How did you learn about electronics?

Hi LPF,

I have this craving to learn more about electronics and I already know the basics but I would love to know more. Where and how did you learn about electronics? Would you recommend any specific books (or websites) to read? I already found books such as "The Art of Electronics" etc. on Google but I would like to find out about more titles before buying the book. Thanks for reading!

Hello,
I started electronic with easy stuff like a e-schocker, voltagemultipler and a classic Teslacoil.
After this I start with harder stuff...
The best way to learn is to make mistakes by yourself and do it the second time better.
I recommend for the start this: http://www.electronicsplanet.ch/Schaltun/ledwebli/led_wechselblinker.gif
Low voltage, cheap components...

Most of what I've learned (which isn't all that much ) I learned herein or while researching how to build and repair lasers

Peace,
dave

I am a ham radio operator and as such you will have to learn electronics and more to get your license. But there are many many resources on the Internet that can teach you. Also electronics aren't an easy task, many go to university to learn how do design circuits. It all depends in how much you want to learn.

Hi Cube777, I am a noob and don't know much, but a fellow forum member (Scumbagatheist nicer than the name sounds.) shared this site, it's free and a great resource for a beginner.

All About Circuits : Free Electric Circuits Textbooks

I started tinkering at the age of six or so under my grandfather's supervision. I built simple things on and off over my formative years as well as performed various electrical related maintenance and repairs. Lots of time at radioshack and reading old do it yourself books and articles. By my mid teens I was doing a lot of experimenting with high voltage transformers and current limited power supplies. I took a couple years off during the higher grade levels to focus on school and life. By time I hit my early 20s I could solder rather well as I was already a precision TIG welder. I was too busy with work and so a few years hiatus came. It wasn't until I had more free time about three years ago that I started to delve headlong in to electronics again. Pursuing and achieving extra class amateur radio licensing taught me an awful lot. Working on lasers gave me lots of hands on electronics experience in the basics to propel me forward to more advanced stuff. In the last two years I started focusing on tesla coiling and higher end solid state work.

Honestly I have several electronics books that were at various colleges that I bought on the cheap, but have only read The Art of Electronics so far. I find a lot of info online here and at 4HV.org, and it is a lot more readily accessible than in the books I've found.

Thanks for sharing that Sig. Sigurthr is one of the forums many geniuses There are some serious "brains" who frequent this forum although it is sometimes not obvious at first, be patient and polite to everybody Are you still into radio Norbyx?

Great thread! +1 for sure when the system allows.

I was a born-tinkerer like my father. I learned automotive mechanics as a teen and picked up the basic electronics info. Later I worked in networked radio systems (military, first-responder, corporate) and learned a bit more. Then came lasers...So, I am currently taking an online CE course to get more advanced!

Pick a project, and build it. Pick something way above your ability level, if you get stuck you can ask people. It may take you months, but you'll learn lots.
This may work for you if you're like me in that you learn more from hands on activities.

Years ago I built an RC car from scratch, the frame, the wireless communication, all the electronics ect.
The final product wasn't great, but the experience I got from that helped me get to where I am now.

Nice SBA, Thanks for sharing that class with me too. Helps a lot :beer:

~ LB

Lazerbeak I am still in radios just not as much as I would like to be, but still have all my gear.

Pick a project, and build it. Pick something way above your ability level, if you get stuck you can ask people. It may take you months, but you'll learn lots.
This may work for you if you're like me in that you learn more from hands on activities.

Years ago I built an RC car from scratch quite a few years ago, the frame, the wireless communication, all the electronics ect.
The final product wasn't great, but the experience I got from that helped me get to where I am now.

Click to expand...

That's some great advice ARG. I am a hands on person as well. I've always loved science and lasers, but was intimidated by soldering and formulas, but recently I took apart a cheapo coaxial helicopter because I wanted to stick a camera too it. I also bought a 2 for 1 $5 deal on laser pointer/flashlight/pens. Destroyed one laser, bent the lens on the other, the helicopter was constant trial and error mostly error But I did it and it flew and everything worked even though it was Ugly. Don't give up. If the "master of disaster" can do it so can you.


~ LB

Edit.
The Lasers are definitely a distraction Norbyx as I'm quickly discovering

Thanks everyone for the replies! I know I've heard about a book somewhere which teaches you electronics by physically building stuff... I'll try finding it somewhere again. And thanks Lazerbeak for that site, I'll definitely check it out :beer:

Welcome Cube

The biggest area of study is learning how components are used, what support components are needed for them, and what they do. Then all you need is ingenuity and creativity. Time and practice will do the rest.

A lot of the time the support components and scheme info is not readily available and this is one of the largest roadblocks you'll encounter. There are some great ICs out there that I'd love to use but their datasheets have no application data.

Another problem is not knowing something exists. For example I just recently learned of the 74HC4060 which is a binary ripple counter (frequency divider) with a built in RC oscillator that is easier to use than a 555 timer and has a larger freq range. I could have used this years ago for so many things!

Sigurthr said:

The biggest area of study is learning how components are used, what support components are needed for them, and what they do. Then all you need is ingenuity and creativity. Time and practice will do the rest.

Click to expand...

Thank you Sigurthr. That makes a lot of sense. I once knew a brilliant tinkerer, electronics enthusiast. He lived in an RV powered by solar cells with his parrot. Rather piratey actually He was explaining how he had his solar cells charging his bank of batteries and then those went through an inverter I think to power his computer, satellite dish (he had all the channels) toaster oven, refrigerator coffee maker (Not all at the same time, but he could be off the grid if he wanted to.) Sorry to ramble, the point was that he said that as long as you can figure out how to get two different pieces to work together, you can build just about anything. That's a very simplified version of what he said, most of it was actually over my head