liudr:
Indeed. They are both overly ambitious projects with very vague descriptions what they will do. If you have not coded say 5,000 to 10,000 lines of code in the past, not cut and paste, and mainly in C/C++, you will never complete it. Start with something small. Arduino is not legos, you can't just plug everything together and expect them to "work".
That may sound harsh at first, but of course it is exactly the opposite, attempting to redirect the energy towards a smaller but achievable goal. Spot on. Much better to have a small success than a gigantic failure (accompanied by potentially large hardware costs).
The "overly ambitious project" is a recurring theme that I continually shake my head at. Often It seems difficult to comment in such a way that the poster will not be discouraged, so usually I will just walk away.
With that in mind, I propose that the community develop a list, perhaps entitled, "The Top Ten Ways to Make Absolutely Sure Your Arduino Project Fails". This would be more or less in the spirit of "How to use this forum". The overall aim is to help the newcomer achieve early success, avoid pitfalls, and build a good foundation for additional and more complex projects.
In his one post, @liudr has given us material for several items on the list, and more importantly, has suggested a possible framework: Point out not only the shortcoming, but the approach to overcome it ("If you have not coded say 5,000 to 10,000 lines of code...").
If this idea generates a good amount of input, I would also like to see a discussion regarding how to triage and prioritize potential items on the list.
The real problem is that people don't read any of the advice that's already available and that experience strongly suggests that they won't read any new / additional advice either.
The second problem is that the people who develop this forum don't read this section.
There was a very interesting thread recently about the most effective way to get help from the forum - as a complement to the existing stickies (unfortunately I can't find it now) but nothing came of it.
In the vain hope that somebody with influence might notice ...
There is a large blue patch at the top of the forum pages - how about using it to display a "tip of the day" which could be a selection from the existing stickies and could include stuff like Jack Christensen is suggesting. There is a better chance that such tips would be read.
Robin2:
The real problem is that people don't read any of the advice that's already available and that experience strongly suggests that they won't read any new / additional advice either.
That can definitely be a problem.
There is a large blue patch at the top of the forum pages - how about using it to display a "tip of the day" which could be a selection from the existing stickies and could include stuff like Jack Christensen is suggesting. There is a better chance that such tips would be read.
Robin2:
The real problem is that people don't read any of the advice that's already available and that experience strongly suggests that they won't read any new / additional advice either.
reminds me of this quote of Einstein
Insanity: doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results.
by the way I think it is more correct to state
The real problem is that some people don't read any of the advice that's already available and that experience strongly suggests that these people won't read any new / additional advice either.
2 additions to the list:
Read, understand and practise blink without delay
Even after you understood blink without delay and you bring together 2 sketches using libraries: don't be surprised it doesn't work. (root cause: libraries use resources; if the 2 libraries use the same resource they are incompatible)
One big problem lately is non native English speakers who don't know enough to understand the replies.
Have you noticed that the ones who apologist for there lack of English skills are often the best.
Irony/Sarcasm is good for entertainment, rarely for education.
Some years ago, I needed a Unix introduction - I found a book to "100 things I hate about Unix" (or similar) and it contained the pitfalls. I thought that would be a good way not to make those mistakes. Unfortunatly it also left me with a negative attitude to *ix'es, which I am finally (slowly) getting over.
Likwise (humorously) explaining what not to do to an Arduino project will confuse and discourgage newbies. By all means include some examples why & how the projects fails when one ignores the postive good advice otherwise given.
But we can (over in Bar Sports) do a list for the enjoyment of "those who know" (... or think they know )
Msquare:
Irony/Sarcasm is good for entertainment, rarely for education.
...
Likewise (humorously) explaining what not to do to an Arduino project will confuse and discourgage newbies.
Points taken. The response has been underwhelming so we'll just let this dog lie
)