Hello Everyone. I am just getting back to re learning Arduino IDE after several years of refraining from my electronics hobby. Once returning to learning i purchased a uno R4 wifi and an Adafruit TFT shield, then discovered the ESP 32 S3 dev boards. ( i buy the ones from Digikey or Freenove because they are high quality). Well thats my background info.... ive made a lot of successful projects already after learning the hard way a few months in. But i feel im missing the finer points of programming. With AI giving sample code and all the support for Arduino i have a single glaring question: How do i learn the finer points of coding here? Just staying after it and keep making projects? I assume some of it will sink in over time. I feel kinda spoiled with all the libraries and support. That being said theres still tons to learn.... Any recommendations on returning noobs are greatly appreciated. :slight_smile:

Some people like The Pragmatic Programmer but my favorite overall programming guide has always been the classic Code Complete. Learning to properly design and structure code is far more important than how well you know the language.

[image] r_hatton: Can you enlighten me on what a state machine is, and blocking behavior? We often use state machines to manage sequencing. @PerryBebbington has a good analogy: Lots of replies about the need for a state machine. I'm guessing you are concerned that you don't know what a state machine is and that it might be a difficult concept to learn. I think you already know what a state machine is, everyone knows what one is, it's just that you don't know that's what it's called. There are lots of things in life that operate as a state machine but the example I like to use here is a restaurant, a restaurant operates as a state machine. . A restaurant has states like: Waiting to be seated Reading the menu Ordering food Waiting for food Eating Getting the bill Paying We can cover a more evolved State Machine in a new example added to the same post linked a few post back. Building up the circuit and following the example would be a good thing to do, we can proceed at your timetable. Blocking behaviour is when a section of code hogs the processor preventing other code from executing. delay(…) and while(…) are two examples.

[image] r_hatton: and blocking behavior? A micro-controller can do 1000 things at the same time, or rather it can do 1 thing at a time but do 1000 (or more) of them so fast that it looks to the user like it's doing 1000 things at the same time. Blocking code is any code that prevents that, anything in one of those thousand things that hogs the CPU so it can't do any of the other things.

These replies are all very helpful. Especially concerning the state machine - restaurant example and the explanation of blocking behavior. I do have a reference book, and i actually have taken C++ courses before when i was younger. Anyhow ill get started building this later.

[20250901_133831] [17567483729307032499002962176712] This will be fun :wink:

The link below is a dogs breakfast of things for you to examine in your spare time ;) : [image] Share tips you have come across General Electronics Arduino links of interest. How to use this forum: Example sketches: https://docs.arduino.cc/built-in-examples/ Getting started: https://www.arduino.cc/en/Guide https://docs.arduino.cc/learn/ Basics of C++ on an Arduino Arduino Programming Course Programming course Listing of downloadable 'Arduino PDFs' : Either Google >>>- - - - > arduino filetype: pdf Or click the link immediately below: 100s of PDFs for Arduino [Arduino MASTERCLASS | What can Arduino do? PART …

[image] Flashing multiple LEDs at the same time Tutorials Introduction A common question is to ask how to flash 2 (or more) LEDs at the same time. Typically the person asking will be using delay and will be experiencing the main problem with delay: it blocks and stops anything else from happening. This tutorial contains several different approaches to the problem of flashing 2 or more LEDs at the same time with independent timing for each LED. The basic principles for each can all be adapted for other situations requiring multiple timers working inde… This tutorial shows several different ways of flashing some LEDs at the same time. All the examples utilise a simple state machine and non-blocking, millis based timing. The idea behind the tutorial was to give different ways to achieve the same thing so if one of them doesn't make sense to you hopefully one of the others will.

BTW, do you have a hobby servo and a AA X4 battery pack (or 6VDC power supply) ? Example: [image] [IMG_4162]

I dont have a servo, but i do have a lot of different power supplies, voltage regulators and mosfets. I can certainly purchase one. You have me curious because ive never learned anything about servo motors, except that when the one in my car goes bad that drives the blend door for the A/C its time to stand on my head and remove it from the dash. Lol

Your response here definitely clicked a light bulb (or LED) in my head

Getting back to Arduino

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General Guidance

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637

June 10, 2026

Need help writing a state machine

Programming

94

1386

May 5, 2026

Want to turn on a relay by connecting 2 wires

Programming

345

6464

November 11, 2023

When to read sensors whilst running a state machine?

Programming

64

959

November 7, 2025

Newbie - Building a Surf Comp Timer. Does my Code look ok?

General Guidance

111

1698

May 14, 2025

Getting back to Arduino

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