Malcolm's Build Log

Build Log
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Here are the 6Ws of my journey into embedded systems:

  1. Why- I’d always loved sci-fi & comic books so I felt like self-learning was the route for me. Given my experience in banking, SaaS, and IoT I plan to marry the disciplines via embeddes systems & economics

  2. Who- Native Texan. Had the honor of attending Emory. Been in california for 8 years

  3. Where- Bay Area w/ a focus in fin tech, SaaS analytics, industrial IoT

  4. What- my purpose is to use the skills of emebbeded systems to combine them with my understanding of finance in order to work on number of techinical projects

  5. How- finish this course by Oct. 2021 and use the skills to work on a new product introduction using my own funds

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:wave: hey Malcolm, nice to see another fellow bay area resident! :slight_smile:

Do you have a product in mind that you wanted to develop after finishing the course?

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Thanks for the warm welcome! The products I have in mind include: drones (smaller than a DJI phantom), hand held medical devices, SMART build tech smaller than a tablet.

My domains will be focused on sustainable housing, distributed housing security tech, in-home healthcare.

My end state is create a family of ecosystems/boards that enable rapid development for resource constrained neighborhoods in places like Oakland, Bayview, and the Mission.

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Update since March:

  • Context- I’m focused on the Advanced BLE CELL board project because I’ve fortunate enough to work for an IoT manufacturer. A consistent theme during client discovery calls is around understanding board designs, testing requirements, and most importantly production viability. A lot of the projects I’m exposed to requires some basic understanding of IoT in a niche space (e.g. mobility)

  • Homework: I decided to go for a more integrative route for this log. I’m going to document what I’ve learned in the ABC course & marry that with the following fields of study: Venture Capital (finance & accounting), Adult Education & Labor skills (community engagement), Applied Engineering (specifically telecommunications systems)

I’ve attached what I’ve made so far and will update with an expanded ‘cheat sheet’

CONTEXTUAL ELECTRONICS_ADVANCED BLE CELL_v1.pdf (864.6 KB)

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Wow! This is really awesome! Please do keep updating your notes, it’d be great to see what is clear or confusing to you.

As for the note about KiCad not working as of 7/4/21, have you had a chance to look at it since? Which version were you on?

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In your list of “Differences between module and chip” you left out one important item: compliance certification. Many/most modules are pre-certified, which is one reason they cost more, as the manufacturer amortizes the certification costs.

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Thanks Chris, I wasn’t sure if format would be of use for anyone else but it helps me orient myself as if its one long training manual.

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Julia, thanks for pointing that out.

I’ll add that in there for future references if others want to check it out.

I appreciate the feedback