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Studying electronics HELP

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A friend of mine wants to learn electronics
He has made a 3 months course and already knows some basics
Any good books for him or video tutorials, articles would be greatly appreciated
 

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On what level, and how serious is he? Howstuffworks.com have some basic stuff on lots of topics.
 
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He studied very basic stuff I guess
He knows nothing more outside the introductory course
 
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Anyone knows anything?
Bumppp
 

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What kind of electronics? The mechanics, soldering, or transmission, etc?
 
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Everthing as long as it means to learn in order to make something work
 

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Everthing as long as it means to learn in order to make something work

That is still too broad a topic. I can try to dig up some notes on signalling, but that is all fourier transforms and SNTs, with bits of other stuff to make it work. Wouldn't help you do make anything work at all.
 
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I mean, we have done electronics at school with a lot of formulas
I don't know if that is the basics of electronics and without them you can't do anything?
We have seen a lot of electronic projects on youtube, but you just learn the project
He just needs where to go from now on so the real question would be where to go
after you have made some soldering, learned some formulas and stuff like that
 
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Depends on what your friend wants to make or do.

I do a lot of motorcycle looms, Generally that's fault finding, with a touch of soldering. It's less electronics and more checking for continuity, and following a wiring diagram.

On the flip side I also do a lot of small simple device making. Recently this has been making TrackIR style hats for flight sims. Again it's just a case of soldering and making sure you have the correct continuity.


For real electronics where your making more complicated circuits you run into all sorts of problems. I don't program so a lot of programmable circuits are off the cards for me, also if you go this route then whatever you make will be much larger than any retail solution. Since at home the best PCB's you can make are only single layer, and you have a lot of restrictions when it comes to actually etching those circuits.

The trouble with electronics in general is the size of the field. You have several area's to look at and general electronics only covers the most basic elements.


The few items you need as an electrician doing soldering and fault finding are.

A good multi meter.
A good soldering station, with high wattage 40W+ and changeable tips.
A good selection of solder.
Lead free, 60/40, and the most important one 63/37 eutectic.
De soldering braid.
A good flux.
Heatshrink.
A selection of spare resistors, caps, and LED's.
Access to a local store that sells components.



With those items and places at hand you can tackle most simple soldering jobs. Provided your fault finding is good.
 

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I mean, we have done electronics at school with a lot of formulas
I don't know if that is the basics of electronics and without them you can't do anything?
We have seen a lot of electronic projects on youtube, but you just learn the project
He just needs where to go from now on so the real question would be where to go
after you have made some soldering, learned some formulas and stuff like that

What Iceni says basicly. You want to toy around with digital electronics, learn boolean algebra and either get som 74-logic or learn how to program (C or Assembly). You want to do audio stuff (which is my goal), learn the concepts of sound.

A good start, I think, is to draw a circuit board. I have a small board from a cheap base amplifier that I want to draw to understand how everything works together, what component does what and so on.
 
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I mean, we have done electronics at school with a lot of formulas

You need the formulas. And you need to be able to manipulate them.

Electronics at home generally revolves around DC circuits. Voltage is the main constraint. There are only a few pre-made solutions for powering a circuit with batteries. 9v e-block batteries are by far the easiest solution to work with.

Once you know your voltage then the rest is just math. Your devices will draw current depending on their resistance, And since you know the voltage and the resistance you can tell with a few clicks of a calculator if your battery can provide the correct ampage, and for how long.

V=IR I=V/R R=V/I

P=IV

P=I (IR)

Resistance in series are added.

Resistance in parallel are added as a fraction. (not the correct term but it's how I always remember it.)

So a 5 and 10 ohm parallel resistor circuit actually has. 1/5 + 1/10 = 1/0.3 == 3.3 ohms.


There is a button on most calculators that looks like 1/x. It's the best cheat ever. When you get your answer make sure you press the 1/x button again to get the correct answer :D


Capacitors works exactly the opposite of resistors. In parallel they add directly, in series you have to do the reciprocal (1/x) to all values including the answer.



I don't know if that is the basics of electronics and without them you can't do anything?

You need math and the manual skill in varying levels. If your building complicated circuits them the manual skills needed can often force you to make compromises. It's much easier to design something impossible on paper. It also gets messy with more components in the real world. Been able to actually build what you design and understand how large something will be is one of the harder aspects of electronics. Fault finding also increases in difficulty with every component added. You have bad connections, faulty components, incorrect polarity, and shorting to worry about. And that's provided what you drew is actually going to work in the first place :D
 
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Capacitors works exactly the opposite of resistors.

No. They are the opposite of inductors.

Your friend needs electrical theory 101 to start with if he's just stepping into it.

Voltage
Current
Resistance
Ohms law (a combination of all the above)
Capacitance
Capacitive reactance
Inductors
Inductive reactance

And everything in-between, then into solid-state theory and applications.

Start HERE!!! http://www.electronicstheory.com/html/e101-1.htm
 
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No. They are the opposite of inductors.

lol that's my bad I meant mathematically when you work out values. :D



resistors in series the values add. R = R1 + R2
in parallel. 1/R = 1/R1 + 1/R2

working out caps is the opposite mathematical rule.

caps in series 1/C = 1/C1 + 1/C2
in parallel C = C1 + C2

You are correct tho the function of the 2 components is worlds apart.
 
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lol that's my bad I meant mathematically when you work out values. :D

resistors in series the values add. R = R1 + R2
in parallel. 1/R = 1/R1 + 1/R2

working out caps is the opposite mathematical rule.

caps in series 1/C = 1/C1 + 1/C2
in parallel C = C1 + C2

You are correct tho the function of the 2 components is worlds apart.

AC vs. DC is the big difference, but that's a whole 'nother topic.

Those equations are correct, and depending on how you look, you could say they're opposite. A capacitor is a battery (that temporarily stores eV energy) and a resistor slows the flow of eV energy.

Who here knows what a relaxation oscillator is?
 
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I'm going to be honest here; this topic is not useful. It's like asking what the temperature is today on Earth. Too many valid answers.

The basics of electronics are things that high school students could learn. Defining a resistor, capacitor, inductor, crystal, and IC barely gets you in the door. Also, knowing the relationship between power, amperage, voltage, and resistance is basic. Any entry level courses should teach you how to do this.

What you really want is to jump from the basics into fully formed complex projects. It's not going to happen. Before you go any further you've got to understand some very basic things. For that, you're going to want to putter around with some entry level (read: cheap and simple) hardware.

You should have:
Basic Micro-controller: ideally something like an Arduino or Basic stamp
Resistors: Boat load. You'll need various sizes to run LEDs and create tank circuits. They are cheap, so splurge and get a ton of different values. If you can't look at a resistor and tell its value then you've got some reading to do.
Capacitors: Same as resistors. The electrolytic are cheap, though I prefer ceramic for durability. You will have to worry about type later on, but for now buy what you can get your hands on.
LEDs: Your choice here. They make it very easy to figure out if you've turned something on.
Inductors: Skip these for beginners. You're unlikely to need them unless you're doing a radio project. Even then it's easy to wind your own.
Micro-switches: Get a few. The sign that you've got a good understanding of the basics is that you can disconnect the micro-controller from your computer, and have something you can interact with using only what is on it.
Breadboard: Get a ton. Failure is a part of experimentation, and having a chunk of breadboard to reiterate the circuit (without the need to solder) can save your behind.
Perfboard: Once the circuit is done and tested it is time to see if you can solder it. Perfboard is where you use all your dextermity.
Solder/Soldering Iron/Desoldering wick: You'll make mistakes. Make sure to have a good hot iron, enough solder to fit the project (and appropriately sized solder for electronics, not pipe sweating), and enough desoldering tools to cover your mistakes. Mistakes are how you learn, so don't be discouraged.

For the future: Transistors (NPN and PNP are common), Relays (for the really heavy loads), Actuators (solenoids), and Microphones/Speakers. All of these things can let your electronics project interact with us mechanical beings. They'll be hard to understand at first, but eventually you'll be adept at using them.


If you're ambitious start by making a game of Simon. If you're insane, go for pong. Those LEDs can do quite a bit, and paired with the right micro-controller the limits are your imagination and the hardware. I'd recommend Hackaday.com if you want to see some cool projects. Their archives are a great place to find some information, though some of their projects are way out of a beginners league.


EDIT:
I think a relaxation oscillator is way beyond what is being looked at here. The OP hasn't even touched the imaginary domain for tank circuits. A steady state equation is about two steps beyond that.
 
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Maybe to you?

....I wasn't choosing words carefully enough there. Electronics is not a useless topic. If you read the rest of the post you'd know that. The vague beginning, without any real basis to start from is my problem.
 
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....I wasn't choosing words carefully enough there. Electronics is not a useless topic. If you read the rest of the post you'd know that. The vague beginning, without any real basis to start from is my problem.

That is true, an electronics lesson in a forum isn't useful. However, sharing where to find it is. A few exchanges between might be confusing though needed.

It's sad, but probably true, learning basic electrical theory is likely to become obsolete in industry, but never in life.
 
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That is true, an electronics lesson in a forum isn't useful. However, sharing where to find it is. A few exchanges between might be confusing though needed.

It's sad, but probably true, learning basic electrical theory is likely to become obsolete in industry, but never in life.

Last post.

That is not what I said. A lesson in electronics is always reasonable. When you come into a thread, and start with "I know the basics" you're starting from the wrong direction. An EE who "knows the basics" knows a lot more than your average person. An ME is trained in the basics, and they might be playing in the imaginary domain. A person with no idea about how deep this rabbit hole goes, that "knows the basics," knows little.

There are three things that would help to recommend the next step. Have you ever used a complex controller (integrated circuit, or IC)? Do you have experience designing your own circuits, or have you always reproduced ones that other people designed? What components can you identify, and can you give their values?

Those three questions offer an insight into what "basic" knowledge is. Otherwise there are as many different valid reasons as there are people. Exactly none of them will address the question accurately, because we aren't speaking the same language. My basic, your basic, and their basic means that none of us is giving anything but basic generic recommendations.
 
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Thanks all for your replies!
 
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Vintage Amps

Hi,

i studied electronics in highschool many moons ago, to get back into it - i endulged in my passion for music and jumped into vintage amps repair!

maybe go on eBay, buy a broken down vintage amp for around $10-20, download the schematics and read read read!! there are a ton of forums and information online.

i've started this side hobby recently and it's been a great learning curve. that feeling when you've restored an amp back to life to hear it play sweet melodies with a touch of vintage warmth.

Good luck!
 
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