After designing tons of little electronic inventions I never thought about them being computers until my niece suggested it was computerized. I’ve been working on a small electronic gadget for the past few weeks. Basically the device is an automatic watering valve that monitors the moisture content in soil and adds water when necessary. Users can adjust the amount of moisture by tapping the up or down arrows.

During my trip home from my brother’s house I gave it some thought and decided she was right. Technically I’m building a computer. Albeit it’s not a computer in the sense of having a keyboard, monitor or traditional CPU, but it meets the most basic definition of a computer. Really, it meets all requirements of being a computer.

We typically think of computers as being complex devices we use to surf the web or design rockets to the moon. By definition though, a computer only needs to process and store data to earn its namesake. At its most basic level a computer has a processor, storage device and memory. At the heart of most of my silly inventions is a microcontroller that does all of the thinking for my gizmos.

Microcontrollers are everywhere and are in pretty much all modern electronic devices. They get their name because they can be programmed to handle many tasks that would have otherwise been done by large dedicated circuits. Over the years I’ve used the same microcontroller to measure the speeds of toy cars, measure light transmittance, generate annoying noises and, most recently, water plants automatically.

My little gadgets function by taking some type of input or signal and deciding if it meets the criteria for an output. In the case of my watering tool, if the moisture level is too low it opens the valve and waters the plant. Your coffee maker waits for you to push the power button before it starts heating the water. The alarm clock next to your bed goes off when the time reaches the preset alarm time.

We never really think of these things as computers, but they truly are. They all meet the criteria of being a computer. Someone like me came up with a crazy and weird idea and made the first one. Most ideas start out as a block diagram of how the device is going to function. From there an electronic circuit is made. Once a decision is made about the physical locations of sensors, lights, displays, buttons etc., a program is written and put on the microcontroller.

At the very second the microcontroller receives its program it becomes a computer. The program allows the chip to manipulate and process data logically. If I just stuck my unprogrammed soldered up device in soil and connected it to water it would function the same as a Popsicle stick in soil. It’s not until the device is programmed does it know when to water the plant. If you think about it, your computer also does nothing without an operating system.

Compare simple household gadgets to a full-fledged computer and they’re really no different. Pushing a button on my keyboard outputs corresponding letters to the screen. Someone crazier than me sat down and created a program to operate full sized home computers. For personal computers the program is called the operating system. The input is typically a keyboard and mouse and the output is usually an application like Microsoft Word or AutoCAD.

Nerdy me thinks the coolest part of all of this is the little microcontrollers, or mini computers, I use to make my inventions are of the smallest form factor of any computer available. Much like a personal computer with no operating system, microcontrollers do nothing without some crazy person programming them for a set task.

Jeromy is the President of Laptop & Computer Repair, Inc. You can read more of my stuff at LocalComputerWiz.com