This next post is written by Edmund Celis. Check out his Hackster project on building a DIY Solar Powered Car Battery Charger

I think one of the most important things for creating projects is to just follow what you are interested in. For me, I love studying electricity and all of its applications, from solar battery storage to radio communication. Isn’t it just fascinating how we can communicate with a rover machine on the planet Mars and receive data and images from it? At this time, I think the Earth can Benefit from a transition to more renewable energy and so, I like to make things that can benefit the environment, such as reusing old car batteries for solar energy storage or taking apart an old scrap television for parts to make something.

I entered the Infineon CoolMos Challenge because I saw it as an opportunity to create something that could be of benefit. I also wanted to learn more about MOSFETs as well. Not only did I increase my knowledge in MOSFETs, but I also learned the difficulties involved in implementing them in place of relays, such as in the driver pin requiring more circuitry and components for more adequate control. So far, I like the simplicity of relays and being able to see how it works is more interesting to me, like in the way the contact points touch upon energizing the coil. Nevertheless, as we move toward a nanoworld, technologies become faster, smaller and more impressive, and I think becoming acquainted with Surface Mounted Devices (SMD) is essential for today.

I think we can easily become intimidated by today’s technology but we all have to start somewhere. Learning the basics can easily be done by researching the internet or even just going to the public library and perusing the many books available. When you find something that piques your interest, go deep into that subject and play with it. I think electricity is so accessible in our everyday devices, such as our phones and computers and the power to our homes, that studying it can be an affordable and entertaining hobby, as well as an essential energy for the future. With so many different resources online, such as Jaynky.com and YouTube.com, you can learn anything you want. Just go for it and have fun!