ManWithVan:
Well, that "wrong way" has served me quite good for the last 30-odd years. So I guess I'll stick with itWhen it comes to programming, I've had a little time to have a look at it, and it seems a lot simpler than I first thought. So I might just figure it out. But I'm never too proud to ask for help. That's how you learn.
That is a great attitude and you must have the energy/gumption to go with it or you wouldn't have it!
I have seen so many times the buying of parts (easy) and then finding out the rest is not so easy.
What you learn in beginner code is like learning ABC's, limited vocabulary and grammar of sentences and paragraphs.
- You have to learn those to be any good at all with code or human language so you practice and improve.
- As you do that you learn ways and patterns, the approach is computer IT type top-down code.
- Do that long enough you get good with ABC's, vocab and grammar in the top-down way to where it's "always right".
What you want is not the prose of top-down IT coding but the poetry of automation coding. It's not so hard in itself, simple at heart but for those locked in at step 3 it is very hard to break from old habits. You are new, your wood is green, keep an eye out for the do-many-things-at-once turnoff but ---- without the ABC's, etc, you might want to keep at those until you can follow the do-many-things examples don't look like Sanskrit in the dark.
Automation differs in "approach" which is beyond grammar/syntax, and there are some code techniques that help greatly but really mostly it is practice that grows the connections in your head. All these examples with buttons (and debouncing) and leds blinking is just easy practice with the techniques that can be done relatively quickly -- you make your own to really "get it". Just reading is not enough.
This is the 5th or 6th van I'm customizing. And each one has been a little different. Don't like to repeat myself. Never liked the Chevrolet Starcraft interior details much. It looks like a blind man has built it. No finess, no craftmanship, no nothing. Even the car body is put together in a half assed way. But the basics it's a good platform to develop.
Yup, you're ready for this and you know enough about approach that I don't worry for you. You know what to keep.
This van is the first one that will be really high tech digital and computerized inside. When it comes to this specific part of the van project, I am again making my own things, not anything similar to anyone else, that's why I can't tell what will give me the best look until I have made a prototype I'm happy with. I'm working from an idea and as with most things I build, it develops from there.
And LED's Glass/Acrylic, fiber optics and mirrors can make the most amazing effects.. Only your imagination sets the limit.Thanks for the input, though.
There's so much that Arduino can be put to for sensing as well as outputs. From capacitance measuring (everyone has an electric field) to using accelerometers for movements/gestures you can find ways to take things up by notches.
It's a BIG mountain but you don't have to climb to the top to get a good view!