| Date Posted: Tuesday, December 20, 2011
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My learning journey, mistakes and failures
Article By Pratik Deshpande
Founder and Chief Mentor at DeccanRobots (Now Embedded Market)
© Copyright Article
Don't want to focus this article on "me" but writing this keeping "you" on the center stage.
Yes, that's right. And "you" may be of any age, as young as 12 or as old as 90 years.
If you are among those who like to open the toys rather than playing with them, or like to get close to the circuits rather than studying the history and language subjects,
or if you are among those who work for some IT company from early
morning to next day's dawn and still back of your mind you see "real"
you alive and searching for time to play with circuits and gadgets then we both are not much different.
I am born in middle class family and got early exposure to machines and
industry as my father used to take me to various industries since I
remember. I am first generation entrepreneur. When I ask a question
myself as "What made me to found DeccanRobots?", the answer is not a
single line but I feel its a series events since my childhood.
Here are some interesting events you may like to read:
1. My first introduction with the concept of electric current:
When I inserted a wire into the mains socket and other end in my hand, just to see "What happens if I do it?"
2. My first introduction with electronics:
When I opened the digital wrist watch gifted to me on birthday. Those days digital wrist watches were the latest trend of gift.
3. My "Self learning" of the concept of resistance and magnetism:
I remember, I was 13 years old and was reading a school book, topic
explaining magnetism. It was explained in text book with the help of a
picture / diagram. That picture was of one iron rod with 4-5 turns of a
copper wire connected to the source of power. As that was the concept
explanation, the key data like number of turns of the copper wire,
thickness (gauge) and the voltage level was missing. That age, I
decided to implement the picture shown in the book and started
gathering the items. The iron bar was from the old Radio and copper
wire was easily available at home. I removed the plastic (PVC)
insulation from the copper wire and made 4 (four !!) turns on the iron
rod as shown in the book. I took the whole assembly near the mains
supply (230V AC) and connected both ends of wires to the wall socket.
With a smile, I switched ON the supply for the wall socket and
............ next.............I heard a sound ........dhum.........
power went off suddenly and the mains fuse was melted (those days MCBs
were not available). Parents scolded me for this act and also supported
me other way. They told me to inform them while further experiments as
they can stand next to me with a wooden stick to help me if I get
electrocuted!!!
I sat down and started thinking as what went wrong in the above
experiment. After sometime I realized that the circuit got a
"short-cirtuit-path" due to no resistance and it blew off the fuse due
to excessive current.
This was my first failure in the world of "Electricity" to learn the concept of resistance and magnetism.
4. My first experiment with Electronics:
"Electronics for You" magazine was the first electronics book for me
when I was in school. Month by month I got addicted with this magazine.
It was tough for my parents to manage this extra expenses but they
never denied paying me Rs. 12 per month for magazine + Rs. 50 for
components to make the circuits every month. The amount of Rs. 65 per
month may look nothing in today, but those days it was nearly half of
the budget of our monthly grocery bill. I remember playing with
musical bell, a AM radio, FM transmitter circuit and many others.
During childhood, I have made many such blackouts at home, many
equipments were burnt off, many a times damaged flooring with Ferric
Chloride while etching the PCBs, and have skipped the meal too. Each
mistake and failure made me more confident for the next experiment.
If you are a school student or working professional or
hobbyist, the best way to learn is "Give a try to your concept, it may
work or will fail, build on the success and learn from failures".
Take out some time from your daily schedule to learn and experiment
with the Exciting world of Microcontrollers and Embedded Systems.
Remember that if you fail in one experiment, take it as opportunity to
upgrade your skills and if you succeed in your experiment, share it
with the world and enhance the experiment to the next level.
5. My First introduction with Microcontrollers & embedded system:
It was almost 9 years back when I decided to switch to the
Microcontrollers and Embedded system from my existing profile of
"Softtware Consulting". My basic qualification is into Electrical
Engineering with Masters in Management Science. Neither the software nor the
electronics was taught to me formally in the college. These subjects
were not included in my course. Being a trainer, I find self learning
is best for my needs and started learning the new topics with the help
of books and my own hardware. I made my first board and a programmer using references
from EFY magazine. Also purchased one imported programmer for additional
controller support. This was my first enrty to the exciting world of 1s
& 0s.
6. Foundation of DeccanRobots
When I decided to switch to Microcontroller and Embedded, I could not
find easy to use kits and affordable programmers to help me in the
learning and experimenting process. I have faced many difficulties
during the learning process, and so decided to share my solutions
(products) to beginners and industry users by designing easy to use
kits, modules, programmers and boards for learning various
microcontrollers. This made the foundation of DeccanRobots.
Do email me if you need any support during your experiments and learning process. I will be happy to help.
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