The “Soldering is Easy” comic book that was released on Monday will be included in a cool book that Mitch Altman (@maltman23) and I are writing about How to Make Cool Things with Microcontrollers (For People Who Know Nothing). It will be published by No Starch Press later this year.
If you would like to be notified when the book is published, please submit your e-mail address below.
Do you want to learn how to solder? Do you want to make really cool things? Do you want to teach other people how to solder (and make cool things too)?
I’m happy to announce the release of Soldering is Easy, a comic book that will teach anyone the basics of soldering.
This seven page comic book explains in detail and with pictures how to make a good solder connection. It also teaches you all the other bits and pieces of knowledge that you need to successfully solder together an electronic kit, even if you’ve never soldered before!
I worked with Mitch Altman (@maltman23) and Andie Nordgren to create this revised and extended version of the wildly popular one page handout that Mitch and Andie created in 2010.
The comic (and lots more cool stuff!) will be included in a book that Mitch and I are writing about How to Make Cool Things with Microcontrollers (For People Who Know Nothing). It will be published by No Starch Press.
Here’s a sample page (click for a bigger version):
As of 2015 the comic book has been translated into 21 other languages! A huge thanks to everyone who sent in translations and is helping us spread our message around the world! We would love for people to translate the comic book into more languages! If you create a translation, please post a comment here and I’ll link to it! If you’re looking for help with a translation, you can try posting in the forums.
The comic is released under a Creative Commons license (Attribution-ShareAlike), so you are free to teach with it, color it, modify it, share it with your friends, translate it, and basically do whatever you like with it!
The complete comic book is available for download here:
“Soldering is Easy” Comic Book (PDF)
We also have some other versions of the comic available:
And really, soldering is easy (and fun!). Learn how to solder and teach your friends!
If you could recommend one book to a total beginner who wants to learn how to program in C, what would it be?
It shouldn’t be microcontroller-specific (more general is better), but it does need to make sense to someone with zero programming experience (in any language).
(Myself, I started with K&R
Mitch and I are in the process of compiling a list of places to buy electronics parts and tools for a book we are writing about getting started with AVR microcontrollers.
Where do you go to buy electronic parts, tools, and other supplies? Do you have a walk-in store in your area, or do you shop online?
I’m particularly interested in hearing from readers outside of the United States. If you live in South America, where do you buy soldering irons, solder, resistors, capacitors, and other odds and ends? Do you buy locally or online? What about Europe? Asia? Africa?
If you do have a favorite place to shop for electronics goodies, leave a comment here or consider adding it to the MightyOhm Wiki!
Mitch Altman and I are in the process of writing a book about Making Cool Things with Microcontrollers (for people who know nothing.)
The book features several DIY projects that use AVR microcontrollers. We’re aiming to teach absolute beginners how to solder, basic electronics, and the process of turning a cool idea into reality by using microcontrollers.
I wrote these instructions about setting up a working avr-gcc environment in Windows, Mac OS X, or Linux. Mitch and I felt that they could use some beta testing in the real world before bring included in the book, so we decided to make them available here. We also felt that they might help some people get started with AVRs before the book is available.
We want to make the process of writing and compiling code for the AVR simple and accessible, so we’re not using any fancy IDEs (eg. no AVR Studio). We also wanted to use the same software on all three operating systems, so Windows-only tools were out. Instead, we’re using avr-gcc, the compiler behind WinAVR, CrossPack, and Arduino.
I would appreciate any feedback on these instructions.
Here they are:
Update: I totally rewrote this post after getting feedback that I didn’t properly identify my target audience and explain why I chose avr-gcc. Sorry!
