog electronics are being replaced by code. So go learn CS, and a "hardware" equilizer is replaced with an infinitely more customizable, cheaper to MASS produce , unrepairable , embeded microprocessor running DSP.

The economics are different of course, for a hobbiest. Its far easier for a hobbyist to construct a physical filter out a couple of analog components than to aquire microprocessor, but the prices on embeded systems are coming down, and people are actually using arduinos now in projects because they are affordable enough.

If by "hardware" you mean PC reapir, then I would half advise you don't do it and go learn CS instead. Hardware is increasingly unrepairable, parts market is absolute garbage because manufacturers don't want to make parts available, and people filling that niche void frequently sell ANYTHING they can find. The market is also flooded with poor but actually acceptable talent - IE. Effectively teenagers with some knowledge who are effectively able to work for little to no wages, and occasionally destroy customer hardware while working on it ("Oh! This laptop has a burned motherboard [because i just burned it]. Diagnostic Complete Quote the Customer")

If you do get into PC repair, taking control of the technology in your life can be incredibly liberating, and also incredibly disillusioning. You essentially adopt the CA Libertarian Eff hacker ethic, and then notice smart phones as next generation computing and cry.

My Shot:

If you mean Analog Electronics:

- All About Circuits

- Art of Electronics

- Micro Electronic Circuits

- Signals and Systems

If you mean Digital Electronics:

- Fundamentals of Logic Design

- Computer Architecture A Quantative Approach

- Signals and Systems

If you mean Embeded Systems:

- Operating System Design

- C The Hard Way

- Programming from the Ground Up

- Computer Architecture and Design

If you mean PC Hardware:

- CompTIA A+

- COMPTIA NET+

- Get a job fixing computers, virtually ALL knowledge about disassembling laptops, cannot be acquired through any formal source, because little to no documentation exists. Best way to get started is with junk computers. You can watch you-tube disassembly videos and HP has "end of life recycling" guides that detail disassembly of some models. Dell occasionally has service manuals available for some machines. But there in general does not exist documentation to disassemble an arbitrary laptop.

Also, Electrical Engineering as a discipline is actually quite mundane. It sounds like ANIME , MATRIX and Hackers, but it looks like computer aided design, and combining off the shelf solutions. Studying electrical engineering is mostly the study and practice of various types of mathematics. Linear Equations, Diffrential Equations, Complex number numbers, etc. Its not spectacularly glamorous. But you should do it anyway.