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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?"
...Rocky's Boots - my 4 year old knew more about feedback circuits than 1/2 the engineering students in the local college.
I currently have an 8 bit computer breadboarded - Z80 CPU, 32K RAM, 128K flash ROM, PIO, LCD interface and keypad. Breadboarding is practical for any IC you can get in DIL packages. I'm still learning, and there are plenty of fairly complex circuits you can make on breadboard (even if they do look like a rats nest).
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Most things are still available in DIL packages - the Z80 CPU and its peripheral chips are *still manufactured* in that form. Static RAM and flash ROM is easy to get hold of in DIL packages. Of course, there are mountains of 74-series and 4000-series logic and other things like 555 timers made in their tens of millions.
Here is my current rat's nest: http://www.alioth.net/Projects/Z80/Z80-Project/Z8
You probably don't want to start learning and experimenting directly with 100 pin QFPs. It would be an exercise in futility.
Oolite: Elite-like game. For Mac, Linux and Windows
Uh, yeah. Microcontrollers != electronics. Not even close. Yeah, you can be another guy making magic 8-balls with stamps (they can't really do much more than that). Electronics is much more than that, and it honestly sounds like you don't have much of a clue. There is a lot of fun you can have with analog electronics, FPGAs, real microprocessors, and various application-specific chips. Building a simple op-amp headphone amp and understanding how it works and how to improve it is a much better learning experience.
I would start with "The Art of Electronics" by Horowitz and Hill. Jim Williams' book is pretty good reading, too (Art of analog design or something like that). If you like audio amplifiers, Douglas Self's books are absolutely awesome. In my opinion, digital design is a skill while high performance analog is an art (much more interesting and far more difficult). Of course, any engineer or serious hobbyist should be able to do both well.
If you like microcontrollers, get a digital logic textbook and learn what is inside first. Anyone who writes stuff for microcontrollers should have no trouble drawing a detailed block diagram of one. You should be able to learn to program any given 8-bit chip in a couple of days, whether it's a PIC, 8051, AVR, Z80, 68HC11, or your own design. I am pretty sure most basic stamp developers don't even know what a finite state machine is. Hence, their mortal fear of assembly or machine code. Learning electronics with basic stamps is like learning to swim in a bathtub. Not to mention, the whole point of an 8-bit microcontroller is that it's extremely cheap. Even a moderately complicated robot might have dozens of them. Paying $50 a pop defeats the point.