Starting to work with electronics -- suggestions?

Hi.

From what I have seen of most kits, there is little to learn from them apart from assembly skills, a little of that.

It would help if you were to say whether you are interested in learning how circuits work or just like to build things and see them work. Are you mathematically inclined? Do you like to solve puzzles requiring formal logic?

The ARRL (which was once the Amateur Radio Relay League) has long catered to people with both of those interests. They offer a number of publications intended to educate and provide ready-designed projects. I can vouch for the value of their early editions of the ARRL Handbook, but have not studied what they publish now, listed at:

If your interest is in electronics engineering, I would suggest you visit a nearby college bookstore and peruse the texts that are provided for the EE courses. (That would be the nearest college with an EE curriculum.) You may well find something suited to your interests and background, or you may discover that theory is not that interesting.

I've known several people who got into electronics only as a hobby and have gotten plenty of enjoyment from it.

You might have fun with a small microprocessor board and hooking small circuits of your own devising to it, once you get enough of the basics to get started.

Have fun!

Electronics is something like learning a new language (a very literal one with lots of logic and math). I would start by learning a basic list of what are effectively the nouns and verbs. The nouns being the discrete components and the verbs being how they act. Along this quest you will run into lots of simple (and some not so simple) math that describes these actions better than words do.

A starting place is probably Google with key words like [basic electronics tutorial].

Horowitz and Hill's Art of Electronics may not be the first thing you should study, but it is the second or third book you should have when you get beyond nouns and verbs into phrases and paragraphs.

You can also play with circuits without letting any smoke out by downloading the free circuit simulator from Linear technology LTSpice/SwitcherCAD III:

Hi,

Equip yourself with the basic tools of the trade such as some hand tools, a soldering iron, a $5 to $10 DVM, a proto-board, a power supply and lots of small components (you can get bags of these for a song). There is no need to shell out much for any of this if you are prepared to shop around or scrounge. Subscribe to a magazine such as "Nuts and Volts" that has plenty of small projects to get your teeth into as well as articles of general electronic interest. Analyse every circuit you build so that you understand why the author did it that way. If you can't, go find a book that will explain it to you. Build up your library with theory and data books (eBay is a good source) or visit your local library and browse. Always go the el-cheapo second-hand route as new books are expensive. Use "ugly" or "dead bug" construction on scraps of PCB for you projects until you get them working and then tidy 'em up. But, as the cover of Jim William's book, "The Art and Science of Analog Circuit Design" shows, this can be an art form. And finally (excuse the homily), there is no "Royal Road" but enthusiasm will take you a long way down the one there is. Cheers - Joe A has-been communications engineer Although still in possession of the tee shirt :-)

Check the available facilities in your area, the Community Colleges, Professional Development Facilities, Etc. Also there is a plethora of very good contact leads via web searches. Personally it may be better for you to consider Electronic Engineering or advancing yourself into the field of software/hardware applications.<

You might try taking a correspondence course in electronics (even if it is just the basics). Once you understand the basics, most everything else will come pretty easily. Brian

There is a free course in electronics here:

It is the US Navy training manual in electronics, and it takes you through all the basics to advanced knowledge.

Everything has pros and cons.

Pros: You can't beat the price and I'm sure there is some very good material there.

Cons: Theory alone can get very boring. If you don't have kits with an electronics learning program (hands on experience), you lose a lot.

Brian