Need advice

Dev Zone Code
1

Hi guys,

I feel like I have a particular background, so I would need some personal advices for where to put my soon to come efforts.

I've touched many things, but none too deeply

I just graduated from dentistry and am about to start working in my "day job", but have always considered myself a "tech guy".

 

when in high school, a good "programming class" in visualbasics got me a short, but kinda good insight into what programming could bring me in life.

For the past 8 years, while completing my education in science, I've been the "fix my computer" guy, the "help me setup my minecraft server" guy, I've built a total of 5 computers, from low-end to very-high end, by building the hardware list on shopping websites, reading forums, understanding how some hardware ans software works, and getting my hands dirty with that beautiful wiremanagement in the end.

I've played with windows, from xp to 8, with a bit of OSX, IOS, android (linux soon).

I have setup a home network with distance access for personal use, setup some websites, but with online tools, not HTML .

I have read and learned some breadboarding concepts.

I am very intense when I dig into a project, and so I need something that will require some time, but I want it to be useful to me. Not necessarely bring me money, but make my life easier.

 

I've thought about a centralised home-system managed by a program I wrote myself and managing "modules" built with IC controling light, room temperature, etc, but that would require a lot of knowledge on deep computer hardware for the I/O, or maybe software support on ready to go/overusb thingies.

 

I think starting with C++ and building some concrete breadboard circuit would be a good start, but I am sharing all that in the hope that you guys have some advices for me.

 

thanks in advance :-)

 

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I take it from the fact that you wrote “centralised" and not centralized that you are in the UK, Australia, New Zealand, or Canada and not in the US.  Because Dentistry in the US is one of the few remaining medical professions that is still very lucrative and gives you enough free time for your own personal pursuits.

 Anyway, if you are really interested in building some type of home automation system, it may be a lot easier than you think.  I would recommend starting with a Raspberry Pi.  You can buy one of the many Raspberry Pi starter kits.  They cost between $70 and $100, depending on which one you choose.  Most starter kits will come with a Raspberry Pi, case, power supply, pre-loaded OS SD card, breadboard, jumpers, LED lights, buttons, resistors, GPIO extension board, and possibility other stuff depending on kit.  I would chuck the crappy SD card that comes with most of the starter kits, buy your own, and load Raspbian onto it.

Once you go through the basics, you can buy a relay, motion detector, camera, servos, and other devices you can use to build any type of home automation project.

As far as what language to use, you can use C++ if that is what you are comfortable with, but you can also use Python, or Java.

I personally use Java for my Raspberry Pi development.  You can use the full Java SE JDK on Raspberry Pi.  The only thing you need is PI4J to provide an abstraction layer for interfacing with Raspberry Pi’s GPIO, Serial, and networking communication.  You can even do your development locally on your Mac, Windows, or Linux PC and remotely deploy and run your applications using NetBeans 8.  It saves a lot of time with development.

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Thank you for the reply my Lord, I was starting to lose hope in getting some answer, so that's why it took me a while to come back.

Yes, I am from Canada (and english ain't my main language.. another reason to have made a mistake). Luckily, dentistry is, just like in the US, a medical profession that will allow me a lot of time to work on personal stuff. I'll just be a little less rich than dentists in the US.

I never thought the Pi could help me for that part of my project. I will take a good look into it, and with what you gave me, will have plenty to learn from it.

Thanks again and I'll remember the help when I post again when it's finished :)

Elarus 

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Little update: have started learning C++ on my freetime only to realize I was heading in the wrong direction. I got my raspberry pi b+ (1 month before the pi 2... ) and got it working for many projects.
I am now learning a lot about circuits and electricity/electronics, building simple circuits and shit.

 

Next step is Java.

 

WIll post updates