This story is about some of the machines I built - PCs powered by processors that would be considered museum pieces today. Somewhere in there was my first exploration into Linux. The Warthog version. My first terminal commands. A CRT monitor, no multitasking. But I could feel I was growing.
I remember spending hours on elektronika.ba, a website full of schematics and an amazing forum. That’s where I first started learning embedded coding. I still remember building my first PIC programmer on a breadboard. It used RS232, and the first chip I bought was a PIC16F84.
I went to ElectronIC Center and bought it, along with a 4MHz oscillator, a few resistors, an LED, and some capacitors. Then I installed MicroCode Studio - PICBASIC, and wrote my first lines of embedded code. I used PORTB, connected an LED through a resistor… and felt something shift. This wasn’t just playing anymore.
I wrote my first blink routine. Connected everything. And… nothing happened.
I stared at the board. Something felt off. Then I realized I had mixed something up on the breadboard. I burned my first PIC microcontroller. Honestly, part of me died in that moment. I knew I had to wait until the next week to go back and buy another one, for what felt like unbelievable amounts of money, at least for me at the time.
The second time, I was much more careful. I plugged everything in, held my breath… and the LED started blinking. WHOA! I was officially an embedded programmer. I felt excitement all over my body. No more just multivibrators with transistors and op-amps. Now I was moving into real control, real automation.
I can’t wait to share what I built with those first microcontrollers in the next episodes.
