It's All Greek To Me...

I don't know how many others are in a similar position as I am.

You've got an IoT idea you want to bring to fruition, but you know nothing about electronics, physics, mechanical design and 3D printing, or coding ... you don't know the difference between a resistor and a capacitor or between an Arduino Uno or a Particle Proton.

One year into my project, I'm still learning about all of these things. My background is in economics, psychology, medicine, public health and agriculture. Almost none of these are applicable to what I'm trying to accomplish. The one benefit—I'm curious!

Here's how I started my journey -

• Googled the heck out of ALL the subjects.
  • Narrow my search by including words like 'basic' 'tutorial' "introduction," or "teach me."
• Specifically used scholar.google.com to find relevant publications
• Checked with my local community college and took a couple of relevant classes (ex. intro to electronics, C++ basics, Intro to digital design).
• Looked for easy-to-understand online videos on foundational matters (YouTube, Kahn Academy, All About Electronics, etc)
  • After developing a basic understanding of my subject, reached out to interested article authors for advice.  
• Searched blogs/websites like Hackaday.io, Adafruit.com, Github and Stackoverflow for similar projects.
  • Then, try to connect directly with someone who's done something similar.
• I found local university professors who knew about some aspects of the subject and reached out to them.  Be confident and you'll be surprised at how many folks will give you 15+ minutes of their valuable time!
• Used an AI chatbot (ChatGPT) - then verified the results.
• and, made a couple hundred drawings and idea board posts to bring this all together and formulate my first prototype.

I'd love to know your experience - how'd you approach your electronics project!  Let me know.