very very new to arduino

Projects General Guidance
1

alright guys heres the deal, I am as new as you can get to Arduino and open source coding. I have a strong back round in electrical as for a profession I am an industrial aircompressor mechanic. the machines now adays have extremely advance micro processors and mother boards that require lots of work IE. updating, maintenance, sequencing to other compressors or building mechanics also tying the computer boards of said compressor into the buildings internet network. so that being said I'm not absolutely clueless when it comes to this world.
I re3cently bought the Elegoo super starter kit and I very much enjoyed the first 7 or 8 projects but then the directions and explanations got very very dodgy. my question is where can I go for some good basic/ beginner help?
I have what I feel as a some what challenging goal (for me anyway) to control the dimmer switch (knob style, clock wise for brighter, counter clockwise for dimmer) in my living room with either a servo or stepper motor and an IR remote. does this seem doable for someone of my skills and experience? and if so how can I achieve this? if not what do you suggest I start out with to get my feet wet as they say?

thank you for your time and help!

2

this is defiantly possible but I dont know how to do it the only advice I can offer is google i get most of my
project help from there Im guessing some sort of a IGBT or an SCR but that is just guessing but if you keep on you WILL figure it out

3

The Arduino Cookbook by Michael Margolis will help you.

That is how I started.

The book is excellent on one side an a bit of a mess on the other side.

Basic information that you will need in the beginning can be found in the middle of the book.

So when you start reading you will think you bought the wrong book.
The more you learn, the more you will like this book.

4

cenright41:
I have what I feel as a some what challenging goal (for me anyway) to control the dimmer switch (knob style, clock wise for brighter, counter clockwise for dimmer) in my living room with either a servo or stepper motor and an IR remote. does this seem doable for someone of my skills and experience?

That should certainly be doable.

I assume your work skills qualify you to mess with mains electricity without killing yourself or anyone else or starting a fire.

I don't have any reading recommendations because I had all that done before I came to Arduinos. However an important idea for your project (and for every project) is to break it into small pieces and learn each part separately - servo, stepper motor, IR etc. Write small single purpose programs to learn how to use each. These single-purpose programs will also make it much easier to get help here. ONLY when you can do each part separately should you start bringing them together. The demo Planning and Implementing a Program illustrates this idea of keeping the different parts separate yet allowing them to work together. However it was not written for a complete beginner.

And make sure to look through the Useful Links Thread.

...R

5

Robin2:
I assume your work skills qualify you to mess with mains electricity

Didn't seem to me that he's actually going anywhere near the mains: my take is he wants to have a motor turn the knob.

Here's an adafruit example of controlling a servo with an IR remote.

6

manor_royal:
Didn't seem to me that he's actually going anywhere near the mains:

Perhaps. But I wanted it to be clear that I believed I was offering advice to someone competent in the area of electricity safety.

If I thought a person was not competent I would advise them to consult a professional.

...R