I've kinda been all over the board with my tech goals this year. I think it's because I'm extremely new to this type of thing.
Whenever I set a welding goal, or even a business goal for my shop, I'm usually pretty realistic about it because I have an idea what I'm doing with that kind of thing after five years of doing it professionally. Suck is not the case with the computer and automation field. I figure that's alright though, I'm learning.
I've said so far that I wanted to learn to make my own website or make apps or a few other things, but one has stuck, and that's the one I think I'm gonna go with. That is Arduino.
Here's an Amazon search. There's a LOT of stuff here.
https://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/s/ref=is_s?k=Arduino
Arduino seems a good place to start with all of that. I'm seeing it as a very basic electronics application with a lot of ways to learn. I have an old family friend that posts about it often on his Facebook page, and my father in law used to mess with it a bit for some of his projects, so it's something that I've actually heard of.
Looking at a few videos online and some books at the bookstore, it will be more than capable of anything I can imagine, which is always something I like. Initially, I just want to make a little remote control car or something basic like that, and eventually I'll get into sensors and such to make a more autonomous creation, and I'm seeing this as my gateway into electronics and electrical design. Learning two skills with one project as recommended by a few folks.
Another benefit I'm seeing is that it's so inexpensive to get into! You'd think building robots would be expensive, but for a couple hundred bucks you can get a lot of stuff on this system.
Im not sure if Arduino is a viable marketable skill, but it seems a simple fundamental application that can be turned into really fun, useful projects that'll also inspire some quality steemit posts and get my son and I some more fun bonding time. So that's my current tech direction. As usual, I'm open to any comments or suggested direction. I'm all ears here, cause I'm starting at the bottom.
Keep planning!
Nate