I want to know how everything works - the actual nuts and bolts. I want to look at the terminal during an update or installation and actually understand every line. I want to open a washing machine, look at the control board and know what every component does. I want to build my own custom devices that interact with other devices in ways they weren't designed for.
What are the entry-level resources for this? Just subscribed to Ben Eater and started looking at his tutorials. Plan to work through them all methodically. I know I probably need to learn Assembly and C as well. What else can anons recommend? Standard programming courses start from such an abstract level you can't really "see" what's behind it. How do you get back to that bare metal?
https://www.youtube.com/@BenEater
How about buying a soldering iron, some solder and building a zx81 kit? Although massively outdated now they are about the simplest computer out there and still follow the same fundamental principles as modern computers.
It'll be a rough road if you make the slightest mistake but you'll upskill real fast by the process of debugging it. Check out youtube videos on how to solder well first.
https://www.sellmyretro.com/offer/details/minstrel-3-zx81-compatible-computer-full-kit-with-keyboard-63947
ben doesn't frick with z80. he's part of the 6502 master race
If you prefer 6502, how about building an RC6502 instead?
https://www.tindie.com/products/easypcb/rc6502-rev-h-apple-1-replica-pcb-and-ic-kit/
What's the difference? What's the case for each?
The 6502 was cheap and thus limited. The Z80 was an extended version of one of Intel's first processors.
In a sense, 6502 is somewhat RISC like and the Z80 is somewhat CISC like. The 6502 went on to inspire ARM, Intel went on to design x86.
The choice between RISC and CISC is a holy war that extends up to the present day.
>I want to look at the terminal during an update or installation and actually understand every line
>I want to open a washing machine, look at the control board and know what every component does
I'm not trying to put you down or anything but you need to understand that these are two wildly different skillsets. Don't try to look at it as a thing where once you learn enough of one that you'll start to understand the other more.
The former is an understanding of software and programming. The later is a grasp of practical electronics and electrical theory. Someone who only works with one or the other never really has to concern themselves with anything else beyond "I need more memory/storage/whatever."
There's an electronics general over on IQfy that has a ton of resources as far as the hardware side of it goes.
>Someone who only works with one or the other never really has to concern themselves with anything else
I want knowledge for its own sake, not skills to make profit for an employer.
Admirable but what I'm saying is that you need to understand that they're two different fields of study. Understanding that will make it easier for you to figure out how you want to approach learning them.
This. People who have very broad general knowledge tend to have many many years of experience and a lifetime of non stop learning. Take your goal and chop it up into reasonable bites... pick a high level language and a low level language and get really good with them for a year or so. Start some basic DC electronic projects afterwards. Stay focused and keep teaching yourself. Even in your free time, squeeze in 2 or 3 youtube videos from some devs and instructors to learn new concepts.
>pick a high level language and a low level language and get really good with them for a year or so
What are the best ones to start with? I know Python is popular now because all the AI people use it, but would there be a better choice?
>learn software first
>top-down
Interesting. I don't just want to hack stuff though, I want to really grasp it.
Like I remember an interview somewhere with Steve Wozniak where he recalls how in the early days when computers were simpler he knew what every component on the board did and what every line of code was for, but now it's so abstracted that people can just use stuff without understanding.
I thought he was using the washing maschine example as an analogy of how autisticly he wants to get balls deep
Im only 28 and i can do both. I can literally open any electronic device and can figure out what's happening, mostly without using the internet, without searching for the part numbers for their datasheets
I am also am embedded systems engineer (so i write firmware and design electronics)
It's easy. But you'll have to learn software first, hardware makes your brain less agile and you will want to follow patterns
>you'll have to learn software first
Ok, where do I start? Who's the Ben Eater of software?
Thanks, will enrol.
https://www.nand2tetris.org/
The desire to learn is great but you should at least be aware that grandiose goals are easy to dream about but difficult to accomplish. As others have said it takes a long time and a lot of work to reach these goals. And while it's hard also in the normal ways you think about things being hard, I'm not saying just that it takes a lot of studying. I'm saying that along the way there will be many bumps in the road that make you want to give up, that it's not worth it, that it's taking too long, that you made a mistake, you aren't smart enough, there is no point to do this, other people are telling you that you are wasting your time. In fact it will feel like every aspect of your entire life will conspire against you to try and get you to stop. It becomes boring, you lose interest, you want to do something else instead. The hard part is to always hold on to that goal and not let any of those pernicious distractions actually make you give up. That's why so few people reach that level, it's very hard, and not because you have to be smart, you also have to be stupid enough to keep going.
The best hackers aren't theorygays who know how everything works, they are guys who find out how everything workz from the top-down while tinkering irl.
t. Leet haxor
And then you have the LR35902, which is almost a bastard child of the two.
reed