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Where To Start In DIY Electronics?
pyrosine writes "I've been thinking about this for a while and have no idea where to start. I have little or no previous experience in electronics — just what is covered in GCSE physics (wiring a plug and resistors — not much, I know). The majority of my interest lies in the wireless communication side of the field — i.e. ham radios and CB — but I am also interested in how many things work, one example being speakers, simply to better understand it. I would preferably like to start with some form of practical guide rather than learning the theory first, but where I would find such a walkthrough eludes me."
Once you have the basics down you will probably want to get into microcontrollers. There are a lot of ways to go here depending on how much time you want to spend wiring things up yourself, and your comfort level with software. You might start with the very popular PIC. Although the architecture is a bit long in the tooth and is a poor target for C, there loads of example projects for it so it's easy to learn. There are also many high-level building blocks (Basic stamp etc) that can get you up and running quickly. If you have sophisticated software needs, you'll want a more modern micro with better tools - check out Atmel or TI.
Eventually you will need a more formal treatment if you want to design your own circuits. I consider The Art of Electronics to be the bible here - it is thorough but also very practical and you will find it has specific solutions for many everyday engineering problems. It has been a great investment, and one of the better worn books on my shelf. Have fun!
Hanging in ##electronics on freenode gave me *a lot* of knowledge. Also, there is a plethora of other channels like #avr, #sparkfun etc for when you get more involved in a specific branch of electronics
I would start with DIY audio electronics, since it's easy to test, usually not dangerous, and you get a useful product in the end. The CMoy amplifier is popular and has several good tutorials written about building them from RadioShack parts for about $25. The best is from TangentSoft. The CMoy has a simple circuit that should be pretty obvious to anyone with some classwork in electrical engineering. You can build the amp without that knowledge, too. If you enjoy it then there's a huge range of other more advanced kits and schematics to build from.
http://www.allaboutcircuits.com/ Very good and free info.
The majority of my interest lies in the wireless communication side of the field -- i.e. ham radios and CB
Join your local amateur radio club. Get your licence.
73s de MM0YEQ
Popular Electronics and Popular Science are the two mags from which I learned a lot. Today Maker 'www.makerfaire.com' always have good stuff too.
I hope this caused some synapses to fire.
Thumbs up from this electrical engineer. Here's a portion of the Amazon description:
It may be the only "introduction to electronics books" with back cover comments by Dave Barry, Ray Bradbury, Clive Cussler, and George Garrett, as well as recomendations from Robert Hazen, Bob Mostafapour, Dr. Roger Young, Dr. Wayne Green, Scott Rundle, Brian Battles, Michelle Guido, Herb Reichert and Emil Venere. As Monitoring Times said, "Perhaps the best electronics book ever. If you'd like to learn about basic electronics but haven't been able to pull it off, get There Are No Electrons. Just trust us. Get the book."
Learn not to grab hot soldering iron by the barrel or tip.
Handle is much safer.
Metalesson 1: it doesn't matter if you think you need to keep your eyes on that twitchy almost-mechanically-sound connection in order to keep it from springing apart before you can solder it. You still need to pick your head up and guide your hands to the soldering iron, because grasping blindly WILL HURT.
Welcome to the Panopticon. Used to be a prison, now it's your home.
Since you seem to be in the UK, Maplin is the place to go for hobbyist electronic stuff.
http://www.maplin.co.uk/Search.aspx?criteria=Electronic%20Kit&source=15
Short list:
1) Horowitz and Hill "Art of Electronics" 2nd ed -- human readable mix of theory and practical application -- must have
2) ARRL Handbook -- any year in the past decade -- great introduction to RF communications, good mix of theory and practice -- must have for ham radio
3) Wes Hayward "Experimental Methods in RF design" -- must have for homebrew ham radio enthusiast who wants practical advice but also wants to learn the theory
My group HTINK offers occasional intro to electronics courses, as does NYC resistor (events.htink.net, www.nycresistor.com)
Check out www.hackerspaces.org for a list of hackerspaces near you.
-Eric
I've learned a lot just following links off of Hackaday.com
Look into the Arduino starter information, too.
I heartily second this recomendation. This is the best guide I've found for lab electronics. I was a lab manager in a low temp fluid dynamics lab while a graduate student and I used to hand out my spare copy (yes, it's that good.) on a regular basis. Bunches of Phd Physics folk have been trained from this book.
If you are interested in amateur radio, you will probably find the [url=http://www.amazon.ca/gp/product/0872591441/ref=pd_lpo_k2_dp_sr_1?pf_rd_p=485327511&pf_rd_s=lpo-top-stripe&pf_rd_t=201&pf_rd_i=0872591964&pf_rd_m=A3DWYIK6Y9EEQB&pf_rd_r=10144F9P5GQ71MS0FXAW]ARRL Handbook[/url] pretty useful. You can probably find it in your local library, and it contains a CD with the entire book in pdf fomat.
If there are specific areas you'd like to learn about, there's always How Stuff Works (or go directly to the electronics setion.) For example, Ham Radio is covered, as are all the actual components like Resistors.
A recursive sig
Can impart wisdom and truth
Call proc signature()
You might try picking up a book called "123 Robotics Experiments for the Evil Genius (TAB Robotics)". After you get past the "build a robot out of paper towel rolls" sections, you get into some real electronics with the relevant equations, and practical applications that are a lot of fun to do. Also, you'll learn about circuit logic and build your own stuff with the included blank circuit board. Got that for Christmas last year, and it's been a fun way to get started...
AARL Handbook.
Nearly everything you need to know about the basics.
Also, join a radio club
Someone up there recommended the Forrest Mims book. Yeah, that too.
--
BMO
Look stuff up and get a background.
Like speakers
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Loudspeaker
Ton of information and background on how it all works.
Get a home electronics kit and play around
http://www.electronickits.com/kit/complete/science/mx908.htm
...a terrorist.
Back in the olden days, you could once buy a chemistry set and experiment with it, and you were considered to be a science geek. Then the day came that anyone interested in chemistry outside of university chemistry education and/or working in chemistry for an established company was suddenly considered by the law enforcement authorities that you must be a druggie who only wants to make illegal drugs. No other explanation is accepted by the govt anymore.
Up until a few years ago, if you wanted to play with electronics and build you own circuitry, you were free to do so. Hobbiests and ham radio enthusiasts commonly built stuff from parts from Radio Shack, Newark, Digikey, etc, but now the authorities are starting to watch such people very closely. After all, unless you're ligitimately employed by some corporation in a professional electronics engineering capacity of some sort, then otherwise you must only be kind of terrorist who is bent on making bomb triggers. There's no other explanation in their minds.
The first thing you should learn is how to build a solid regulated power supply. First of all, it is a relatively easy task. Secondly, for all future projects, you will need a good power supply anyway. And, finally, whatever resource you use to learn from will undoubtedly lead you on to your next project.
Try this:
Understanding Basic Electronics
It's the first of three books designed for hams, or people who want to become hams. Although it won't help you get your license, it will at least help you understand the test questions better and give a decent grounding (pun not intended, but happily accepted) in electronic fundamentals without too much advanced math.
73, KJ6BSO
This ain't rocket surgery.
Formerly sold at Radius Shack as an OEM product. I learned on Radio Shack's earlier version the 100-1 Electronic Project Kit when I was 10.
Elenco 200-in-1 Electronic Project Lab, you can find it on amazon.
I recommend this product from Radioshack: http://www.radioshack.com/product/index.jsp?productId=3814337. I learned the basics of electronics with this kit which includes two books by forest m mims. It teaches you the basics from wiring, resistance, capacitance, all the way up to integrated circuits all for $70. The unit has many built in parts such as a 555 timer, speaker, mic, and radio antenna. Most importantly, it is not to technical and gives you step by step wiring instructions while also explaining what is going on with each project. Their is a second kit with extra sensors which can be combine with this kit once you get the basics down.
I come from a programming background, and I wanted to get into electronics. So I bought an Arduino, a breadboard, and some LEDs. Write some C code, compile it and throw it on there, and blinkenlights galore.
But wait! It can also read analog values. Hook up a potentiometer and a LED, and dim it based on the pot's position. Or grab a 7-segment display and map the pot to the display's 0-9.
All of these use the microcontroller, and since I already knew how to program I knew how to make that part of the circuit do what I wanted. I had to learn how to safely connect the micro and the other components together - but I wasn't starting from nothing.
I'm working through RC circuits now, which requires a strong working knowledge of resistors and capacitors and how they interact with the system. Wikipedia is your friend
Basically, take what you already know and use it as a wedge to push your way into something new. For me, the wedge was programming.
A word of caution - You should know enough about electricity to avoid killing yourself before you even start. Internalize the difference between voltage and amperage, for one. But if all you're working with is the small side of a 9v transformer, you should be OK.
I have developed a truly marvelous proof of this comment, which this signature is too narrow to contain.
You know that in 24 hours, the top hit is going to be this page, right?
If you were blocking sigs, you wouldn't have to read this.
I would recommend you get your hands on an old copy of "Electronic Communications" by Schrader (or however you spell his name). It is a College-level book that will take you from basic DC circuits (Ohms law and friends) all the way up to the design (circuit level) of microwave transceivers.
If you need to learn your way around RF systems, this is the book to get. It is the only book I kept when I went to college many years ago...
Ron Gage - Westland, MI
It's a nice reference. Once in a while you just have to get right back to the basics and remind yourself how some common BJT circuits such as current mirrors work. Ditto with basic opamp circuits.
Depending what's understood with "electronics" it's big and sprawling subject with many sub-disciplines. You can get into EMI quagmire and never really come out of it, for example.
I was interviewed with one company where "cad heads" and designers are quite separate with layout designers being the less appreciated job.
In any case, there are many, many things to learn and you only become really good when years go by and you accumulate knowledge. You do, however, probably become good only in subset of things you've worked with.
For example. Mosfets are voltage controlled devices and you do not have to worry about power to the gate, right? Wrong. The gate charge, while very small _does_ add up hugely in SMPS circuits and such when you're charging and discharging that small capacitor 100000 times a second or so.
There are two paths in electronics you can take, analog and digital. Analog requires a lot of math and education, avoid this unless you're willing to work with a lot of theory (this is especially true if you want to work with signals). The funner route is to go the logic based Digital. Microcontrollers, basic digital logic chips, you name it.
I recommend starting with one of the many breadboard kits that are around. A lot of times they're geared toward kids, but usually that doesn't matter too much. Once you have a chance to read their notes about how things work and get to try it out for yourself, you can start digging into more technical adult-oriented manuals and websites and if you pick well, you'll even have something to use to try your own experiments based on what you find elsewhere. The key is the ability to (mostly safely) experiment and learn what does what and how in a truly hands-on fashion. I like the added flexibility of the spring connectors (Maxitronix Electronic Lab) vs something more structured like the Snap Circuits, but it just depends on your needs, interests and whether there is a child who might be inheriting the kit when you're done.
Make Magazine came out with a pretty good book last year. The component packs are pretty good too.
http://www.makershed.com/ProductDetails.asp?ProductCode=9780596153748
ARRL Handbook (Ham radio focus)
Electronic Communications (FCC commercial license focus)
Robert Shrader
Art of Electronics (physicist & instrumentation focus)
Horowitz
Electronic Principles (technician focus)
Malvino
Have Fun!
rhb
I suggest you start reading hackaday. Granted, much of the stuff there will be way out of your league, but you'll pick up some things, and there's a tutorial section too, and maybe you can find some interesting sites or projects. Also, download a circuit simulator, to spare yourself blown-out bits, and get a breadboard, if you really want to get into it. Wireless will also probably take a microcontroller, so start looking into C programming too. Good Luck!
Hyperbole: I use it liberally!
http://www.amazon.com/Art-Electronics-Paul-Horowitz/dp/0521370957
http://www.amazon.com/Op-Amp-Cookbook-3rd-Walter-Jung/dp/0138896011
Wireless is a black art. Difficult even for experts.
Get a soldering station, voltmeter, oscilliscope and multi-output power supply.
Do some classic student exercises.. Get comfortable calculating resistor networks, then building and measuring them. Characterize a bipolar transistor, and a FET. Build some opamp circuits, inverting and noninverting amplifiers.
Find some simple schematics or kits of classic student projects. Build them. Trace the signal path, measuring voltages and currents at various places.
Read datasheets. Look at National Semiconductor, TI, Maxim, Linear Tech. Most modern electronic stuff is made out of higher level building blocks, not individual parts.
Start with a kit, like these or these. See if you enjoy the practical end of putting something together. You'll need some basic tools - a soldering iron, sidecutters, solder.
If you enjoy that, then there's a bunch of different ways you can go, depending on what you're interested in. Microcontroller based systems, if you like software too, are easy enough to start working with. Or if you prefer analogue electronics, old school audio and radio, then you'll want to learn some more about the theory and practice and there are lots of good books there - I like The Art of Electronics but choose something that suits your style and covers the areas you want to start with.
But first see if you enjoy the mechanical end of putting a circuit board together.
You might want to have a look at something like this: Electronic Lab 130-in-one Project http://www.amazon.com/Vintage-Sports-Cards-MX-906-Electronic/dp/B00005K2SY
Start here : http://www.ladyada.net/library/equipt/kits.html
Probably the lowest cost, best-value combination of tools and supplies.
Start with this book : http://www.makershed.com/ProductDetails.asp?ProductCode=9780596153748
Don't be afraid to blow stuff up. Hell, in all the best books/articles I've read about the very first thing the authors have you do is blow up an LED. Get used to it.
I used this site throughout my engineering degree. http://www.allaboutcircuits.com/ Covers everything from a basic intro all the way to AC, DC, op. amps, transformers, etc... all nicely formatted.
Make a shortwave radio that doubles a suppository.
So when things go all The Road on us, you know, and you're running from the zombie skinheads who want to eat you, then you aren't weighed down, and after you stop running, you can pull it out and try and find other, more sane, survivors.
It'd be really valuable. Think about it....
Start with tubes. Get yourself some ancient old projects book from the 1950's. Now I know, some will say that the voltages involved with tubes make them a bad place for beginners. I started with them and I'm still alive, and no permanent scars! There is reason for this though, and that is, tubes are very forgiving to mistakes. You can do retarded crap, watch the plates go red hot, shut it down, fix the circut, and it will come up and work again. I've had circuts thermal runway so hard they cook the cathode resistors and blow the coupling capacitors to shreds, replace the caps and resistors, fix the dead short at the plate, and have the tubes still operate perfectly. So you never damage any of the expensive parts, none of which are all that expensive.
Anyway, I know nobody is going to listen to me, so that's why I don't bother logging in. It's just obsolute technology that nobody cares about, except for those perfectly willing to pay me $10,000 to put a pair of A833's in a box for them. What the hell would I know anyway.
Go work in a Chinese factory making ipods for $5/hr. you will learn all about electronics there.
Check out some of the NerdKits Video Tutorials, which are 20+ free video tutorials that cover all sorts of electronics topics. For example, Motors and Microcontrollers 101 talks about how to model motors as circuit elements (I'm the guy in this video). The Halloween Capacitive Touch Sensor talks about using aluminum foil as a proximity sensor. All in all, we sell breadboard-based electronics kits, which help beginners like yourself get started with electronics and programming.
Then, our customers adapt it to do things we'd never dreamed of: measuring how far a hamster runs at night, or controlling an RC helicopter, or building an intervalometer, or even building a video game system.
The communications / RF type stuff is very cool, and I hope you're able to get there! The most relevant content we have available right now is a 20-minute video about building a single transistor amplifier for a sound meter.
Best of luck in your electronics journey!
I agree with all the book recommendations others have listed..
One way to virtually build circuits to experiment with is with a SPICE program.
I like LTspice, a free circuit simulator made by Linear Technology.
Modeling circuits will help you get a feel for how things work. The main drawback is that while your circuit might work beautifully in simulation, it could be because reality is neglected. IE, in real life you are likely to release the magic smoke from overheated parts.
Good luck!
A witty saying proves you are wittier than the next guy.
Every issue of the Parts Express catalog has a homebrew speaker build featured. Some theory is included with each one. All you have to do to get this catalog sent to you is buy something. You might even be able to do it by request without buying anything. You'll also find them a good source for odds and ends like connectors, cables, crimp tools, velcro cable wraps, and the other things that make life easier.
Mal-2
How is the Riemann zeta function like Trump rallies? Both have an endless number of trivial zeros.
I think that you can divide electronic work in two major worlds: digital electronics and analog electronics. They both work together in most modern applications, but most people are more interested in working with either analog or digital.
You seem to be interested more in the analog and electromagnetism/applied physics. That means that you will be sitting around at a workbench analyzing and debugging analog circuits with an oscilloscope. You will also build a lot of prototypes and stuff with your hands. It can be a lot of fun.
If you go the digital path you will be sitting in front of a computer, coding embedded C, VHDL or Verilog and you will be analyzing the actual circuit with a logic analyzer rather than with an oscilloscope. That can also be a lot of fun.
It all depends on what you find fun. It would be difficult and probably fruitless and boring to get into both these fields at the same time as a newbie hobbyist.
By the way, oscilloscopes and logic analyzers are equally expensive. Prices start at about $150-$200 and you need to pay $300-$400 for a good hobbyist scope or logic analyzer.
YMDXDWEG6BY7
Since we're all assuming you're in the UK, join the RSGB, the Radio Society of Great Britain. Their website offers local information, tutors, and a lot more, including a good bookstore. Plus, their monthly magazine, Radio Communication (RadCom) is a wonderful entry into wireless electronics. IMHO, it's far superior in technical content (both beginning and advanced) than QST, the publication of the ARRL, the American Radio Relay League, which siphons some of its technical content off to its sister publication for experimenters, QEX.
If you want to get started with basic electronics I highly recommend the Make: Electronics book from O'Reilly. It's just the right blend of theory with hands-on (or tongue-on practice as in the intro chapters on electricity!) Plus you get to have all sorts of fun ordering random parts from Jameco and Digikey.
If you go this route I highly recommend ordering the resistor intro pack and storage case from Jameco.
Have fun!
Neil
If you'd like to jump right in, and practice your soldering skills (which are essential), and save the Academic/Technical stuff for later... you can have a lot of fun and practice while "Circuit Bending", or "Creative Short Circuiting".
An alternative to the PIC is Texas Instrument's MSP430. It is a pretty good target for C, USB-based developer kits run for $20 for regular boards & $50 for boards with wireless transmitters, and one of the cooler things is that it is meant to run off of two AAA batteries.
http://focus.ti.com/docs/toolsw/folders/print/ez430-rf2500.html
(((dB)))
Start building kits, and study what goes into them. If you are into ham radio, there are loads of interesting radios and accessories you can build. The EleCraft K2 is an outstanding radio, a great kit, and has a great community of builder/hackers -- check out discussion list. Don't discount the learning experience of a kit, especially if you take the time to analyze what the designer did. You will learn a great deal about the components, about practical assembly techniques that you can use in your own design, and how to put the whole works together into something that functions. Along the way you will accumulate tools and valuable experience.
For the absolute beginner (which is about the level of GCSE physics), I recommend the books I started with. Look for Tom Duncan's "Adventures with Electronics". As well as circuit diagrams there are clear illustrations so that you can start building working circuits right away. The workings of each project is clearly explained, and followed by suggestions for expanding or altering the circuit to do something different. It's very rewarding: you don't need to understand the circuit before you start, but you certainly will after experimenting with it.
After the first book, there's "Adventures with Micro Electronics" and "Adventures with Digital Electronics" which introduce ICs and binary logic. Once you've got through these three books, you'll be sufficiently well grounded to pick up standard electronics texts to progress further.
Each book comes with a list of components which you can easily order from Maplin or RadioSpares. It's cheaper than buying a ready made kit, and the components are better quality than many of the kits (which will save you many frustrated hours). Any anyway you'll soon be buying more components to make larger circuits and your own ideas.
- Make Electronics is very good. Available from the Make magazine folks.
- Become a Ham. Study and take the tests. Basics required for Technician and General, Extra will require you to crack the books. Practice tests are available free on-line, but best is hamtestonline.com, which will teach you the subject matter, as well as the test. If you're not from the US, you will have a different test and potentially different rules, so YMMV.
Red
Paper, a pencil and Ohm's Law.
You are welcome on my lawn.
If you want to get started get one of those 75 in one kits using spring connectors. The better ones run under 100$ and they have all that boring theory in somewhat in less boring action. If you really want to have fun, and just follow receipes, get one of the microcontroller based kits. The easiest (and not very powerful) is the stamp. Don't by a stamp kit, just a book and a simple stamp chip, you can make a stamp burner from your serial port.
Have fun. Soldering comes next. If you can't smile at a really big blister, don't get into electronics. If you like doing the cheap experiments, start buying more complex ones - most have the theory included. Then start buying books and equipment (not the least of which is an oscilliscope and signal generator - expensive and required), Better off determining if you really want to do this.
Eor.
KipKay has a lot of tutorials for projects on youtube. The Arduino project is a great way to get a lot of more complicated electronics projects started quickly. Again, google, youtube. Both of these things are more about application and less about theory, but they can be more fun that way.
We can only hope so. If one is trying to get started doing things for himself, but needs to ask how to start researching how to do things for himself ... its not going to end pretty. He might get better do it yourself results by paying an electrician to do it for himself.
You will be added to the US DHS terrorist watchlist. Enjoy!
Try: http://www.allaboutcircuits.com/ This has some good lessons describing the prinicples behind circuitry, and suggests some experiments to try. Best of all, it's free!
Do basic 555 timer projects to learn how to make LEDs flash, tones, bounceless switches, etc. Also, get an Arduino. It takes very little time and not so many parts to get from Cool Idea to Thing that Works.
The Art of Electronics is the best book ever for learning all these basics.
http://www.amazon.com/Art-Electronics-Paul-Horowitz/dp/0521370957/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1271114053&sr=8-1
(not an affiliate link)
Yeah, it's $90, but its worth it. Broke? I'm sure the library has it, and that's free!
After that I'd really recommend learning microcontrollers, and for that, Sparkfun Electronics is great.
http://www.sparkfun.com/commerce/tutorials.php
My only other advice is to learn stuff the same way I've been learning stuff the last few years - just look on google. You'll find what you're looking for.
http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q=learning+electronics&aq=f&aqi=g-sx10&aql=&oq=&gs_rfai=
-Taylor
Worldwide Military budgets: $2100 billion. Worldwide Space Exploration budgets: $38 billion. Really, world? Really?
Since you're interested in radio, whatever other things you find I suggest strongly that you google up a local ham radio club. Not all hams do circuitry construction and tweaking, but you will surely find some who do and who can be valuable resources for advice, tools, component sources, etc.
There is a whole subdomain of ham radio that does digital packet switching, if that piques your interest.
I started getting interested in electronics in high school. After graduation I decided to attend a local community college. They had a degree in electronics engineering technology. This gave me the basics as well as exposure to the test equipment. I took my education much further on my own (none of my classmates ever designed anything electronic, most don't work in the field either).
One effective way to learn this is go to hamfests and look old printed data catalogs on IC's. National Semiconductor Analog data book, TI TTL databook, Intel microprocessor data book, etc.
Get a Heathkit trainer. This gives you a prototype breadboard and integrated power as well as other basic things needed for playing with electronics. Start with simple things like 555 timer ICs.
Basic test equipment. Digital multimeter, Oscilloscope (60MHz minimum, start with an analog).
Ebay is your friend for getting some of this stuff. I have purchased a lot of my test equipment this way.
Components can be purchased there as well or if your like me (more time than money) you can salvage parts from old electronics. Friends and relatives give me junk all the time. A paint stripping heat gun will make quick work of removing components from this old stuff. Heat the bottom of the boards in sections until the solder melts. Flip the board over a hit it on the back with a stick or other similar sized tool, parts will fall out and drop onto your table. Remember this stuff is hot! A old analog tv is a treasure trove of power resistors(buy your small ones in a kit, too much trouble for such cheap parts), capacitors, transistors, voltage regulators, etc. The main deflection coil can yield hundreds of feet of enameled wire for coil making. Don't forget the power cord! Thrift stores are overloaded with things like this since the analog to digital tv switchover.
Check out your local community for HAM radio clubs. Someone there will most likely be happy to help you get started. If you find you are liking this, look at local vocational technical schools to see if they have any courses in electronics (our local college dropped it's electronics program about 8 years ago) (sniff).
It has mostly been said now, but some things are worth re-iterating. As you have done GCSE electronics, you should have all the necessary background safety info, and know how to use a soldering iron and breadboard. I have seen the GCSE Electronics exams, they aren't in-depth but you should now have a really good theoretical and practical platform to build on your skills. If you have no components or a breadboard, Maplin do a GCSE component kit and a selection of decent breadboards. Find your local amateur radio club, and consider studying for the exams. People there should (will) have copies of the various official RSGB manuals. They provide a good structure to learn both the theory and practical side of things. Sure, embedded processors are important, but go with what interests you and not some geek half way around the world. "Art of Electronics" isn't cheap but it is pretty much the Electronics Engineers bible and will last you a long long time.
Something from the 70's - 80's. shouldn't be more than a couple bucks a piece at garage sales. Old enough to be discrete components, as opposed to a radio-on-chip sort of deal. Get an ARRL handbook from the 70's. Get a soldering iron.
If you still can't get your head around something, try asking for help at dutchforce electronics forums
You have to stick to it, and sooner or later it all makes sense. :-)
If you have a local amateur radio club, they might be helpful. (they might just be a bunch of grumpy old men too, it depends on the chapter...)
Sent from my PDP-11
If it ever gets that bad, we really need to squawk about it.
RIP America
July 4, 1776 - September 11, 2001
Microelectronic Circuits: Adel S. Sedra (University of Waterloo), Kenneth C.Smith (University of Toronto)
I'd strongly suggest that you do at least a basic level of looking into theory while you're creating "practical circuits" - it's quite helpful when you're debugging to know at least roughly what's meant to happen.
One source I can recommend is the MIT Open Courseware resources - the 6.002 course on Circuits and Electronics is a good place to start; I'm an embedded software engineer who's started to push into the hardware side of things, and that set of lectures helped me turn my vague understanding of electronics (being able to read a circuit and understand what's going on) into something practical (being able to design a circuit).
I have had plenty of times shocking myself when playing with what I thought were safe devices. Here are a couple that caught me off guard:
1: Capacitors. Even though you are unplugged and powered off, a capacitor can be holding a surprise for you. The one that I learned on was built into a camera flash: So even though the device was powered by a couple of AA batteries (removed), sitting in wait was a capacitor with several thousand volts. I recall getting up off the floor wondering WTF just happened.
2: Relays. These devices use an electromagnet to move a metal reed, which closes (or opens) the connection for another circuit. Be aware that when a magnetic field collapses, electricty is 'made'. So even though I was driving the electromagnet with 9v, the shock I got when the field collapsed was likely several hundred volts. This wouldn't have been quite the problem, if I weren't using the relay to drive the relay (the switched circuit was closed in the unpowered position, and open when powered) - which creates an oscillator. This means that I shocked myself quite a few times before I could get the breadboard off of my hand.
..oh, wait...
Get yourself an Allied Radio kit... oh wait...
Get your self a copy of Popular Electronics... oh wait...
Get yourself a copy of Electronic Hobbyist... oh wait...
Forget it, just go buy a new chinese made mp3 player!
Your thin skin doesn't make me a troll
A copy of Experimental Methods in RF Design (EMRFD) and download a copy of LTSpice from Linear.com will entertain and educate for years. have fun gb
They have a book on basic (analog) electronics, a digital electronics book that covers digital, and a communications book that include RF and amplifier design (classes A-D). The basic one is really good. It takes you through a NP junction, complete with holes and depletion zones, explaining diodes, then transistors, NPN and PNP and goes over other basic circuit components. As someone who was not new to computers or general electronics, I found these three books from RadioShack of all places to be exactly what I needed to get down to business. I would highly recommend them.
Slashdot's rate-of-post filter: Preventing you from posting too many great ideas at once.
Craplins?
Surely you jest.
I think a lot of the posters here are making some assumptions. Mims, sure, Horowitz & Hill, another good choice.
You need to find a way to just start playing. Once you've played some, you'll need to figure out how to continue in some direction. A breadboard is relatively inexpensive -- it's usually white with a buttload of holes in it. Wikipedia can help you find it. You'll need a power supply -- something that will provide 3, 5, 9 or 12V seems most useful and common. It can be a box that'll hold a couple of AAs or a 9V, or a computer power supply (AT is nice -- ATX means you have to wire two contacts together on the plug). And, of course, wire. And, if there's wire, there's also needle nose pliers -- the Leatherman is a mainstay of those of us who remind you that you can't spell "geek" without "Double E".
Start by making blinking lights. Get a 555 timer and teach yourself how to make it flash at 1 or 10 Hz. Then get a speaker and make it go at 1KHz or 5KHz. You might have little luck with the transition between visual and audible frequencies -- little speakers below 100Hz are ugly, and you will have trouble viewing flashing on a stationary light above 20Hz. If you get a big enough speaker, and have it going at 1Hz with sufficient voltage swings, you can physically see the membrane moving. Adding a little salt or sand to it can make it easier to see that it is moving indirectly at higher frequencies.
The key is to find a way to get your foot in the door. Concentrate on circuits with a chip or two and a very small handful of discrete components -- a half dozen to start with. Don't start complicated, you'll just get discouraged. Once you've enjoyed that, you can start to think about more complex things like RF transmitters / receivers or BASIC stamp type controllers. If you can pick up a cheap oscilloscope and/or frequency generator, both are good tools to have.
And in this stage of learning, precious little should be soldered. You're prototyping exclusively. This stuff shouldn't be put together for more than a few days of playing. Okay, if you go the laser tag route, there's some merit to soldering that instead of worrying about a wire coming out in the middle of a match. Although if you know what you're doing, you can use a dozen or so parts to make a receiver and a gun can be half that (essentially a switch with a 555 timer at 40KHz is good enough for indoor play away from fluorescent lights whose plasma is / was near that frequency).
After my kids are a little older, I'm going to move onto a stamp type controller and some servos. There's a world of fun just waiting for us there.
Don't try to skip parts of the books. I understand what a resistor,does and how to figure out one or two. Then you turn the page and it's algebra to calculate a resistor network.
Never seem to get past that.
If you want to get really DIY make your own vacuum tubes.
http://hpfriedrichs.com/bks-ioa.htm
http://hpfriedrichs.com/bks-ioa-gallery1.htm
http://hpfriedrichs.com/bks-ioa-gallery2.htm
I decided to take an electronics class at my local community college and that beats any books or kits I can think of.
The class cost something around $300-$400 and I got a small kit with the course. I realize that even $200 buys a whole lot of books and small parts but the ability to learn from someone who knows what they are doing and also collaborate with others learning the subject is priceless.
For these reasons my solution is to take a hands-on oriented class.
Your local ham radio club is one part of learning as well as school courses. Do not underestimate what you can learn by simply taking things apart. Take a look at speakers in a cheap or broken radio. In essence an electromagnet pulls a cone towards itself when the magnet gains strength due to increased current. As the current changes quickly the vibrations create sound. Usually the cheap stuff is easier to figure out than more exotic stuff.
Then I would suggest getting a breadboard and starting to build some oscillators, LEDs and phototransistors can be a good way to learn about modulation, small and easy to get something going. other than that 1, don't let the smoke out 2, be wary of inductors, it is quite easy to accidentally let one discharge back through your circuit and fry everything
http://tgimboej.org/>TGIMBOEJ. Sign up. Get a box of junk. Open. Explore. Create. Learn. Contribute.
I'm in my right mind and I have the answer to everything!
Really... not kidding... become a dumpster diver for electronics. Pull junk electronics out of the dumpster and open the cases. Learn to identify the parts. De-solder them from the internal circuit boards. Start a collection of parts. Throw what you don't keep (the real garbage) back into the dumpster. Avoid old televisions. They can hold a charge on their picture tube and that tube can implode if dropped. But old televisions are not supposed to be in dumpsters anymore anyway. (Take them to the GoodWill).
If you can't ID the parts, take a small picture of them with a digital camera and post the image to an AVR or PIC microcontroller or electronics web site, asking 'what is this?'.
The web is fantastic for learning electronics! Thirty years ago an unknown part could stay a mystery for a long time. IC data books could be difficult to obtain. Now just type the letter/number combination printed on the part into Google and you often can find exactly what it is and what it does in seconds. Ask a question on the web and knowledgeable people answer it at your comprehension level.
If you are interested in music, buy a few cheap guitar stompboxes on eBay and take them apart. Many hundreds of schematics are available on the web for stompboxes. And the best part is...if you mess up the circuitry hopelessly, someone will still buy it again on eBay for almost the price that you paid for it. Plus your guitar playing gets better.
Let me vote that you also build a pair of speakers.
Building speakers definitely helps with the "practical" understand more-so than the "theory" part. And it is definitely interesting to solder together some resistors capacitors and inductors and then use the circuit with a tweeter and a woofer to do something as cool as make music.
You can find information all over the web about building speakers, but Parts-Express a is pretty easy one stop shop. This is a good build: http://www.parts-express.com/pe/showdetl.cfm?Partnumber=300-640 . If you like carpentry too you can save by building your own cabinets.
There's a relevant game people may be interested in. It is a fairly realistic digital transistor circuit simulator. Each level assigns you a real-world microchip to implement. You draw wires and silicon transistors creating a circuit, then the game runs a simulation to test it. The low levels start with a simple inverter circuit and then AND and OR logic gates, then works up through logic latches and oscillators and memory units and multi-function math units. If the game board were large enough you could literally implement a slow but fully working CPU.
It is called kohctpyktop-engineer-of-the-people
Be sure to click the help tab and view the introductory video. One point that is not clear when starting is that you need to hold the SHIFT key in order to draw yellow silicon. To remove metal hold the shift key while deleting.
Oh, and by the way..... I currently happen to have the high score for every level :)
-
- - You can't take something off the Internet! That's like trying to take pee out of a swimming pool.
Lots of suggestions of really good books but why waste your time? Take a qualified electronics technician certificate course over the net or at your local college! Looks great on the resume and then augment that with ham certification for the jurisdiction you live in.. and then, and only then will geek chicks think that you are cool.
When I was a kid, I got the catalogue every year and read it like a book lol.
But where does one go in Canada for such non-mail-order goodness?
Tom...
Microcontrollers aren't needed for ham/CB radio. Having one can add some features though.
Falcon
Should there be a Law?
This might be a good place to recommend using the 'secret oscilloscope' that is in every PC sold in the past ten years. The audio line input is a dual 44.1K sample per second AC input with nearly unlimited digital storage.
Get one of the PC oscilloscope programs that are available for free.
The disadvantages of the PC audio card oscilloscope are three:
It does NOT measure DC voltage input.
Its input range is about 2 volts AC Peak-to-Peak maximum!
Its max input signal speed is about 20,000 Hertz.
Useless for serious electronics work, but fantastic for beginners and for audio work!
And free. Free is very good price,... especially for a digital storage oscilloscope.
are way fun to play with. They are both (at least the basic dynamic variety) based on the simple primal shape of a coil. The human ear, as well as the basic shape of a speaker, are both spirals. The human inner ear is just a spiral with cilia of varying length which resonates of varying frequencies of sound (roughly your typical 20Hz to 20KHz). A speaker on its most basic level is really just a coil of wire inside a pice of coned paper with a magnet below it causing the wire to move back and forth based on the DC amplitude.
The cool thing is the whole technology is reversible. You can turn a speaker into a microphone and vice-versa. The vocoder sound of Joe Walsh and Peter Frampton are really based on a microphone which pumps the sound of the guitar out into the artist's mouth, while a second microphone picks the combined sound up.
http://soldersmoke.com/book.htm
Start with
Book: Grob (The tinkering and fun stuff)
Book: Malvino (The deeper math and the theory / physics e.g. the not so fun stuff, but necessary to be functional)
Learn to solder ( I mean really man up here, you need to have bloody burnt fingers and soldering headaches )
, buy a propane torch for stripping boards.
Learn to dumpster dive, start stripping electronics off of everything with the propane torch.
Buy a set of tools to where you can open any electronic device and strip it down to the last screw and resistor.
Buy a small breadboard, make a power supply from something you've stripped.
Always look for and buy and collect data books (e.g. motorola, texas instruments, etc)
As you get going...
Buy a meter
Buy a scope
Buy a freq counter
Buy OLD cb's and ham equipment -- NOT NEW!!
Check your local community college for Analog and Digital classes. I think they even have soldering classes now--if that's as far as you plan to go.
Rinse. Repeat. The more you PHYSICALLY do, the more adept you become over time.
READ A LOT. USE COMMON SENSE. BE SAFE, BUT DON'T BE A PUSS EITHER.
When picking projects, pick something you will actually use.
The simplest answer is the Best---
I started with Amateur Radio.
I went through college to my Masters in EE
Worked on the Space Shuttle, Blackhawk, Apache helicopters, Nextrad/and many Military RADARS.
Now 40 years later, VP of Engineering for Fortune 500 Company.
Amateur Radio: The Best Electronics Training there is.
If you're in the SF Bay Area, I would say you should go down to NoiseBridge on a Monday night at 7pm: Circuit Hacking Mondays, where Mitch Altman (of TV Begone fame) instructs in the basics of hands-on electronics hacking.
You need to understand the basics. Get familiar with Ohms law first and foremost. Once you have that down a lot of things slide into place.
You need to understand Electrical Reactance since those are the most basic equations for building speakers!
There is no way around doing the math, there just isn't. If on the other hand you want to put together circuits that others have designed and can follow detailed instructions and learn to use some basic test equipment, then just learn how to solder well and have a blast, it can be very satisfying and enjoyable.
However if you are really interested, go down to your local Radio Shack, buy a simple VOM a good soldering iron ( spend more then 10 bucks ) and a hand full of resisters of assorted values, a couple of potentiometers,AA battery holder, some alligator clips and start putting them together and measuring and watching what the voltage and current does in simple DC circuits. Learn why a voltage divider works, if you want to do something exciting, get some capacitors and diodes and make a voltage doubler!
RF is VERY complicated and a lot of it is just pure fucking black magic. I remember the very first RF project I tried to build. It was from a kit. I had to hand wind a couple of inductors. I followed the instructions to the letter and the damn thing would not work!!! I checked all my solder joints, I rechecked all the components and still now joy. Finally in frustration I just tossed the thing across the room. I cursed myself, picked it up and hooked it back up to the test rig and the god damned thing was working!!! I spent hours trying to figure out why it was working! One of the inductors ( an air choke ) had gotten bent just ever so slightly so that it was no longer this perfect coil it was now a little pinched in the middle. So I removed it ( very carefully ) and wound a brand new one and again the thing would not work. I then just barely pinched it a little and it started working.
Hey KID! Yeah you, get the fuck off my lawn!
the Make Magazine, makezine.com
New Economic Perspectives
Read his entire site
http://www.earthshinedesign.co.uk/ASKManual/Site/ASKManual.html
is freely downloadable and uses the arduino and resistors, LEDs, pushbuttons etc to start from a very basic level and move up step by step.
Parent isn't goatse/porn. Poster just doesn't know how to use real hyperlinks.
1) Begin with an understanding of the fundamental equation that is Ohm's Law. Voltage, current, and resistance: V=I*R. I=V/R. R=V/I. And power: P=I^2*R... P=I*V. Current is I. In some locales, Voltage is denoted as V. In others, it as denoted as E.
2) Understand what the current will be when you have a battery (of specific Voltage) and a resistor(of specific Resistance) in a series circuit. The current is dependent on the load (resistance) and voltage (12v has higher potential than 5v, thus 12 v across so many ohms of resistance has more current than 5v across the same amount of resistance). What I've found helps is to think of it in terms of fluid dynamics... Voltage is like water pressure. Current is like how fast the water in the pipe is moving. Resistance is like a bag of rocks blocking the pipe, limiting the flow, and absorbing energy, preferably doing something useful with the energy absorbed other than wasting it as heat.
3) Once you understand the above, move on the the fundamentals of capacitors and inductors. Inductors are like water-wheels. Current (rate of flow) never changes instantaneously across inductors, due to inertia. And as for capacitors, they are like water towers. Voltage rises as their stored energy rises, just as stored potential energy rises in a water tower as water is pumped into it.
Once you can visualize it, you are on to something :-) The above is a time-domain way of explaining it. Time to move on to electronics 201. Change mode of thought into the frequency domain. Get a feel for how RLC, or "resistor-inductor-capacitor" circuits work. Given the configuration of these, series, parallel, and variants, you get low-pass or high-pass filters. Like an equalizer for sound... Low pass... High pass... Dough nuts.
These are the books I try to give friends who show interest in getting into a type of DIY project but don't know where to start or are simply interested in trying to get into electronics. They don't get into such detail as for example how to solder correctly but they will give you a good excuse to learn how to solder.
There are several dozen books in the series like PIC Microcontroller Experiments, Bionics for the Evil Genius, 125 Physics Projects, 123 Robotics Experiments, 22 Radio and Receiver Projects Fuel Cell Project, Telephone Projects, Electronics Sensors, 101 Spy Gadgets, Electronic Circuits, Mechatronics, 51 High-Tech Practical Jokes, Solar Energy Projects and so on.
Search on Amazon for them, there are plenty that have been make through the years, and find one that sounds interesting and within your abilities to start with. Most have diagrams and required materials required listed for most projects.
I covers a lot. There's some typos but they're obvious enough to see the intent(such as swapping min and max). It goes from basics, to simplified models, to physics(only a little). It's the best book I've found.
While messing around with FPGAs may be fun, I find that, as a guy with bits and bytes up the wazoo from coding all day, designing and building analog electronics brings a Zen-like blanace to one's life. I also happen to be a bit of an audiophile, so it was a perfect match. A dozen amps, many of them tube, 10 DACs, plasma speakers, and counting
"Politicians and diapers must be changed often, and for the same reason."
I learned from this guy : Basic Electronics - Prof T.S.Natarajan
He's sometimes hard to understand and the sound levels change dramatically but you will learn all the basics.
Open Source Solutions
If you are fluent in German, Dutch or French, then I'd recommend the corresponding DVD of the old ELEX magazine (available from elektor.de, elektor.nl or elektor.fr, respectively):
In the UK there are now three stages of Ham licence.
FOUNDATION: Covers basic electronics and radio usage, gets you on the air.
INTERMEDIATE: This has a practical electronics course attached where you solder up electronics kit under supervision, with lots of friendly help on the way. (I remember building signal generators & amplifiers from scratch) I can't think of a better or cheaper introduction to DIY electronics in the UK.... even if you don't like radio.
ADVANCED: No practical course, just an electronics/radio exam to study for.
An amateur radio club is an excellent place to meet people with similar interests, and in the intermediate classes, you will meet people at your skill level. Look here for a club&course near you.
Anyone quoted by a reporter knows how little they understand
Don't believe what you read is the truth.
Don't go to Maplin - they are very expensive. It's best to go to BitsBox - personal service, cheap delivery, good prices, and a reasonable range of stuff beginners would need.
Many are recommending The Art of Electronics, but it basically doesn't include any circuit analysis. At the local university, EE programs start with two semesters of circuit analysis. Only after that you move on to electronics. Read (and understand) a book on circuit analysis first.
1. Get a breadboard of a decent size.
2. Get a whole pile of components. You don't have to spend a truckload of money - but get an assortment of NPN, PNP transistors, N and P channel MOSFETs (get one or two power MOSFETs so you can do fun stuff with switch mode supplies), resistors, capacitors, inductors, op-amp ICs, 555 timers. You can get bags with big assortments of resistors and capacitors of various sizes. Get a spool of magnet wire too so you can make your own inductors.
You may also want to get some CMOS 4000 series logic (runs from a wide voltage range), or 74HC/74HCT series (much faster).
3. Experiment! Go through online resources such as "Lessons in Electric Circuits" (google it). As you get stuck in you may also want "The Art of Electronics" (Horowitz & Hill)
It's handy to have an oscilloscope too - you can pick up a reasonable scope off ebay for not much money. (I prefer an actual big box scope to a PC-based scope, I just don't want to deal with PC problems when I'm trying to tinker with stuff).
Oolite: Elite-like game. For Mac, Linux and Windows
Check out your local university or other higher education for a introduction to electronics course. A prof with real knowledge and electronic experience is going to teach you what you're asking for, a basic knowledge of how this stuff works (like electronically, not conceptually). After all, this is how most people who work with this stuff learns it... These courses are free (except for a fee to be approved as a student, less than us$100 at my university) in many places, i.e. where I live, in Norway. (public universities) Also, stick with old stuff that actually has the components seperately - it helps to be able to see actual, physical components when you're trying to figure out the circuit as a beginner.
My advice would be to start with the basics of analogue circuits (as in the book above) and get a grounding in these things before you get into digital electronics. I have a friend who is an EE in mobile communications, at the moment 3G hardware, and he's always commenting on the lack of analogue/RF skills in the more recent EE graduates, who focus on digital. Which is good for him, as his skillset is much in demand. I'd agree with the two posters who mentioned audio/hi-fi and ham radio - hi-fi is more immediately practical in that you can make big amps etc. but there's nothing like VHF/UHF/microwave for teaching good construction skills.
Have fun and don't get too addicted to the smell of hot solder.
AC :)
This circuit simulator helped me a lot.
Visit http://ringbreak.dnd.utwente.nl/~mrjb/growingbettersoftware to download your free copy of the book
There is plenty of electronics, mechanics, ingenuity, they are fun to build and can entertain children and adults. Furthermore there is no need to apply for a license, or raise an antenna on your roof.
The real question these days is where to get components! Mail order is fine, but you may wind up spending more in shipping charges than fro what you need! Then there's the idea that wandering around aisles looking at stuff is fun and may now and then inspire you to pick up something you hadn't thought of before. Where, say around Philadelphia. Even in NY, where would you go? -- TWZ
A free series of textbooks on the subjects of electricity and electronics
Epiphone Valve Jr Vacuum Tube Guitar Amp, it's a dead simple Class A1 guitar amp. Learn how it works front to back, learn how to modify these-- study and relate the theory to it-- and you'll understand amplification. From there, learn about Class AB1 push-pull amps, very similar; and about hi-fi and higher frequency hi-fi. Hook an antenna up to a higher frequency hi-fi amplifier and build an encoder circuit and you have a high powered 2 meter radio. You can change out the vacuum tube circuits for MOSFET circuits and use those to build op-amps that pass a decent amount of power; though when you want to ring the other side of the world bouncing off the ionosphere, you're going to need those vacuum tubes, because there's no way you can pass 50,000 watts through silicon.
A simple Class A1 guitar amp is a very practical starting point, as opposed to a push-button with a piezo buzzer and a 9V battery on it.
Support my political activism on Patreon.
The ARRL Handbook was thoroughly updated for the 2010 edition - much better than an old copy and at fifty bucks way cheaper than Art of Electronics, even a used copy. Start with the chapter "Electrical Fundamentals" and go from there. Similarly, "Understanding Basic Electronics" (another ARRL publication - www.arrl.org) has been updated and the "Hands-On Electronics" book contains a lot of simple experiments that explain the theory behind the circuits. Pick up a used EE circuit course book like "Microelectronics" by Millman as deep backup to the introductory texts. If you live in a college town, the used bookstores near campus are good sources of cheap texts no longer being used for courses, but still fine as a workshop reference. Electronic project books are fun, but often don't explain very much about how the circuits work, so you'll need a supplementary text for that. For basic how-to-build circuits and common electronic construction techniques, try "Circuitbuilding Do-It-Yourself For Dummies". To build up your junk box and learn how stuff goes together, go down to the local thrift store and buy some junk electronic device, then tear it apart. You'll get lots of connectors, parts, hardware, and know-how for pennies. In the spirit of full disclosure, I am a long-time ARRL member and licensed ham that learned a great deal of electronics through ARRL publications and by building my own gear and accessories.
It's a little pricey at $34.99, but worth it. You will need some basic understanding of electronics before you can do anything useful. Good luck.
I'd have to say the best practical learning experience comes from having something you want to do that you don't know HOW to do. :D
There were projects I wanted to undertake, ideas I wanted to try...but I had almost no idea what I was doing.
I'll be the first to admit that despite being a pretty smart guy, saying I'm 'high school educated' is a stretch; I swear, they'd graduate rocks around here if one were to enroll. I knew hardly anything about electronics, aside from growing up around tinkering in-general and thus knowing which end of a soldering iron to hold.
Ignorance has never been something to stop me though, so I set about looking into what I needed to know to do the things I wanted to do. (After all, half of being smart is knowing what you're stupid at, the other half is rectifying it.)
I found, what has to be, one of the single greatest places to start: Adafruit. I adore LadyAda, she's awesome. :) I bought a Digg Button kit, a USBTinyISP kit (AVR microcontroller programmer), an Arduino, an Arduino motor control shield kit, and an Arduino protoshield kit. The kits got my soldering skills back up to spec, and the Arduino was really a marvel. You can learn so much just screwing around with one. It's like 'Embedded Systems LITE' because it uses an easy-to-understand language that is structured in an intuitive way and actually helps you understand some of the more basic stuff going on. You can use it to do just about anything. One of my favorite early projects, was using a 'navigation switch' (Up, down, and push to select) to act as a 'color mixer' for an RGB LED. Turning the (PWM-controlled) brightness up and down, and using the 'select' to cycle through the R, G, and B elements.
Another great source is Sparkfun. You can find all sorts of sensors and other devices to use in your microcontroller projects ranging from useful to novel. Just interfacing an Arduino with random inputs and outputs is a great learning experience.
From there, I taught myself schematic layout and PCB design using EagleCAD. I started etching my own PCBs for prototypes using the toner transfer method.
It's been a year or two since I started down this road, and I have made progress on countless projects. I have one that I started seriously pursuing about a month ago, and I'm about ready to have a run of PCBs professionally produced. I also just built my own reflow soldering oven using a Black & Decker Infrawave and some control circuitry, so assembling the boards won't pose much of a problem despite the abundance of SMT devices present.
All in all, the opensource hardware movement is an incredible thing. Being able to see what other people have done through the original design files and code is incredibly educational, and it often gives me new ideas for things I want to do. Not to mention the fact that opensource hardware is making things more affordable. A couple weeks ago, I put down a preorder for an opensource logic analyzer, $45 assembled and shipped. That's practically nothing for a tool like that.
Having access to inexpensive Chinese PCB fabrication and methods of fast and reliable in-house assembly, means anyone can output production-quality electronic devices. Manufacturing 2.0 is here. :) (I can't wait for opensource injection-molding!)
Friend: "The NIC is misconfigured..." Me: "No prob, I'll just telnet in and fix it." *Silence*
Take two of these and call me in the morning. Really, great articles, great schematics, PCBs if you so desire. Excellent resource.
Get one of the 100-in-one style kits from Rat Shack. If you actually read the book and go through each project and understand them, you'll have a pretty good grasp of the basics.
-- I am. Therefore, I think!
I am an electrical and computer engineering technologist and an electronics hobbyist and have read many electronics text books and hobby books. By far my favourite is the freely available NEETS - Navy Electrical and Electronic Training Series http://artikel-software.com/blog/2006/10/11/neets-navy-electrical-and-electronics-training-series/ These 24 well written modules cover an immense amount of material and take you from the most basic concepts of matter and energy through basic electronics to solid state electronics, operational amplifiers, filters, power supplies, oscillators, schematic reading, motors, wireless communication, digital electronics and even into low level computing. This would be my desert island reference because it really would be the only thing you would need even if you had never even heard of electronics. And they are free! Can't go wrong.
Kite on a wire
Loading a battery with a lump of C4
Third rail urinal
Know your pads. One time pad: good for cryptography. Two timing pad: where to take your mistress.
I learned electronics starting as a young kid when i obtained one of those "150-in-1" (or 100-in-one or 200-in-1) kits with an assortment of components on a board with spring connectors, to which you run wires according to directions in the manual. The one i had (probably Radio Shack) had cartoon characters of electron characters that explained the theory behind the circuitry you were wiring up. No need to solder, no need to dig through parts bins, but great for learning the theory behind a variety of circuit types (alarms, radios, high voltage generators, etc.).
There are tons of these type kits out there - as well as kits to build individual devices (also great learning experiences, and you wind up with a useful piece of equipment) - check the links at http://www.lutins.org/lists/electronics.html If you *are* thinking of building a single-device kit, i highly recommend the Midnight Science Ultra-RX1, an ultrasonic listening device available from http://www.midnightscience.com/ultra-kits.html. The kit is built in three sections, with instructions on how to do some troubleshooting-type testing after each section. When you're done, you'll have a device that allows you to listen in on ultrasonic emanations (bugs, bats, etc.) - mine works *way* better than i ever expected!
I am not a number - I am a free man!
Getting a lot of fun components can start to add up, so some great ways to save money are: 1. Shop around for a while online- some sites will sell the same thing for vastly different prices. 2. If you can locate a source of old or broken electronics, JUMP ON IT. While most of the stuff on old boards is yucky or obsolete, you can still find some really neat stuff like nixie tubes. On more recently discarded boards you'll find plenty of perfectly good components, all for free. I've made plenty of circuts entirely out of things I've ripped off of other boards. The other great thing about discarded boards is that you can learn from them- try to figure out what it was supposed to do, and then try to figure out what the purpose of each component was. It'll take some googleing and patience, but its a great way to learn if you aren't taking any classes. 3. Find people in your community who know something about what you want to do (in real life, not just slashdot) and talk to them a lot. Nothing beats learning from a pro, but learning from a fellow amateur is certainly good too. Although this doesn't really fall under the category of saving money, The Inventor's Guide To Electronics is an amazing book- it's everything you would ever want to know about components, how to chose them, circuits... well... electronics in general. You know.
I see you've met him. Wait, did I introduce you to him, or did you introduce him to me? I'm trying to figure out whether to feel ashamed or supercilious.
Get the ARRL Handbook. Full of tutorial and information about radio electronics. It's a big giant fat book of lovliness
skipping basic theory would be like trying to build a house starting with the roof. By getting a good understanding of the basic building blocks (in which all devices are built upon) you'll be able to understand any electronic
If you're in the UK, buy Maplin kits which consists of all the components you need to build the project you buy
A caveman dreams of being us, the incalculable power and riches. We dream of being Q, then what?
I would also recommend becoming a fan of Make Magazine on Facebook.
That won't happen. I have not signed up for Facebook, Myspace, Tweeter, or any other social networking site in years. I haven't even signed up with Google for gmail or anything else. If I ever sign up for one it will probably be Google's Orkut.
Falcon
Should there be a Law?
You can download the Navy's Electric and Electronic Training Series (NEETS) modules (booklets) for free. They're a bit dated, with an emphasis on radio and radar, but they cover everything from electrical theory to DC to solid state (including logic gates, oscillators, and counters, which are integral to the function of CPUs), and it's all pretty well explained. Nothing really beats having an instructor's brain to pick, but I'd recommend these books highly for the cost/value provided.
http://www.rarmy.com/coleman/neets/
https://www.eff.org/https-everywhere
If you want to be an EE rather than a hobbyist... I'd recommend buying a plane ticket and going to college in the UK. They still have true 'electronic engineering' and 'communications enginering' degrees there where you can do microwave circuit design at undergraduate level rather than the more common generalist Electrical engineering programs in the US. They dont mess around so you'll be writing code and building circuits from the first semester.
If you just want to be a hobbyist... just get into ham radio and start building lots of kits.. theres no other way to learn how to solder.
Bottom line is you'll need to use your own initiative.
Full-on MIPS core makes an excellent C target as we well as asm.
Many free or low cost tools.
Dev boards available for as little as $35.
Plenty of code space, RAM, and performance.
Good judgement comes from experience, and experience comes from bad judgement.
- W. Wriston, former Citibank CEO