If you haven't started, you've only 30 days left! If you need to order things, I'd recommend you order this week to ensure you have enough lead time for order fulfillment, shipping, design futzing, and play time. Sometimes deadlines and pressure from a really tight timeline can bring out your most creative juices, other times it can result in disaster.
SparkFun is having a sale on e-Textile products through the end of October. AWESOME!
Have you ever wanted to have
- your very ownTRON outfit?
- your outfit react to something your body does, like flash with the beat of your heart?
- a way to know how many miles you walked without looking at your phone?
- your clothes tell you that it's too hot out to run?
- your ownCaptain America light-up shield in adult size that isn't cheezy material?
You can do those kinds of things and so much more with the slew of products the SparkFun team have to offer. Really, the sky is the limit. All you need bring is your imagination.
While I am trained as a mechanical engineer, electronics and programming have not been my strongest areas of knowledge. In college, I equated programming to willingly and repeatedly throwing myself against a brick wall. I learned from some enthusiastic professors, others who understood, but didn't appear enthusiastic. I just never quite found something to spark my interest in programming and make my wild visions come to life. I struggle with theory, and most of what I have been exposed to in the electrical & computational sciences was so intangible. But I excel when it comes to real life applications. I'm a hands on person and do best when I can apply my passion and knowledge to serve a need. That's why I've worked in the auto, trucking and crane industries. EDITED: The problems I encounter and my level of involvement with software (almost anything above coding, including software testing) are at the ideal level of depth for my skill sets and passions.
There's also, only so much time in each day. I prefer to focus on the design side, where my skills are strongest, rather than devote precious time to learning to code. There are others who are brilliant coders and electrical engineers. I'll learn from them. Really, all I need to know is enough to be dangerous, then I can dive in, using lessons learned from those who've paved the way before me and learn how to create my dream visions with abandon.
Speaking of learning from brilliant people, here are a couple fantastic and inspiring videos from Adafruit Industries. Wow. So much to explore here. SO MUCH. I'm giddy!