Alex's tips n' resources

Here's a quick braindump of useful stuff that I've found useful over the years. Will be continuously added to as highway goes on!

Generally useful stuff

• Search stuff up! Again and again and again. You'll have to do a lot of the learning yourself so its on you

Software

• For 3D modelling, use either Fusion360 or Onshape!
• For PCB design, use KiCAD! It's free, open source, and works on any platform.
• Excalidraw is an awesome site for making really quick sketches that look good

Project design

• Adafruit projects give you a really good idea of how different hardware projects might fit together.

Tips

• If you're stuck picking between a bunch of passives that are all functionally the same (i.e 30 different types of capacitors), start with the CAD and work backwards - it'll help you get an idea of which one would physically look the best.
• If you're building a 3D printer, infill was a 3D printer YSWS that ran recently. There's a TON of resources on the website!

Technical resources

• Adafruit projects are extremely good for looking at what's behind-the-scenes of hardware projects

Software

Other communities

General

• reddit!

3D printing

- VORON discord

Battlebots

• Botrumble

Keyboards

• QMK discord
• r/mechanicalkeyboards

Discords

Subreddits

• Keyboards
• Mechanical