Electronics and Programming Guides

September 01, 2022 (Last Updated: March 06, 2023) | Reading Time: About 1 minute

Discover helpful and inciteful tips that you can use in your electronics and programming projects. We are focused on home-brew electronics, specifically for home automation. We like to use MQTT, Home Assistant, Node-RED, and Zigbee along with Node MCU and Arduino. With this combination of electronics and programming, you can automate anything.

We share some information about electronics fundamentals as well as knowledge about more advanced topics in electronics. It is very helpful to learn fundamentals such as Ohm's Law and resister networks when you are building home automation circuits.

Here you can find guides and articles with creative ideas, tips, and advice about programming, electronics, and home automation.

When you mix programming and electronics together you get fun.

EFUNDIES.com currently provides articles and guides related to electronics and programming. When our site update is complete, we plan to offer source code collaboration. We will also be adding guides and articles about home automation, so check in often to see our new projects.

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Personal binary executable directory

Make a Personal Binary Directory on Your Computer

If you want to keep your computer organized, it's a good idea to create a personal binary directory.

Getting Started with AVR

The beauty of AVR is that once you know how to deal with one of them, you know how to deal with all of them.

MIDI Controlled Solenoids with Arduino and Ableton Live - Part 2

This is part 2 in a 3 part series that shows how to make Ableton Live play music on electric solenoids using an Arduino.

What is a binary program file

What is a Binary Program File

We cover what binary program files are and where you should put them on your computer

Perl may be an old language, but it is still the glue that holds many projects together.

Perl

Perl is one of the most common glue languages available on Linux. It is useful in home automation for quick scripts as well as complex processes.

5 Reasons You Should be Using Docker for Home Automation

If you are not using Docker on your home automation server, then it's time to start thinking about it.

Your home automation server can run many different operating systems, including Ubuntu, Proxmox, Unraid, and TrueNAS.

Unraid vs Proxmox vs Ubuntu - Battle For the Best Home Network Server OS

When it comes time to put an operating system on your home network server, you've got a few options.

C# Color Object

Once you have a Color object you can easily get the RGB and HSB values out of it.

How to Replace A Color in an Image with C#

Sometimes you need to replace one color in an image with another color. C# makes it easy.

This MIDI controller can be used to play music, write tracks in a DAW, or just about any home automation you can think of.

MIDI

You can use MIDI to write songs, play music, control games, or even control your home automations.

Electronics topics include chips, capacitors, resistors, transistors, and building circuit boards.

Electronics

Our collection of electronics articles helps you get started in home automation and circuit building.

Command line interface

Command Line Interface

Command line interface (CLI) is a text-based interface that is used to operate computer systems.

Begining Circuit Analysis and Ohms Law

For simple circuits this is pretty easy. For complex circuits it can be amazingly hard, even for pros.

RSR solderless breadboard

How to Prototype Electronics Projects

When experimenting with electronics, it is usually best to practice in what is called a Solderless Breadboard.

C# Text File

There is a static object called "File" (located in System. IO) that does all the hard work for you.

Introduction to the Command Line Interface: A Beginners Guide to Using the CLI

Introduction to the Command-Line Interface for Beginners

The command-line interface is a text-based interface that allows you to interact with your computer.

There are many different Arduinos to choose from, such as this Uno variety.

Arduino

Many home automation projects can be solved by simply "throwing an Arduino at it". Our Arduino articles show you how.

You can see that the MIDI data generated in Ableton Live flows into the USB port of an Arduino, where it is used to control solenoids.

MIDI Controlled Solenoids with Arduino and Ableton Live - Part 3

This is the 3rd and final part in a 3 part series about how to control solenoids using Ableton Live and an Arduino.

How to Implement AVR Timer Interrupts in C for Atmel Microcontrollers

Timer interrupts are an excellent way of having your AVR do something at a given interval.

How to Create a WinAVR C Skeleton File

If you are New To C then you can consider this a crash course introduction to the language.

AVR Port Output in C

Port output on an AVR microcontroller is very flexible. We show you how to configure each register.

C# is a programming language created by Microsoft as a direct competitor to Java.

C# (C-Sharp) Programming Language - Tutorials, Code Examples, and More

C# is an amazing language that is built for speed and fast development time. Learn how to manipulate images with C#.

NodeMCU is one of our go-to chips for tackling various home automation projects.

NodeMCU

We use NodeMCU boards for almost every aspect of home automation. These inexpensive little power-houses can solve many home automation problems.

How to Understand Electronics Signals and Flow for Beginners

Signals and Systems is a common term that is used to refer to system design.

Mosquitto is one of the most popular open source MQTT brokers.

How To Set Up An MQTT Broker with Mosquitto

There are a few options to get your MQTT broker up and running, including Dockers and bare-metal installations. Let's talk about some of the most common ways to get your MQTT broker ready to go.

MQTT is the easiest way to get IoT devices communicating.

What is MQTT and Why You Need It (How to Automate Anything)

MQTT is a protocol that allows devices to communicate with each other in a simple and efficient way.

Load an Image in C#

- Perhaps you want to create an image processing program. - You may need to resize or rescale an image.

Image Processing in C#: A Comprehensive Guide

C# is a great language to do image processing in. It's fast and easy to handle complex image manipulations with it.

AVR Port Input Logic

In this guide we will write a program in C that makes some decisions based on the state of input pins.

This modern LED lightbulb consumes 1/10th the energy of old-school incandescent bulbs.

Electricity

Follow our electricity guides to learn how to read your power meter, save energy, and measure the power usage of various devices in your home.

AVR chips come in many different sizes and shapes. Pictured is a PLCC socket.

AVR

The AVR microprocessor is the heart of most Arduinos. Instead of using the Arduino libraries, you can learn to program this chip directly with C++.

AVR microcontroler with printf function

AVR and printf

You should leave your STK500 setup exactly the same as it was setup for a previous guide.

How to Lighten an Image in C#

In order to lighten an image in C# you need to look at each pixel one at a time and increase it's red, green, and blue values.

How to compile ncmpcpp on CentOs 8

If you are new to compiling applications on Linux then this can be a bit daunting the first time you do it.

You can get started programming with a simple setup. All it takes is a laptop and a cup of coffee.

Programming: Tips and Tricks

A collection of tips, tricks, and snippets of code for a variety of programming languages, including C#, AVR, Arduino, and Perl.

An MQTT broker helps glue your home automation systems together.

How To Choose an MQTT Broker: Mosquitto vs HiveMQ vs Home Assistant

When it comes time to choose an MQTT broker, you have a few choices. Let's check out the pros and cons of Mosquitto, HiveMQ, and Home Assistant's built-in MQTT broker.

Home automation can be fun with Node-RED and Home Assistant

Node-RED Makes Automation With Home Assistant Fun

Node-RED adds a lot of fun to Home Assistant.

Resistors in Parallel

Learn how to calculate the equivalent resistance of two resistors when they are wired in parallel.

How To Read Schematics

Those pictures are called a schematic. A schematic is a picture representation of what we are talking about in electronics.

If you have to move massive amounts of data, then you should be thinking about Robocopy and rsync.

How to Move Massive Amounts of Data Safely and Efficiently

If you're dealing with a large amount of data, you need to make sure you're moving it safely and efficiently. Here are some tips on how to do just that.