Electronics was my first love but it has been ages since I was hands-on with it last. Infact, I don't even remember touching a soldering iron except for doing a few bits required for work at university. Hopefully, that's all about to change.

I am making a (really) concerted effort to get (back) into some practical electronics, partly motivated by a renewed interest in robotics and partly because I have a few ideas I want to try out. I got my old stuff out a week or so ago, only to find out that I no longer have most of the essential gear I need. Consequently, it has been a demanding few days for my wallet as I stocked up on components and some absolutely essential tools - including a new multimeter and a new solder station. I've opted to build a dual-polarity variable bench-top power supply myself (which is essential for almost all work) rather than buying it as these don't come cheap.

First on my list of things to do is get myself acquainted with the TI 16-bit MSP430 series of microcontrollers and the popular ARM 32-bit microcontrollers. I know I'm going to have a fun time tinkering with these MCU's - hopefully it'd be more fun than that I had toying with the Microchip PIC devices. For now, I'm still waiting for the chips to be delivered and for my exams (which begins tomorrow) to be over...

Wish me luck!