So, as a new guy to Mando Mercs, I've been lurking on the boards for a bit... I have noticed that when electronics come up - pretty much the same general ideas come up over and over for things people want (with minor variations each time) and it seems the reply is often a variant of the same ("there's lots of tutorials online").
So, over and over, people with lots of enthusiasm reach out to try and do something cool, and run smack dab into the "wall of learning curve" and crash and burn. Some climb over it eventually by putting in the hours... most don't and just look on in wonder and wish they could do it too... They never learn how simple it is to even hook up a watch battery to a LED with a resistor so "electronics" remains an impenetrable black box.
Well... can we use this forum as a central reference library for those tutorials and guides and whatnot? perhaps use stickies or a few index/table of contents type threads? If not for everything, at least for a few common items.
(Just thinking out loud)
1) A sticky or subforum of just Arduino code (tested and working, used by folks get stickies, everything else get threads) - sometimes if I see the Arduino CODE it sparks all kinds of ideas for my own stuf.
2) A thread or subforum for Arduino Audio Shield sound based projects (making guns go bang, custom voice modulation, etc.)
3) A sticky or subforum just for LED based projects (with either schematics or photos of the breadboard, not just the final product)
4) A sticky or subforum for THE common helmet mods (installing a fan, installing voice modulation, installing mics, etc.)
Idunno, maybe it's ambitious but I just feel like we could really be a central one-stop-shop for Mando topics, instead of having to go through tons and tons of sites about TK helmet mods and extrapolating them for what we do. I mean, Mandos mod their own armor right? We're probably some of the most "do it yourself" of the SWarzy Cosplayers (since most of us actually make our own armor and weapons)... but the electronics is yet a major hurdle.
Thoughts? I am an electronics newbie, I can program basic Arduino stuff, solder good enough to wire up LEDs, and I can get a 555 timer to work ... but there's a ton of folks with more savvy than me.... but there's a whole LOT more with less.
