6 ms·

How I learned electronics [video]

166 points by zdw 5y ago

ulamia 5y ago
Excellent video. I like the ‘do’ advice. > If I had one word of wisdom on learning it’s ‘do’. Don’t wait, ok? You’ll be waiting on Godot.
- agumonkey 5y ago
  A variant of analysis paralysis
- raducu 5y ago
  I've got a dozen tronclub kits completely unopened. A 200mhz osciloscope I've only used to test the onboard signal generator. A decent electronic microscope. Solder paste in my fridge, never opened. A broken cheap chinese airgun that I was going to repair (I'm pretty sure it's just a capacitor blown out, but I couldn't find the correct value for it). I'm the opposite of just "do", I research so much ahead of the "do" and the gap gets so big that it just feels incredibly hard to backtrack to where I last actually "did". It's like I eat dessert before the main course and just like my grandma said, I won't eat the main course because I ate the dessert.
  - JKCalhoun 5y ago
    I know the feeling. And yet. When I was young and poor, a friend lent me his 4-track recorder for just one weekend and I knocked out 5 or 6 songs to make for one side of a cassette tape. I think being resource-poor made me creative-rich. Now, not so much.
- Pilottwave 5y ago
  I understood this to be a game dev procrastinating joke, you'll be waiting for the Godot engine to be mature forever, instead just start making the game. It turns out that Waiting for Godot is a play by Samuel Beckett in which two characters engage in a variety of discussions and encounters while awaiting the titular Godot, who never arrives..
  - shannongreen 5y ago
    It's not your fault you didn't know this, but it does say something about the breadth of education we receive
    - rjsw 5y ago
      It is a classic play, the kind that local theatres regularly stage, I went to see it as a teenager but not through school.
sixothree 5y ago
New channel to follow! Thanks for the share. I'm a software guy. But I had enough brushes with electronics as a child to use it for hobbies. My first broken device was a speak and spell. I connected wires to random spots to make it "talk funny". My parents first astonished that I was destroying my toys, realized this and pushed me to the electronics section of Radio Shack. Lots of projects starting with the 555 timer IC. I made radios and timers, and connected my computers to things that moved. This microcontroller revolution really has made me wish I had these things growing up. One important thing though is I had a friend who was at a similar level as myself for grades 5-7. Though he was literally a ham in grade school. We both learned programming around the same time and the back and forth made it seem so much easier than it really was. And we were so much better at recognizing what was going to be useful, popular, powerful when we worked together as compared to working under instruction. I lost him to a move. And I needed that so much in higher grades. One good industry-centered mentor would have given me so much. But I guess self-motivation is the skill that got me where I am; and I create incredible things on a daily basis. So there's that I guess.
int3rlop3r 5y ago
Another awesome youtube channel (Ben Eater) - https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCS0N5baNlQWJCUrhCEo8WlA https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCS0N5baNlQWJCUrhCEo8WlA
- sho_hn 5y ago
  Seconded! Also quite a lot of fun is Electronoobs - not quite Ben Eater's rigorous approach or info density, but for sure a lot of enthusiastically shared "doing" and inspiration at the beginner level (and analog projects Ben Eater doesn't cover, as he tends to focus on digital logic and signal transmission topics).
- OJFord 5y ago
  Another one (relative newcomer but some great stuff, some a bit samey at the moment, but think he'll go far) - Phil's Lab.
- asar 5y ago
  My favorite is TPAI https://www.youtube.com/c/ThePostApocalypticInventor https://www.youtube.com/c/ThePostApocalypticInventor He has a very interesting series of videos on repairing a wide variety of things he buys from scrapyards in Germany.
k_sze 5y ago
How do you learn electronics when you don’t have access to a lab? I live in HK, where real estate is at a premium. I’m a family of 4 people, living in a 700 sq-ft home with no garage. (And I’m reckoned to be on the fortunate side of things.) There is no way I can set up a home lab here. I know there are circuit simulators, but simulators are not the real thing. I think that simulators (the free ones that I know of anyway) typically don’t simulate random defects and physical variances that you would have to debug and deal with on the real thing. There are also tangential, and nonetheless practical things that you cannot learn from a simulator: e.g. how to arrange your lab so you can work efficiently and with as few accidents as possible; how to make a good solder.
- hemreldop 5y ago
- EEBio 5y ago
  I would look for some local hackerspaces. They usually come with a space for electronics, and at least where I live (tho space is not so premium here), you get a key to access the space whenever, if you are a member. Alternatively, you might have some luck contacting a local university, they might be open to let you use their lab (again, probably for a fee).
- clktmr 5y ago
  You can start with a breadboard, oscilloscope and a set of standard parts (LEDs, resistors, capacitors, inductors, diodes). Combine this with a microcontroller you can flash via USB dongle or an RaspberryPi. Should all fit on a desk. The lab is really only necessary for soldering and creating custom PCBs.
  - dom96 5y ago
    You don't even need a lab for this. You can solder fine on a computer desk and create custom PCBs using software, then send it off to a company to etch it for you.
    - 5y ago
stormdennis 5y ago
this story led me down the rabbit hole to this corner of the internet, must be one of the original of the species: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XaXt2quMCoA https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XaXt2quMCoA
c16 5y ago
How I learnt electronics: Big Clive.
alksdeef 5y ago
I've been slowly teaching myself electronics for the last three years. Started by building electronics kits and gradually over time you start to see similarities between the circuits and questions arise.. Why are there small value capacitors near all the power inputs on the various chips? Why do many of the inputs and outputs have the similar value resistors right near them? What are these diodes doing, going from ground towards the power output? Curiosity leads to understanding, leads to pattern recognition, leads to greater understanding, and so on.. Now I'm building my own circuits from scratch and routing custom boards in KiCad and it just seems like second nature almost. There are still SO many mysteries and so much more to learn, but once you begin to understand the basics that knowledge allows the next step and so on.. I think all you really need to get started is a soldering iron (get one with adjustable temperature, I love my Hakko but started with a cheaper one), decent multimeter (The UT61E is really great and cheap) and some leaded solder (just don't eat it).. There are cheap digital handh-held scopes these days too and you don't HAVE to have a scope right away. Components are cheap (check tayda electronics) and it's endlessly fun, especially for those with a side gig working on the computer all the time. I find having something 'real' I can tinker with a great hobby and don't see myself ever stopping at this point.
everyone 5y ago
I recently got this to get me started learning electronics... https://store.arduino.cc/collections/kits/products/arduino-starter-kit-multi-language https://store.arduino.cc/collections/kits/products/arduino-s... One of the best things I've ever bought.
tyingq 5y ago
If you do well with learning by reading, the US Navy's NEETS modules are well done: http://www.compatt.com/Tutorials/NEETS/NEETS.html http://www.compatt.com/Tutorials/NEETS/NEETS.html
gswdh 5y ago
jp0d 5y ago
Perfect timing. Thanks for posting this. I recently bought a Microbit V2 and Raspberry Pi Pico with a few sensors and a breadboard. Excited to play with these. Thanks to everyone who've suggested informative sources as well. Cheers.
showerst 5y ago
If you're interested in starting electronics, I recommend getting one of the elegoo ardiuno kits off of amazon. They're a surprisingly good hands on way to learn a bunch of basic theory and how to use common parts and sensors.
englebert 5y ago
It seems like this would be really cool gamified. Such a thing must exist, if so I’d play, if not, I’d wonder why.

166 points by zdw 5y ago

Excellent video. I like the ‘do’ advice. > If I had one word of wisdom on learning it’s ‘do’. Don’t wait, ok? You’ll be waiting on Godot.

agumonkey 5y ago
A variant of analysis paralysis
raducu 5y ago
I've got a dozen tronclub kits completely unopened. A 200mhz osciloscope I've only used to test the onboard signal generator. A decent electronic microscope. Solder paste in my fridge, never opened. A broken cheap chinese airgun that I was going to repair (I'm pretty sure it's just a capacitor blown out, but I couldn't find the correct value for it). I'm the opposite of just "do", I research so much ahead of the "do" and the gap gets so big that it just feels incredibly hard to backtrack to where I last actually "did". It's like I eat dessert before the main course and just like my grandma said, I won't eat the main course because I ate the dessert.
- JKCalhoun 5y ago
  I know the feeling. And yet. When I was young and poor, a friend lent me his 4-track recorder for just one weekend and I knocked out 5 or 6 songs to make for one side of a cassette tape. I think being resource-poor made me creative-rich. Now, not so much.
Pilottwave 5y ago
I understood this to be a game dev procrastinating joke, you'll be waiting for the Godot engine to be mature forever, instead just start making the game. It turns out that Waiting for Godot is a play by Samuel Beckett in which two characters engage in a variety of discussions and encounters while awaiting the titular Godot, who never arrives..
- shannongreen 5y ago
  It's not your fault you didn't know this, but it does say something about the breadth of education we receive
  - rjsw 5y ago
    It is a classic play, the kind that local theatres regularly stage, I went to see it as a teenager but not through school.

sixothree 5y ago

New channel to follow! Thanks for the share. I'm a software guy. But I had enough brushes with electronics as a child to use it for hobbies. My first broken device was a speak and spell. I connected wires to random spots to make it "talk funny". My parents first astonished that I was destroying my toys, realized this and pushed me to the electronics section of Radio Shack. Lots of projects starting with the 555 timer IC. I made radios and timers, and connected my computers to things that moved. This microcontroller revolution really has made me wish I had these things growing up. One important thing though is I had a friend who was at a similar level as myself for grades 5-7. Though he was literally a ham in grade school. We both learned programming around the same time and the back and forth made it seem so much easier than it really was. And we were so much better at recognizing what was going to be useful, popular, powerful when we worked together as compared to working under instruction. I lost him to a move. And I needed that so much in higher grades. One good industry-centered mentor would have given me so much. But I guess self-motivation is the skill that got me where I am; and I create incredible things on a daily basis. So there's that I guess.

int3rlop3r 5y ago

Another awesome youtube channel (Ben Eater) - https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCS0N5baNlQWJCUrhCEo8WlA https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCS0N5baNlQWJCUrhCEo8WlA

sho_hn 5y ago
Seconded! Also quite a lot of fun is Electronoobs - not quite Ben Eater's rigorous approach or info density, but for sure a lot of enthusiastically shared "doing" and inspiration at the beginner level (and analog projects Ben Eater doesn't cover, as he tends to focus on digital logic and signal transmission topics).
OJFord 5y ago
Another one (relative newcomer but some great stuff, some a bit samey at the moment, but think he'll go far) - Phil's Lab.
asar 5y ago
My favorite is TPAI https://www.youtube.com/c/ThePostApocalypticInventor https://www.youtube.com/c/ThePostApocalypticInventor He has a very interesting series of videos on repairing a wide variety of things he buys from scrapyards in Germany.

k_sze 5y ago

How do you learn electronics when you don’t have access to a lab? I live in HK, where real estate is at a premium. I’m a family of 4 people, living in a 700 sq-ft home with no garage. (And I’m reckoned to be on the fortunate side of things.) There is no way I can set up a home lab here. I know there are circuit simulators, but simulators are not the real thing. I think that simulators (the free ones that I know of anyway) typically don’t simulate random defects and physical variances that you would have to debug and deal with on the real thing. There are also tangential, and nonetheless practical things that you cannot learn from a simulator: e.g. how to arrange your lab so you can work efficiently and with as few accidents as possible; how to make a good solder.

hemreldop 5y ago
EEBio 5y ago
I would look for some local hackerspaces. They usually come with a space for electronics, and at least where I live (tho space is not so premium here), you get a key to access the space whenever, if you are a member. Alternatively, you might have some luck contacting a local university, they might be open to let you use their lab (again, probably for a fee).
clktmr 5y ago
You can start with a breadboard, oscilloscope and a set of standard parts (LEDs, resistors, capacitors, inductors, diodes). Combine this with a microcontroller you can flash via USB dongle or an RaspberryPi. Should all fit on a desk. The lab is really only necessary for soldering and creating custom PCBs.
- dom96 5y ago
  You don't even need a lab for this. You can solder fine on a computer desk and create custom PCBs using software, then send it off to a company to etch it for you.
  - 5y ago

stormdennis 5y ago

this story led me down the rabbit hole to this corner of the internet, must be one of the original of the species: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XaXt2quMCoA https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XaXt2quMCoA

c16 5y ago

How I learnt electronics: Big Clive.

alksdeef 5y ago

I've been slowly teaching myself electronics for the last three years. Started by building electronics kits and gradually over time you start to see similarities between the circuits and questions arise.. Why are there small value capacitors near all the power inputs on the various chips? Why do many of the inputs and outputs have the similar value resistors right near them? What are these diodes doing, going from ground towards the power output? Curiosity leads to understanding, leads to pattern recognition, leads to greater understanding, and so on.. Now I'm building my own circuits from scratch and routing custom boards in KiCad and it just seems like second nature almost. There are still SO many mysteries and so much more to learn, but once you begin to understand the basics that knowledge allows the next step and so on.. I think all you really need to get started is a soldering iron (get one with adjustable temperature, I love my Hakko but started with a cheaper one), decent multimeter (The UT61E is really great and cheap) and some leaded solder (just don't eat it).. There are cheap digital handh-held scopes these days too and you don't HAVE to have a scope right away. Components are cheap (check tayda electronics) and it's endlessly fun, especially for those with a side gig working on the computer all the time. I find having something 'real' I can tinker with a great hobby and don't see myself ever stopping at this point.

everyone 5y ago

I recently got this to get me started learning electronics... https://store.arduino.cc/collections/kits/products/arduino-starter-kit-multi-language https://store.arduino.cc/collections/kits/products/arduino-s... One of the best things I've ever bought.

tyingq 5y ago

If you do well with learning by reading, the US Navy's NEETS modules are well done: http://www.compatt.com/Tutorials/NEETS/NEETS.html http://www.compatt.com/Tutorials/NEETS/NEETS.html

gswdh 5y ago

jp0d 5y ago

Perfect timing. Thanks for posting this. I recently bought a Microbit V2 and Raspberry Pi Pico with a few sensors and a breadboard. Excited to play with these. Thanks to everyone who've suggested informative sources as well. Cheers.

showerst 5y ago

If you're interested in starting electronics, I recommend getting one of the elegoo ardiuno kits off of amazon. They're a surprisingly good hands on way to learn a bunch of basic theory and how to use common parts and sensors.

englebert 5y ago

It seems like this would be really cool gamified. Such a thing must exist, if so I’d play, if not, I’d wonder why.