Slashdot Mirror
Methods of Learning to Build Electronic Circuitry?
Peristaltic asks: "I've seen some cool articles in Instructables detailing how to create various electronic gadgets. A couple of these as well as the odd DIY kit have come to life on my kitchen table. While it's satisfying to see the things work after time spent soldering, I would love to be able to take the next step beyond the basics of component functionality, i.e. a resistor does -this-; a capacitor does -that-. Forest Mimm's books have been helpful towards this end, but it's time to move forward. Every month or so, I read here on Slashdot a plea for help getting started with, or expanding someone's knowledge of programming. OK, I'd like to make that plea for help with electronics theory & circuit building. I've found plenty of references on the web, Amazon, etc., but can someone who's already taken this trip outline what has and hasn't worked for them?"
I tinkered with electronics & "Radio-Shack" projects back in the late 1970s & early '80s and I still like to go into the local electronics stores to look around (note: NOT Radio Shack anymore). You used to be able to feel like you were doing something close to useful when you breadboarded that 555 IC alarm system, 2N222 transistor amp or got a simple 74xxx "ALU" to work, but nowadays in the 100MHz+ world (yes, I come from the days when computers ran at 5Mhz=0.005Ghz!) it is tough to tinker with anything that has any power.
The Basic Stamp kits look good. You seem to need a pretty hefty Oscilliscope nowadays also.
I would suggest taking the training for a Amature ("HAM") radio license since that involves all the basic electronics stuff, then move into more digital stuff.
TDz.
The first thing is probably to define what you want to do more specifically, i.e. what kind of electronic gadget you want to build. Try not to pick something that isn't too hard. Then you look at what other people have built and try to understand their solutions. After that you try to tweak their solutions (adding/changing stuff here and there). Repeat and rinse a few times and before you know it you'll be building your own things.
No, I'm not kidding. Find a good school and go. You'll get tons of theory, and lots of hands on experience, and the opportunity to work on amazing projects with incredibly smart people. If you're really keen on it, that's what I suggest.
Why do you need to tinker with anything that has "power"? A Z80 CPU is still as good today as it was 20 years ago (and they are still made - they are popular in embedded applications, which was after all what they were originally designed for). You can make plenty of useful devices with a 4MHz PIC or a 4MHz Z80. If you're making embedded computers, they simply don't NEED the power of a modern desktop CPU. I think people forget this and get dragged on with the marketing myth that everything needs a 1GHz+ processor when it simply doesn't. A 4MHz Z80 will still barely work up a sweat as part of say, a logging weather station. Which is a good thing because you want the battery to last.
74 series and 4000 series logic, 555 timers and the like are STILL as much fun to play with as they were 20 years ago. The existence of 3.6 GHz Xeon processors does not reduce the amount of learning or fun you can have from these parts, nor does it make simple parts any less useful than they ever were. You can still make useful gadgets with simple parts, and it's not hard to interface them with a modern desktop computer if need be.
Oolite: Elite-like game. For Mac, Linux and Windows
Also, decide early on if you want to get into analogue circuitry or if you're more interested in digital. It's two different worlds which ain't got much in common. The trend is that more and more circuits are digital. Even if the end-output or the inputs are analogue, that's often converted to/from digital and the rest done digitally.
EE degrees really do not mean much unless you are talking about the nitty gritty high end stuff. If he wants to learn how to build something really complex like appliances etc etc then you want the EE degree. If you want to become proficient in constructing IC you need four things. A good EE book or Internet access, either would do just fine. Access to components like resistors, transistors, etc etc. A lot of time to tinker with them. And most importantly, a creative mind. The books/ internet will let you know the theories like Ohm's law etc etc. Most importantly you can learn what each component does. Not what it is used for, but what it actually does to your voltage and current etc etc. And here is the kicker, without the creativity to put all the info together and the time to tinker around you won't be able to advance yourself. I know plenty of EE graduates whom have the basic skills to know how circuits are built and some basic circuits which they were forced to study in school. But you give them a pile of components and tell them to create something, guess what, they are lost. Lack of creativity can stunt your growth.
I had one of these xx-in-1 kits too, but I never learned what any of it did. I just learned to follow directions... and voila, I had an FM-radio transmitter... or whatever it was.
I learned how things worked when I started taking things apart to "fix" them. (I mostly just destroyed things at first) But if you try to understand what each component is actually doing when you replace it, you learn alot. Or at least I did.
Fix Your Own TV - RiddledTV.com Avoid the Landfill