Early access! Reliable data communication (Patreon)

Here’s a video I’m planning to publish this weekend. It’s mostly done, though I expect a few more tweaks.

With my original goals for the 8-bit computer project behind me, I now want to branch into a few other areas of computer technology. I’ll probably return to the 8-bit computer from time to time, but up next I want to explore error detection and correction. Specifically, in my next video I’m working on a deep dive into how CRC error detection works. It’s really quite elegant how some simple hardware can carry out a robust mathematical verification of the integrity of a message. I hope to communicate the beauty of that elegance in my next video.

To prepare for that next video (or three...), I set up a demo to do basic serial communication between two Arduinos. I seriously considered not spending much time describing the setup and instead just diving straight into the discussion of error detection, perhaps pointing people to some code on GitHub for the details.

But instead, I made this video. It follows the basic philosophy of my 8-bit computer series: Walk through every step of the process and leave no room for mystery. But I sometimes worry that taking this philosophy too far might lose more viewers through boredom. I’d love your thoughts and feedback. Specifically, did I overdo it in this video? Instead, should I have condensed all of this to a 3-minute overview at the beginning of a video which had more meat in it on error detection and correction?

Finally, I’d love any suggestions on a better title for this video. I’ve generally been terrible at coming up with good titles. I know many of you support me on Patreon because of the value not just to yourself, but to others who find my content and benefit from it. YouTube tells me that people click my videos about 5% of the time they’re recommended. Presumably a catchier title (that isn’t deceptive) means more people will be exposed to this content, which is a win for everyone. I’d love to hear your suggestions.

Thanks again for your continued support!

-Ben