But none of that seemed to prepare me for my senior project. We had to make a (miniature) self-driving car—which doesn’t sound too difficult, except that my group decided to implement it with analog-only circuitry (I’m still thankful someone in my project group was proficient in control theory). And while the only feature we were able to successfully implement was stop-before-hitting-a-wall, we made more progress than those who tried to build their car using a microcontroller.

We found ourselves having to research every single aspect of the design, with very little experience to guide us. What kind of sensor do we use to measure that the wall is approaching? How do we buy that sensor? Now that we have said sensor, how do we hook it up? How do we interpret the output signals? My experience in the electronics lab was not as helpful as I expected.

There were probably plenty of resources available to help me through the project, but I wasn’t aware of many (I was in school during the early days of the internet). But, over the years, I’ve gathered a long list of places I turn to when starting a new project—maybe some of these suggestions will be helpful to you in your projects.

If you’re looking for some tips on how to get started with breadboarding and prototyping circuits, then check out the November StudentZone article.