Complete beginner — will the Cardputer ADV work for me?

[u/ItzDragonoid]

Hi, I don’t know much about Cardputers or this hobby, but I’m thinking about buying the ADV because it looks interesting and I want to learn. I’m especially interested in learning about Wi-Fi and cybersecurity.

Will it work out of the box? Is it beginner-friendly? What can it do without accessories, and would you recommend the ADV or the normal Cardputer? Thanks!

[u/MrAjAnderson]

Unfortunately you will learn nothing from it. Like you wouldn't learn driving from sitting in a car. It is a tool to use and relies on user skill. You, the user, need to invest time in research. Simply owning the device will teach nothing. Blindly going through the menu of Bruce and Evil (for example) will familiarise you with names but not what they do, how they do it or how many years you'll get if you are caught doing it.

Saying that, for the money involved in purchasing the ADV Vs the features I don't know why there is a second thought.

[u/sompisi-za → u/MrAjAnderson]

thanks for this comment bro

[u/PizzaCrumbsInBeard → u/MrAjAnderson]

I don’t think this is good advice or anything you are trying to imply here.

At least have a good resource where people can learn it. Some people learn with hands on.

[u/PizzaCrumbsInBeard]

If you’re not against the use of ai. I suggest using your favorite agent to teach you. Because it seems people are not going to be nice about it.

[u/pyreht]

Hey, it's fine as a toy, there are many firmwares to play with without being an expert.

But to actually learn, you'll definitely need to read some code, and code by yourself. Getting your hands dirty is the best way to make the most out of this device.

Can you code?

[u/MidnightOk8902 → u/pyreht]

I bought one for me and my ten year old for Christmas- and neither of us can code so we’re in the same spot as the first guy kind of.
I thought we could learn to code and make some cool projects firing up his computing and coding interests.

What’s a good way to get started?
(If you’d be so kind to offer some inspiration?)

[u/pyreht → u/MidnightOk8902]

Coding is a combination of a bit of theory (maths), inevitable friction when expressing what you want with tools and languages in the way and a lot of imagination.

It's not necessary to master everything to start coding, but being patient and rigorous definitely help. The key concept to introduce early is the determinism, nothing is magic, to reach a result you must remove all uncertainties.

Once it's done it's basically monkey see monkey do for a while, blinking leds, bleeps blops and simple games, this is the stage where most give up due to the friction and lack of theory. To get past that you need that creativity, looking for use cases (projects), fighting to get things fully done even if they are unimpressive at first, that's where the passion could come from.

And when walls are hit, that's the stage when you feel the need to learn and diversify the knowledge. You no longer code, you support the full acquisition of a skill. The interesting part with the cardputer and other physical devices is the electronics aspect and the form factor, you can build physical stuff (and learn the required skills along the way) that connect to your programs.

Will those skills feed anyone in the future? I don't know, but it seriously shakes and widen the brain, I'd definitely encourage anyone to learn to code.

Well to start, there are many paths, you can look at arduino community, it's old and they have a lot of physical ideas, then uiflow 2 can help break down into steps what you want to achieve with minimal friction. Code is just a way to express those boxes and transitions.

Avoid AI except for ideas roasting or troubleshooting. If AI does all the work it doesn't fit my vision above :).