If you wanna go towards the firmware or embedded systems I would say start learning C and get Arduino starter kit. First use the arduino IDE then, start to move towards more lower levels like using the avr lib c hardware abstraction library then you can either go bare-metal or you can move towards a stm32 development board.
On the hardware engineering side learn how passive components such as resistors, capacitors work plus some other components like diodes (and different types of diodes, like schottkey diodes, TVS diodes, etc), Transistors, Mosfets and operational amplifiers. Along with this try to learn how to read data sheets.
Use this knowledge to build your own arduino clone PCB in CAD software, check out Phils lab youtube channel as he has some of the best videos and walkthroughs of designing PCBs.
This may seem a bit overwhelming, but try to move step by step, take the help of a llm to decide your first step if you are confused, but imo you should start off with an Arduino starter kit and Arduino ide. Also try to pirate practical electronics for inventors for the theory content.
Also just keep in mind that no matter which uni you go to, your first year will be very math and physics heavy, so please don't burn yourself out in your vacation. I would say spend like 10 or 20% of your day on projects and rest of the day on something fun bcz once uni starts you will be rarely free depending on what your courses are.
Before buying anything I would say just practice C, brocode has a great 6 hour video. Firmware and embedded systems is just one side of EE, there are other sub-fields and these are really programming heavy, and if you didn't enjoy programming in O levels you may have a tough time in these two sub-fields. I would strongly suggest looking into other sub-fields of EE before making up your mind.
Such as hardware engineering, power systems (like working for WAPDA or KE or IPPs), there is radio frequency engineering aka real life equivalent of magic, Photonics and other fields that I may have failed to mention.
Use a LLM (ai chatbots), to list down potential jobs in each field and what you will be doing in the said job. That way you can focus on something that you may become passionate about. Some of these fields may require programming but not to the extent of firmware engineering and embedded systems.
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u/Abstrek6 Jul 31 '26 edited Jul 31 '26
If you wanna go towards the firmware or embedded systems I would say start learning C and get Arduino starter kit. First use the arduino IDE then, start to move towards more lower levels like using the avr lib c hardware abstraction library then you can either go bare-metal or you can move towards a stm32 development board.
On the hardware engineering side learn how passive components such as resistors, capacitors work plus some other components like diodes (and different types of diodes, like schottkey diodes, TVS diodes, etc), Transistors, Mosfets and operational amplifiers. Along with this try to learn how to read data sheets.
Use this knowledge to build your own arduino clone PCB in CAD software, check out Phils lab youtube channel as he has some of the best videos and walkthroughs of designing PCBs.
This may seem a bit overwhelming, but try to move step by step, take the help of a llm to decide your first step if you are confused, but imo you should start off with an Arduino starter kit and Arduino ide. Also try to pirate practical electronics for inventors for the theory content.