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This might not be the right place to post this, but I'll give it a shot. What should I read and what exercises should I do to learn more about electronic design

This might not be the right place to post this, but I'll give it a shot. What should I read and what exercises should I do to learn more about electronic design? I'm a software developer and I have a very basic understanding of electronics (simple components, ac/dc, etc) and I have played with an arduino before, but I'd like to take a more systematic approach to learning. I'd like to work my way up to designing a headphone amplifier/equalizer, but it seems overwhelming to get started in this field.

roymurdock 9y ago
Have seen this vouched for numerous times on HN, been meaning to check it out when I get some free time: http://nand2tetris.org/ http://nand2tetris.org/ Goes up the stack from boolean logic to OS.
- montecarl 9y ago
  That sounds like a very cool course, but it doesn't seem to cover any actual hardware. It is a purely software approach to designing a computer from logic gates.
- no_protocol 9y ago
  The Elements of Computing Systems book/course doesn't really cover electronics design at all. Terms like "resistor" and "voltage" aren't covered. It just asks students to construct some basic patterns using a software package. I think the user is looking for something more like this: https://learningtheartofelectronics.com/ https://learningtheartofelectronics.com/ That's a pretty big mouthful to swallow on your own, though. There are probably more gentle approaches available.
  - roymurdock 9y ago
    Ah yeah you're both right, my bad. Didn't read carefully enough. Definitely not a course to learn basics of electronics engineering.
encore2097 9y ago
Ch. 1-6 in nand2tetris will give you the fundamentals of digital logic. If your goal is a headphone amplifier/equalizer - I would recommend "The Art of Electronics" its much bigger but covers electronic design and gives you example circuits and parts which is what you're looking for. It appears overwhelming but if you approach it with the same passion and process with which you tackled software, you'll be fine.
Z1515M8147 9y ago
I wasted so many years trying to learn electronics from books when this is one subject that cannot be mastered without practical work. If reading from books you should at the very least grab yourself a copy of LT Spice and simulate to death absolutely every circuit you read about until you understand what's going on in each one. Do not move on until you do because a firm grasp of the basics is what will take you far in this field. After you've analysed each circuit go hunting online for the devices you used in your simulation and look at their data sheets. Find out through internet research what the most important datasheet characteristics are for different types of devices in different applications (e.g. transistors), for example a MOSFET datasheet might be ten pages long but for digital applications you might only care about only 5 characteristic values on the entire datasheet and never have to look at anything else on there. If you can identify what sort of space you are working in you can cut down the time it takes you to work things out by a lot. I've found that a good way to learn electronics systematically is not to think about components but to think about requirements and applications in industry. An example in the digital domain: most things have a button on them, so start by wiring a basic momentary switch to a microcontroller and code it to count the signal and output in binary on a bank of LEDs. Now look online to try and find how you might make a latching signal in hardware from a momentary switch signal. Simulate it on LT Spice. Build this new circuit to confirm the signals. Now, wire this into the enable pin of a basic linear regulator IC and get it to latch power on/off to your bank of LEDs. Next try a switch circuit allowing you to perform a short-press latches on, long-press latches OFF function. Etc. As long as you are patient and take time to simulate and understand each signal the understanding of the components themselves should drop into place, at least in my experience.
- madengr 9y ago
  Ought to build the circuits rather than simulate.
mcshicks 9y ago
If you like arduino, check out the teensy. It has a really good audio library and lots of example projects related to Audio. Like you can probably do an equalizer in software with it. It use the Arduino IDE and library so it should be pretty straightforward. Very reasonable prices for the hardware as well. https://www.pjrc.com/teensy/td_libs_Audio.html https://www.pjrc.com/teensy/td_libs_Audio.html That will be good for getting familiar. At some point if you want to design circuits you need to learn the circuit theory and math. Too many resources to mention but if I had to pick one I'd look at something like MIT Open Courseware EE classes on circuits and "systems and signals" For books Art of Electronics is the classic.
jarmitage 9y ago
+1 for Teensy mentioned in another comment When you’re ready also check out Bela.io (disclaimer: I’m part of the team) Also biased recommendation: audio effects book by Josh Reiss and Andrew McPherson

roymurdock 9y ago

Have seen this vouched for numerous times on HN, been meaning to check it out when I get some free time: http://nand2tetris.org/ http://nand2tetris.org/ Goes up the stack from boolean logic to OS.

montecarl 9y ago
That sounds like a very cool course, but it doesn't seem to cover any actual hardware. It is a purely software approach to designing a computer from logic gates.
no_protocol 9y ago
The Elements of Computing Systems book/course doesn't really cover electronics design at all. Terms like "resistor" and "voltage" aren't covered. It just asks students to construct some basic patterns using a software package. I think the user is looking for something more like this: https://learningtheartofelectronics.com/ https://learningtheartofelectronics.com/ That's a pretty big mouthful to swallow on your own, though. There are probably more gentle approaches available.
- roymurdock 9y ago
  Ah yeah you're both right, my bad. Didn't read carefully enough. Definitely not a course to learn basics of electronics engineering.

encore2097 9y ago

Ch. 1-6 in nand2tetris will give you the fundamentals of digital logic. If your goal is a headphone amplifier/equalizer - I would recommend "The Art of Electronics" its much bigger but covers electronic design and gives you example circuits and parts which is what you're looking for. It appears overwhelming but if you approach it with the same passion and process with which you tackled software, you'll be fine.

Z1515M8147 9y ago

I wasted so many years trying to learn electronics from books when this is one subject that cannot be mastered without practical work. If reading from books you should at the very least grab yourself a copy of LT Spice and simulate to death absolutely every circuit you read about until you understand what's going on in each one. Do not move on until you do because a firm grasp of the basics is what will take you far in this field. After you've analysed each circuit go hunting online for the devices you used in your simulation and look at their data sheets. Find out through internet research what the most important datasheet characteristics are for different types of devices in different applications (e.g. transistors), for example a MOSFET datasheet might be ten pages long but for digital applications you might only care about only 5 characteristic values on the entire datasheet and never have to look at anything else on there. If you can identify what sort of space you are working in you can cut down the time it takes you to work things out by a lot. I've found that a good way to learn electronics systematically is not to think about components but to think about requirements and applications in industry. An example in the digital domain: most things have a button on them, so start by wiring a basic momentary switch to a microcontroller and code it to count the signal and output in binary on a bank of LEDs. Now look online to try and find how you might make a latching signal in hardware from a momentary switch signal. Simulate it on LT Spice. Build this new circuit to confirm the signals. Now, wire this into the enable pin of a basic linear regulator IC and get it to latch power on/off to your bank of LEDs. Next try a switch circuit allowing you to perform a short-press latches on, long-press latches OFF function. Etc. As long as you are patient and take time to simulate and understand each signal the understanding of the components themselves should drop into place, at least in my experience.

madengr 9y ago
Ought to build the circuits rather than simulate.

mcshicks 9y ago

If you like arduino, check out the teensy. It has a really good audio library and lots of example projects related to Audio. Like you can probably do an equalizer in software with it. It use the Arduino IDE and library so it should be pretty straightforward. Very reasonable prices for the hardware as well. https://www.pjrc.com/teensy/td_libs_Audio.html https://www.pjrc.com/teensy/td_libs_Audio.html That will be good for getting familiar. At some point if you want to design circuits you need to learn the circuit theory and math. Too many resources to mention but if I had to pick one I'd look at something like MIT Open Courseware EE classes on circuits and "systems and signals" For books Art of Electronics is the classic.

jarmitage 9y ago

+1 for Teensy mentioned in another comment When you’re ready also check out Bela.io (disclaimer: I’m part of the team) Also biased recommendation: audio effects book by Josh Reiss and Andrew McPherson