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Suppose you feel a burning desire one day to start building your own commercial product and become an employer yourself. Sooner or later you will experience this, and I want to help you finding the means you need to implement your dreams into reality.

In terms of hardware I suggest exploring dsPIC microcontrollers running at 120 MHz. They are the top products built by Microchip to date, and you cannot fail with those ones--trust me. Particular to Microchip products, they are the easiest to work with, and this is encouraging news to beginners. Do not be afraid of working with electronics. Today, almost all parts we use are modules, and all you have to do is put them together in the right way, almost like in a Lego game. Of course, in time, and with a lot of dedication, you could become an expert!

For firmware you do not need to shop around too much, because you are going to find the right tool you need again at Microchip: the C30 ANSI C compiler. This is an excellent tool and it has a range of 22 dsPIC microcontrollers to date, but few tens new ones, more powerful, are going to be added in 2006 and 2007. The good news is you can try C30 before you buy it, and you have exactly 60 free working C30 days. This is a lot of good working time, and you need to use it at maximum. It is possible you are afraid of this firmware thing. Dont be. It can be as simple as sketching a story on paper, only a bit funnier, when you use C to write firmware.

Well, it is the dsPIC processors we are talking about, particularly dsPIC30F4011, and you think, probably, it is very difficult to work with this one. Not so, my friend. In fact, this is the easiest option available in the entire World today. Learning hardware, firmware, and software design can be incredibly easy, beyond your wildest expectations, with the right tutorial book. You are going to discover that exceptional book I refer to in my home site. Have no fears my friend: the book is very easy to read, just like this article I present here.

The true beauty is, the book comes with a Hardware Companion Kit (HCK). Fact is, this is a Practical Design Project and all firmware and software programs developed are thoroughly explained, and working. Of course, the companion kit is recommended for beginners in hardware, firmware, and software design. For advanced levels designers it is not mandatory to purchase the companion kit. Here is another interesting aspect: the level of the book is beginners, medium, and even advanced designers. The amount of useful, practical, working examples it presents it is tremendous!

You do not need to be an expert to learn working with dsPIC microcontrollers. On the contrary, you could become a GURU in 60 days! All it takes is determination and little desire to learn. This is all! If you have what it takes than do it, my friend. Once you know the how-to you take charge: discover you commercial product and build it. We live in a free market World and everybody is welcome!

My advice is, look at the simplest things around you: a door, a window, a lamp, a bicycle, and so on. Think about adding useful intelligence to any of them. Our life is driven by hardware, firmware, and software today, but there are still thousands and thousands of unexplored avenues. If you keep on looking for them, you will discover your commercial product one day--I have no doubts about this.

Take for instance something very blunt, even vulgar: a hammer. You can easily design a tiny hardware module to count how many times it struck per day during the past year, and how hard was each blow. Next, you can design your intelligent hammer to talk to your PC and download the data it contains. This is not all, because once the hammer data is on PC it will be processed graphically, for statistical analysis, or for even more advanced analysis. Your intelligent hammer may even access a site on the Internet by itself and exchange data there. Mind this please: I describe here the blunt Hammer Application! For smarter ideas things may look way more interesting, and the book I mentioned teaches you everything you need to know to design intelligent control applications. Even more, you will discover in my home site few pages dedicated to basic electronics, and to many other exciting topics.

Anyway, it will take some time until you discover your beneficial commercial product. Meanwhile, you can enhance your resume and your technical aptitudes. The more you learn, the better prepared you will be when the right time comes.

O G POPA is Professional Engineer in BC, Canada. His home site is Corollary Theorems at http://www.corollarytheorems.com

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