So you think you've conceived the next gadget that will revolutionize the electronics industry. How do you turn your idea into a product to sell on the market? First, determine how much time and money you are willing to invest in your project. Developing an electronic device can be a long, frustrating process that can drain your bank account and your patience leaving you broke with an unfinished product if the process is not carefully planned with plenty of room allowed for setbacks and delays.

The scope of this tutorial is to give you the tools and information you need to locate the beginning resources and use them to design the electronic software for your product. Whether you are competent in any of the areas necessary to construct your project or not, if you are determined enough to learn or well funded enough to pay someone to do it for you, this book will show you where to go, what you can do and help you avoid common mistakes. Depending on your budget, you can choose to do some of the grunt work yourself and outsource the rest to professionals. Most inventors will employ some combination of the two.

Looking in the distant future, you should be thinking about how to get your product to market once it is completed. This is often the most difficult and frustrating part of the process. To help insure your success, you should survey as many people as possible with unbiased opinions. Ask if they would be interested in your product. Most will say yes if only out of curiosity. What determines whether your product will be successful is if they would actually purchase your product and what they would be willing to pay for it. If the demand is not there, the product will not sell. If the demand is sufficient but the price required to create a profit from the production is too high, the product will fail. If the demand is available at a reasonable price, the product may succeed if you can reach your potential market.

After you have carefully determined your idea will create a viable product with a demand sufficient to produce a profit, your next step is to realize that thousands of new products conceived each year, many as carefully thought out and planned as yours, fail. Any venture worth undertaking has its risks. If you are willing to sacrifice the money and time without any return on your investment just to see your idea become reality, then by all means begin development. If you do not have the capital or time to spare without certain payment for your effort, I would recommend you choose a field of employment other than that of an inventor.

This tutorial is also written with the curious in mind. If you don't have an idea or you are looking for one, following this manual will give you some insight into the modern embedded electronics industry and what it takes to make a product. Often the act of learning can be the most active medium for creative thought.

The product in this manual will be built using components capable of much more than the simple project we will be constructing. Most manuals choose simple components with few options so beginners can learn without having to be inundated by additional features that will not be immediately utilized. We will take a different approach. Our main component will be a current microchip capable of performing a wide variety of functions. To keep you from getting frustrated or confused, we will concentrate only on the resources of the chip necessary for our product. Additional projects will be made available in more advanced books and on line to learn more features of the microcontroller as you are ready or as you determine a need for the functions it offers. By doing this, you can use the same components and setup from the beginning stages of learning microelectronics through the more advanced concepts and you will be able to incorporate the same components in your final product if you so choose.

Now, for those brave of heart with indestructible fortitude (or a lot of time on your hands), continue to the first part of the lesson on BASCOM AVR programming  where we will begin creating a sample project, showing you how it can be done with a small budget and with components you can get from common suppliers. Creating cool electronic gadgets is a lot easier than you think, with the proper guide.

Project 1 Introduction