Part One: Teaching Myself Electronics

Okay, here is the situation. Two years ago, I acquired this degree right [music] here in the hopes that one day it would help me get a job as a software developer.

That didn't happen. Not even close. And

so, after a million rejection emails as well as a slight existential crisis, I decided, you know what? If I'm going to be suffering through a terrible, terrible job market, [music] the very least, let me choose a job that I

actually want to do. Crazy concept, I know. And so for the past year, I've

know. And so for the past year, I've been making this career path transition from the world of programming into the lovely world of [music] engineering. I

enrolled into community college in order to fill in my educational gap. I've also

been doing a lot of space related engineering programs that are super cool, but also super useful for getting my foot through the door, if you know what I mean. And also, I got into grad school despite not actually having an

engineering degree. Pat on the back for

engineering degree. Pat on the back for me. However, God must have thought that

me. However, God must have thought that I've been having it too good recently and decided to deliver me a slap to my face. At the community college, where

face. At the community college, where I'm currently taking my engineering courses, they decided that this semester they were going to cancel all of my classes, which sucks because not only were those classes super [music]

interesting, but I also kind of needed them for grad school.

Yikes. And so, I've been sitting here kind of upset wondering, how am I going to get these [music] credits to show to my grad school that I actually know what I'm doing? And then I remembered

I'm doing? And then I remembered something.

I have a YouTube channel. And what if with this YouTube channel, there was a way for me to prove that I taught myself the necessary material that I needed to know without actually having the credits [music]

to show for that knowledge. I hope you understand where I'm getting at. And so,

in this video, I will be documenting the entire process of how I taught myself the lovely world of electronics [music] so that hopefully I don't have to take these classes in the summer. Please, I

beg of you. Please, [music] please. I I

really don't want to pay for those credits. Please.

credits. Please.

[music] So, here are the list of classes that I wanted to take that semester. I want to focus on these three classes up here.

You see, the field of engineering that I want to go into is megatronics, which is unfortunately not in reference to [music] Megatron.

Really missed an opportunity there.

Instead, it refers to someone who does mechanical, electrical, and computer engineering all together. Hence the

classes. These are the electrical engineering classes I want to take. And

these two down here are mechanical engineering classes that I will do on my own time because it just looks like this, which is boring to watch and boring to edit. Also, I do have some knowledge

edit. Also, I do have some knowledge about computers, which is why you don't see any computer engineering classes because I suffered through a good four years of learning them. So, I just need the electronics classes to be on track [music] for my grad degree. I'm not

actually sure how long this is going to take because this is technically a lot of material. So, let's just see how far

of material. So, let's just see how far I can get in this video. Hm. I wonder

what I should start with.

Here is a microcontroller. More

specifically, an Arduino. It is

essentially a tiny, not so powerful computer that can be programmed to do whatever you want. And this was actually the most important class that I wanted to take this semester.

But no, but fear [music] not. I have a different way of learning how to use this thing. You see, one year ago, I

this thing. You see, one year ago, I bought myself a starter kit for the Arduino that comes with said Arduino, a couple of electronics components, and a course that teaches me exactly how [music] to use this thing. I did end up

being too busy to finish it at the time.

But hey, at the least, I don't have to pay for a course now.

Girl math. The specific kit that I got was from craftingtable.com, and it's their 30 days lost in space kit. As the

title suggests, the course takes place over the span of 30 days where you pretend you are an astronaut lost in space in a broken ship with nothing but an old Arduino kit and a weird AI lady

to help you fix your ship and get safely back home, which in my opinion makes things a lot more interesting than just like sitting in a boring lecture. Okay,

let's begin. [music] Now, I don't know if you're watching this video because you know something about electronics and want to berate me in the comments when I do something wrong, or if you're just an ordinary pleb that's looking for entertainment while you're eating dinner. Doesn't matter. I will still

dinner. Doesn't matter. I will still provide [music] you with the simple facts in case you don't know what the heck I'm doing. The Arduino works by connecting various electronic components to these pins here. These pins are labeled and can be accessed and

controlled through the Arduino IDE, which is where you write code for this thing. Different types of

thing. Different types of microcontrollers use different software, [music] but for the Arduino specifically, it runs on C++. After

programming what to do with the pins, you send the code off to the board where it gets downloaded onto its personal [music] memory so that it can operate even when it's not connected to a computer, which is pretty neat. And

boom, it hopefully should do what you want it to do if everything's wired incorrectly. One thing I will note is

incorrectly. One thing I will note is that I pretty quickly abandoned the Arduino brand IDE [music] for VS Code instead because I was getting so tired of manually typing out every single variable and function in existence. But

I also wanted to write down the code actually instead of copying and pasting it from the thing so I could learn what I was doing because that's like you know the whole point of the video. Oh yeah

the code. What do I mean by the code?

You see every day in the course you're provided with a video lesson and the lessons consist of three parts. The

first is which taught by the AI lady explaining to you the basics of the components you're using as well as some coding stuff. She doesn't really go into

coding stuff. She doesn't really go into detail because the second part of the lesson is a breakdown of the code. And

the last part is more about the hardware, how to plug the things into the board and what it's supposed to look like. Below the video, they provide you

like. Below the video, they provide you with a schematic of how to plug in the board as well as the code for the [music] project itself. So yeah, I could just copy and paste the code and get it over with, but that's not the point of this video.

I said I wanted to learn how to use this board, which means I'm going to sit there and manually type out the entire code until I understand it in my sleep.

Anyway, after making that change, I was able to start working through the first couple of lessons [music] because, as it turns out, they're not really that long.

So, you can honestly do a couple of lessons in one day instead of breaking it up into [music] separate days. Lucky

for me, I am off of work. I have no friends, and there's currently a blizzard outside, which means that I can't go anywhere, so I have plenty of time to burn. During this first day, I learned how to wire things into a breadboard, how to control inputs and

outputs, and realized that I would need glasses sometime soon from the strain of making sure that my wires were going into the right pin. The first project of the course is to make this blinking LED circuit, which is not a challenge at

all. And this is where I have to point

all. And this is where I have to point out the attitude of the AI lady. Well,

well, explorer, you've managed to make a tiny light blink. How terribly

impressive. The interstellar community is no doubt holding its breath in awe.

But please, let's not forget the minor detail that you are sitting in abysmal darkness, 60 m under an alien sea, while your rapidly dwindling oxygen supply

bubbles away. Rest assured, every

bubbles away. Rest assured, every passing second I'm not working on saving your life, I'll be processing how we might avoid a similar fate the next time your curiosity gets the better of you.

No pressure. It's only your invaluable life that is at stake. Is it just me or is she not being very nice? Either way,

after making the light go blink, the next few lessons center around learning how to add new electrical components into the [music] circuit, as well as learning some new code to get familiar with the Arduino. This course assumes

that you know nothing about programming, which I would say was the only downside for me because again, I kind of know how to program stuff already. How many times am I going to reuse this clip? Following

the story, I play around with a switch and learn how to use an if statement.

[music] Amazing. Before landing on creativity day number one, which is just do whatever you want day. And I will be skimming through them as I am more interested in finishing the course so

that I can just do creativity days um every day. And with that, I was able to

every day. And with that, I was able to finish about five lessons on the [music] first day before deciding to go to bed.

You see, I've been trying to do this thing called sleeping early. I don't

know. It's apparently like good for you or something. I think I'm doing it

or something. I think I'm doing it right.

The next day, I woke up bright and early because I totally got 8 hours of sleep that night and started working from where I left off. Once again, I plugged in the board to the computer, opened up VS Code, and started working on getting

the components wired up for the next project. Since I completed on this day,

project. Since I completed on this day, it started to get slightly more challenging. And I even encountered my

challenging. And I even encountered my first major issue when I was trying to make this photo sensor um photo sense.

It was not.

Hello.

Why doesn't it work? I kept looking over the code thinking that I must have made an error somewhere there. The photo

sensor is supposed to be sending a signal back to me, but it's only reading the same number over and over again. So,

something is wrong. I also realized you can't really see the serial monitor that I'm talking about because my head is blocking the view, but it should look something like this, except the numbers aren't changing. And then I [music]

aren't changing. And then I [music] realized, wait, uh, did I plug my wires in correctly? The orange wire was

in correctly? The orange wire was actually plugged into the wrong hole.

Wasn't reading anything from the sensor.

Of course, I didn't. Let's just say I was very happy to get this lesson over with.

Oh my god, it's working. It's charging.

It's going so slowly here. Eat. Eat, my

love. Eat. Oh, beautiful.

Beautiful.

Why was that so annoying? At the end of day two, I decided that it would be a good idea to plug in my microphone to my camera and provide some amazing commentary about my progress so far. You

know, cuz I'm like trying to be a YouTuber. But after re-watching the

YouTuber. But after re-watching the footage, I realized I should never do that ever again. [snorts]

[panting] [laughter] Why did I decide to learn how to do the Arduino? Is it because I want neck pain

Arduino? Is it because I want neck pain for the rest of my life? Is it? I'm

going insane.

Okay. Okay. First off, can I You can Can you get into the No, it's not long enough. God damn it. Do I have to make

enough. God damn it. Do I have to make these noises? Am I Am I

these noises? Am I Am I technologia? I hope you guys are

technologia? I hope you guys are enjoying this this amazing commentary I'm getting. I swear. Am I looking very

I'm getting. I swear. Am I looking very attractive right now? Am I giving off feminine energy? I have connected wires

feminine energy? I have connected wires to birth. Time to give birth. What's

to birth. Time to give birth. What's

happening? Okay, I'm going to stop right there before I embarrass myself any further. Day three was like any other

further. Day three was like any other day. I sat down in front of my computer,

day. I sat down in front of my computer, powered up the Arduino, hunched my back in an odd angle, and got to work on starting the next lessons. I

particularly enjoyed this day because it was much more codeheavy than the others, which if you remember is my specialty.

However, it does mean that most of the time in my footage, I am just silently staring [music] at my screen analyzing code, which is not really entertaining to watch. So, let me just list a few

to watch. So, let me just list a few bullet points of what happened during this day. I wrote some code. I plugged

this day. I wrote some code. I plugged

in some wires. I learned how to use this keypad. I spent 30 minutes debugging a

keypad. I spent 30 minutes debugging a problem. I learned how to store

problem. I learned how to store passwords on the keypad. I spent another 30 minutes debugging a problem. Googled

a bunch of questions. Oh, yeah. Also had

a quick dance break.

[music] You know what? I'm not even going to provide any context for that. Did even

more debugging late into the night and then finally decided to go to sleep early. This time, I actually decided to

early. This time, I actually decided to not go on my phone. The next day was unfortunately uneventful because after completing about two lessons, I decided to stop and celebrate Valentine's Day.

Not with like a guy, but by eating cake and watching Michael Re's new video alone in my room. Now, despite how this looks like, I was actually pretty content. But just in case, applications

content. But just in case, applications to date me are open and there is just one small requirement. [music]

On the last day, the lessons focused [music] around learning how to use various different components that were a little bit more complicated than just a tiny little light or a photo sensor.

We're doing more work with this keypad.

We have this 4x4 display, the buzzer, which you've seen before, or rather heard, an RGB light, and this itty bitty little display. Previously, I've been

little display. Previously, I've been using each component individually, but these last few lessons have them all combined together. There was also a

combined together. There was also a whole thing about like bit maps for two lessons, and that went in one year and now the other. This is the only time I'm going to be copying and pasting code because I I just cannot be bothered. And

after just spending 4 days on this course, I was finally at the last lesson. [music]

lesson. [music] And before you say anything, no, I was not rushing. I actually did sit for

not rushing. I actually did sit for hours each day lurking through the courses and understanding the material.

So, don't you dare say that I sped through this. The last task at hand was

through this. The last task at hand was to assemble a control system for guiding the imaginary space lander that you're stuck in space with cuz you know there's there's stuck in space, lost in space, whatever. You take this imaginary space

whatever. You take this imaginary space lander to the safety of an imaginary mother ship as the grand finale. [music]

However, things weren't going too well because something kept resetting the Arduino and/or shutting off the screen when I tried to do anything again. I

definitely think God hasn't been dead against me. You see, the button in the

against me. You see, the button in the corner can reset the board if anything were to happen. But like, I wasn't pressing it, and it definitely wasn't being pressed by itself. So, I was just confused as to what was happening, and then [music] I realized it. The problem,

I suspect, is from these old wires that have been sitting in the corner of my room for a year at this point. In fact,

some of these have been sitting for probably over 5 years because I just found them while I was rumaging in the garage. Now, I could fix this issue by

garage. Now, I could fix this issue by finding better wires, but I was lazy and instead opted for the super awesome technique of don't touch any wire or

make any sudden movements. It did take a few attempts, but after a while, the board ended up working long enough for me to simulate the landing of the lander into the Let me try that again. The

board worked long enough for me to simulate the landing of the lander into the mother ship and officially finishing the entire [music] course.

topic one complete. [cheering]

Don't worry, this is not the last time you will see the Arduino. I still have much more to learn and I have some fun projects planned for future videos. But

for now, I will push this thing to the side because something just arrived in the mail a moment ago, which leads us to the next thing that I want to learn in this video.

Now, during the last part, you might have been thinking, "Wow, that is a hot mess of wires. Is there no easier way to do that, Maria?" And first off, screw you. I worked really hard. And second

you. I worked really hard. And second

off, yes, there is an easier way to do that. It's called soldering things

that. It's called soldering things together on a little board. This looks

like a wand.

Knowing how to solder is extremely important when studying electric circuits. So, I'm going to consider this

circuits. So, I'm going to consider this a part of my topic number two [music] study. Technically, that topic also

study. Technically, that topic also encompasses things like electrical diagrams and just generally how electricity works. But, I have a plan

electricity works. But, I have a plan for that that I'm going to keep for the [music] end of the video. So, let's just focus mostly on soldering for this part.

Which brings us back to the package I received. I went on Amazon and looked

received. I went on Amazon and looked for the cheapest solder yourself project I could get my hands on. Why? Cuz I

don't have a lot of money right now.

Actually, it's because I wanted to practice soldering things together on something that I didn't really care about messing up. These prototype boards allow you to do whatever you want. But I

figured a custom PCB, which is the same as this thing, but wires are built in and there's like a specific circuit being built. But, you know, that's

being built. But, you know, that's whatever. I figured working on a custom

whatever. I figured working on a custom PCB would be a much better experience.

Plus, it looks just so much more cooler.

This is going to be so much fun.

The cheapest thing I could find online was this line following robot. It didn't

look like a complicated project, and I honestly didn't even care if it ended up working. I just wanted to solder things

working. I just wanted to solder things together. But then I realized something.

together. But then I realized something.

I've only ever soldered something a few times before, and not at all anytime recently.

Okay, I think I'm going to have to review a little bit of YouTube in order to remember how to do this thing.

God. Okay. Yeah, let's go to YouTube.

So, I went to YouTube and clicked on the first video that popped up about soldering.

Okay, change of game plan. I'm actually

going to take one of these prototyping boards right here and practice doing this a little bit because I'm so afraid, even though it is 10 bucks, I'm so cheap. I don't want to buy another one

cheap. I don't want to buy another one of these things. I'm just going to try and my and you know make a little circuit on this little prototyping board. So, scratch that. We're actually

board. So, scratch that. We're actually

gonna do that first. Oh, I'm gonna have to put all this away. Damn it. Swapping

the PCB for a prototype board. I just

started playing around. I really tried utilizing some of their techniques, especially the one where you put some solder on the tip and then you clean it off before actually doing the process. I

also try to heat up the joints before applying the solder, but I still feel like it only obtained good results when I put the solder directly on the iron and melt it that way. So, please give me tips on how to not do that anymore. But

once again, I realized something. And

this time, it was bad. You see, this metal I'm holding is a soft metal alloy of some kind. I would love to be more specific, but after googling around a little bit, I was unable to determine

exactly what it was made out of. I don't

know what this is.

Which is not good. These wires usually have two different types of metal in them. The most common metal is tin, and

them. The most common metal is tin, and the other is lead. Yes, lead. And I'm

burning it, which is causing fumes, which I am breathing in. Okay, it's not the prettiest looking thing. And I

definitely just kind of like put these on here so that I can test out with the battery. But interesting. In that case,

battery. But interesting. In that case, I think this is where I'll stop for today. And then I'm going to try and get

today. And then I'm going to try and get a fume extractor, a thingamajiggy, cuz I'm breathing in too much stuff. Thanks

to the beauty of Amazon next day delivery, I acquired my fume extractor pretty quickly.

Okay, we're back in business. Now that

my lungs were adequately protected, I decided to play a little bit more with the prototype board before saying, "Well, I guess we're going to move on to the PCB now." Okay. I'm so sorry, but you're going to have to come off of this

thing cuz I'm going to need all the help I can get. Get it? Cuz they're called helping hands.

I really need to rethink being a YouTuber. And there we go. I turned on

YouTuber. And there we go. I turned on my soldering iron and was too lazy to get to the sink so that I could soak the sponge. So, I did the unthinkable

sponge. So, I did the unthinkable delicious lead water. Cautiously, I

assembled the PCB piece by piece. At

first, I had a fear that the instructions would be written in poor English because I suspected it was a Chinese-made school project, and it was like $10. I expect nothing more from

like $10. I expect nothing more from that. But, surprisingly, it was

that. But, surprisingly, it was competent. I mean, I did rely on a lot

competent. I mean, I did rely on a lot of pictures, but I was able to follow along well enough. Also, yes, I know I could have bent the legs of the components and that would have kept them in place, but I, you know, I'm learning.

I didn't know that. I also recall I was breathing in fumes the day prior, so my brain is not working 100% at its capacity. So, untype that comment right

capacity. So, untype that comment right now. Instead, can you write a comment

now. Instead, can you write a comment telling me if this is correct? I don't

think it is, but I don't really know how else to get the flux out of the container. You know what? I think I know

container. You know what? I think I know the answer. It's definitely wrong. As

the answer. It's definitely wrong. As

much as I would love to comment over all of this footage that I have of me soldering, there really isn't much to say. I did change my shirt, so don't

say. I did change my shirt, so don't confuse this by thinking it's another day. This all happened on the same day

day. This all happened on the same day because I was so invested in completing this project. Even though this is a

this project. Even though this is a relatively simple task given that I didn't even come up with a circuit design myself, I still had a lot of fun doing this build. I really like this shot of me working on it because I think I look really cool in this one. I I

don't know. I just I'm just someone who likes to build things on my own and so this is just the epitome of everything I like to do. I really can't wait to do more projects like this. Anyway, after

an hour of work, I finished putting everything in place. All that was left was some mechanical pieces to be assembled. But, and I am serious, God

assembled. But, and I am serious, God always has a way of testing me. I really

struggled with assembling the wheels.

Like, really struggled.

My fingers are too thick.

God damn it. Okay, it's like surgery.

God, this is so reminds me of Legos. My fingies are hurting. Oh, that hurts so bad. How do I

hurting. Oh, that hurts so bad. How do I get How do I I'm leaving marks on my finger. I'm hurting myself. Ow.

finger. I'm hurting myself. Ow.

Go in.

Zen. I must practice zen when I am done with this because I swear to God. O into

I'm actually going to crash out. I'm

going to crash the out. That's a

problem.

Where'd it go? I'm going to take this soldering iron and absolutely burn my eyes out because I'm going in. I'm

going.

I'm about to break something. My spirit.

It's already broken. Okay. Okay.

God damn it.

Yeah, they're both moving. Good.

Wow. Wow, in moments like these, I really take after my dad. [snorts]

According to the video timestamp, it took me about 15 minutes to finally get this little stopper on. But once I did, I was finally finished with the robot.

All that was left now is to test it and see if I messed up anywhere. And at this point, even though again, I did say that I don't care if this works or not, I did kind of care because it meant that at

least I put all the components together.

But you know, let me just roll the clip.

I'm so afraid. Okay, let's not hold anything important. Okay. Okay. Let me

anything important. Okay. Okay. Let me

just do a double check. Oh, wait. No,

I see a problem thing happening right here. Okay. Turn on this.

here. Okay. Turn on this.

Double checking. Double checking.

I need to prepare my line.

Everything out of the way.

Oh, also I feel like you should see this too.

It's alive. Stop.

I feel like I should do this on my floor. One second. I'm kind of scared.

floor. One second. I'm kind of scared.

Okay. Okay. Okay.

Why is it not moving?

Okay. So, there's definitely something happening, but why is it not functioning?

One of the motors isn't working and I'm trying to figure it out why. I don't see any issues here. Actually, turns out nothing was wrong. Because I don't know how to read electrical diagrams, I didn't really know how the circuit was functioning. And turns out these

functioning. And turns out these potentiometers just needed to be a little bit adjusted so that both motors were receiving signals. But

unfortunately, I didn't know that at the time. And as I was trying to resolder

time. And as I was trying to resolder some of the connections, I accidentally burned the plastic of the wheel. So, it

works, but uh it doesn't work. God, I

don't understand why it's not working.

And it's so frustrating and I wish I could understand why it doesn't want to work because it looks like everything is fine. I guess that means I got to learn

fine. I guess that means I got to learn how to read diagrams [music] now. These

electrical diagrams as you see here.

It's going to take so long.

All [music] right, thank you so much for watching part one of this series. I intend to have more videos where I go through the list of classes that I want to take and

other topics that I'm interested in studying. If you are interested in

studying. If you are interested in getting earlier access to videos as well as bonus content, I did make a Patreon.

So, please support me on there if you want to. No one's forcing you to do

want to. No one's forcing you to do this. I'm just letting you know that it

this. I'm just letting you know that it will really help me out a lot if you do.

So, I'm already in the process of making a new video and so it's going to come out at some point. Hopefully this year.

No, it's not. It's gonna come out this year. I just don't know how long it's

year. I just don't know how long it's going to take me to edit that video. All

right. See you.