Dude this is so going to get me laid.

So, I get two or three emails a day, all basically asking the same thing: "Where can I learn about electronics?" In general, most of these people have seen some of my projects and want to be able to build similar things. Unfortunately, I have never been able to point them to a good site that really takes the reader through a solid introduction to microcontrollers and basic electronics. As a result, I've decided to spend some time while at EYEBEAM to create a simple pedagogical website called Microcourse.

The basis of this site is simple: instead of purchasing a $100-$200 'development board kit' (such as the basicstamp) and using it to build one project at a time, we will instead use a lowcost 'disposable' kit. When I say disposable I dont mean that you literally throw out the devboard when you're done (although you could), more that you can have a dedicated board for each project. Also, if you damage the devboard somehow, there is very little lost as each one is about $10.

I'm also biased toward this approach because it's how I learned microcontrollers and electronics at the MIT Media Lab: with the iRX boards designed by Rob Poor and currently maintained by Ari Y. Benbasat.

I based the devboard used on this site, the Atmex, on the iRX with a few modifications/improvements.

For one, I use the Atmel AVR family of microcontrollers instead of the Microchip PIC family. Right now a lot of people use PICs, they're very cheap and very good and there are a lot of options with many nifty peripherals. In fact I used them heavily until very recently (MintyMP3 was the last major project that used a PIC). However I strongly urge people to start moving towards AVRs for the following reasons:

1. AVRs are about the same price, and are as easily available
2. AVRs have a free, well-manged opensource toolchain in C: avr-gcc and binutils. A free basic compiler is available for small programs.
3. AVRs can be easily programmed via serial/parallel port with minimal hardware and free software.
4. AVRs have RISC core, which means that even if you do end up writing assembly code, it doesn't suck.
5. AVRs have many misc. features that come in very handy: internal pullups on each pin, bootloader capability, etc.

Also,I have a larger prototyping area with rows, a reset button, a MAX232 instead of MAX233 (to cut costs), and a serial connector onboard (so you dont have to make an adaptor).

I think the devboard is in a good place, but it may change over time. In general, the board rev used on this site is v1.0

All of the materials on this website are under Creative Commons, attribution, share-alike: that includes text, images, hardware, firmware, software, any CAD files, etc. I want to make this one of the best sites for people who want to learn microcontroller electronics so please send me suggestions, corrections, and criticisms by posting in the forum!