Beginning Electronics

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With the book aside, how much would some starting materials cost? Where could I pick them up? What kinds of household items could I use?

I studied electronics with a "learning lab"--it was fun [smile]

Starting materials I recommend are different resisters, transisters, capaciters, LEDs, and ICs. Best Buy or Circuit City might have them.. They dont cost much.

Ebay also contains a nice selection of electronic parts.

There is also a free electronics simulater that looks quite nice. You can check it out here

As for household items? Batteries are nice.. You can also get circuit boards and sholdering iron to create your own PCBs, when you are ready.

Hope this helps!

Also look into getting a breadboard and 5V regulated power supply (i.e. wallwart). Another book I hear is great for hobbyists is "The Art of Electronics". Whatever book you choose should have more specific suggestions for electronics supplies.

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Original post by Crypter Quote: With the book aside, how much would some starting materials cost? Where could I pick them up? What kinds of household items could I use? ... Hope this helps!

Thanks, it does. Luckily I have a CC and a BB close by. Ebay looks cost efficient (at least the cables do).

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Original post by mnansgar Also look into getting a breadboard and 5V regulated power supply (i.e. wallwart). Another book I hear is great for hobbyists is "The Art of Electronics". Whatever book you choose should have more specific suggestions for electronics supplies.

Is "The Art of Electronics" geared for complete beginners?

allaboutcircuits.com might be a good place to start for a beginner. It looks like it covers most of the basics, and it has a forum. Also, that Black Art of Video Game Console Design book mentioned in the other thread I have read. I found it pretty interesting. I'd sum it up as an intro to embedded computer design that uses a complete video game console as an example. The console is more like a classic one, think atari or nes, rather than an Xbox or Playstation.

I would say it varies greatly. Some areas are skipped pretty quickly while others are explained to the last quantumstate.

I personally don't like it and am happy that our class changed book(we changed to a danish one which i'm not sure is translated. It's very good)

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Original post by nicksterdomus allaboutcircuits.com might be a good place to start for a beginner. It looks like it covers most of the basics, and it has a forum. Also, that Black Art of Video Game Console Design book mentioned in the other thread I have read. I found it pretty interesting. I'd sum it up as an intro to embedded computer design that uses a complete video game console as an example. The console is more like a classic one, think atari or nes, rather than an Xbox or Playstation.

Looks great, for now I'll consider my two options as the book and the website.

I'm working on my BS in Electrical Engineering and I'm glad to hear that you want to get into this. Working with electronics can be very challenging but also a lot of fun. To get started here are some things I suggest:

Tools
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- A multimeter. These can be either very cheap or very expensive. Go with a cheap one from Sears or Radioshack. It doesn't have to be digital.

- Wire cutters. These aren't too expensive either. A low end pair would be enough to cut all the wire you will be using.

- Various batteries and holders. Suggest buying rechargeable ones.

- Various resistor sizes, leds ( or any other kind of flashing light ). Also possibly variable resistors, capacitors, and when you get used to these get what are called "op-amps". These allow you to do some pretty cool things. IC's (Integrated Circuits) are also good to have but you start to get into more complicated circuits with these.

Books
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I can't really recommend any learning books, but stay away from the Evil Genius series. Some of the stuff in those books are actually quite dangerous if you are not exactly sure what you are doing.
You should go to the store and try and take a look at various books on the topic. Make sure whatever you buy discusses these topics at least a little:
- Circuit diagrams. You won't be able to build anything but the most trivial
if you can't read diagrams accurately.
- Ohm's Law. This is a fundamental law that a lot of other circuit analysis
techniques derive from. These won't be important to start but Ohm's law is
important.
- Circuits to build on your own. Just like game developing, you can't really
learn it unless you do it.


In learning how current flows and how small circuits work, I suggest actually doing calculations ( Ohm's Law) for different things about the circuit, for example the current flowing through it, voltage across a resistor etc.. and actually measuring it to see if you are right. There will be some slight error but it is vital to have an intuitive understanding of these things.

Oh, HAVE FUN AND EXPERIMENT!!

Casey

Thanks for the reply caseyd! The book I linked to seems to cover ohm's law, but I'm not sure how much it covers the topic of diagrams, but it has one on the cover [grin]. It seems like more of a conceptual book thats meant to be read first. Its not too expensive, I'll give it a try.

Not exactly a book teaching electronics, but once you become comfortable with it all, I strongly suggest "Gordon McComb's Gadgeteer's Goldmine!: 55 Space-Age Projects" (ISBN: 0071559833)
It's full of awesome (but somewhat dangerous) electronics projects that include such things as creating a high voltage power supply and making one of those 'plasma globe' things.

Take a look at this recent Slashdot thread.

Well I always wanted to get into electronics so I can across this kit
and it's the most fun I've had in along time. I now know how to read the color codes on resisters,what a bi-led is and how it works and how voltage high and voltage low translates to on/off to make a microcontroller take different actions.
And I always wanted to be able to read schematics and now I'm getting a taste of it all although I'm sure I'll need more books in the future if I want all the nitty gritty details.

Understanding basic circuit analysis is essential but the problem is that you can get relatively far (or so it may seem) without having a solid grasp, but you'll run into problems sooner or later. Circuit analysis (with passive elements: resistors, capacitors, and inductors) is very mathematical and abstract and there aren't a lot of fun projects to do -- most textbooks just have problems to work out by hand and with SPICE. If you could get through most of a college-level introductory circuit analysis textbook, you'd be off to a great start.

Learning digital logic next would be the best way to go. Digital logic is extremely simple and you can do a lot with the 74-series parts.

Then, learning about analog electronics with diodes, bipolar junction transistors (BJTs), and field effect transistors (FETs) is the next step and is likely to be the most difficult. The online documentation on these topics I've run into is pretty awful.


College textbooks are great for all this stuff, especially digital logic. It would take a lot of self-discipline to work through a circuits textbook and electronics would be extremely difficult (you might as well forget about teaching an electronics course to yourself), but it would still help to have a proper textbook as a reference on how transistors and amplifier circuits work even if you don't plow through the book cover to cover. You can fill in the rest with various projects and examples online as well as experimentation and simulation.

Digital logic is something that you can and should learn from a college-level textbook. The subject is very easy to grasp and experiment with and the textbooks I've seen are all really good and suitable for beginners because the math involved is so light.

As you're posting on GameDev.net, why not concider this:

The XGameStation - Game Console Starter Kit

The book is really good and teaches all the basics of electronics. And let's you do fun stuff, for example how build a machine that has got it's own cpu that runs your program to switch ports on and off. You could do alot with that, either do stuff like game consoles, or robotics, if that's what you're after.

/MindWipe

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Original post by daviangel Well I always wanted to get into electronics so I can across this kit and it's the most fun I've had in along time. I now know how to read the color codes on resisters,what a bi-led is and how it works and how voltage high and voltage low translates to on/off to make a microcontroller take different actions. And I always wanted to be able to read schematics and now I'm getting a taste of it all although I'm sure I'll need more books in the future if I want all the nitty gritty details.

I have me one of these 500-in-1 kits.

On the plus side, it has projects all over the board, from analog to digital along with about 100 of those projects having to work with a MPU.

The down side: it's not very technical so I would recommend supplementing it with a college textbook or the like.

A REALLY big downside for ME: I lost the bag of components that came with it [crying]

I second the 500 in 1 suggestion.. (I only had the 300 in 1). Play with that untill you blow everything.. I also suggest either getting one of the mentioned texts and building a few circuits on a breadboard, or purchase a soldering kit where everything is already included. Such as a small robot or a stepper motor controller.

The best answer is do it all, get all the books, read everyone of them, buy every kit you can, you'll soon realize there are cheaper ways to get components besides radioshack (89cents for a transistor? f that) check out Jameco (they aren't as cheap as salvage places but you'll get the idea that radioshack is nothing more than overpriced batterys..

Make a flashing light, a photoresistor driven relay, a latching circuit with nothin but relays.. just jump in there man.

Keep us posted when you create something..

Haha, I hope I helped.

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Original post by honayboyz I second the 500 in 1 suggestion.. (I only had the 300 in 1). Play with that untill you blow everything.. I also suggest either getting one of the mentioned texts and building a few circuits on a breadboard, or purchase a soldering kit where everything is already included. Such as a small robot or a stepper motor controller. The best answer is do it all, get all the books, read everyone of them, buy every kit you can, you'll soon realize there are cheaper ways to get components besides radioshack (89cents for a transistor? f that) check out Jameco (they aren't as cheap as salvage places but you'll get the idea that radioshack is nothing more than overpriced batterys.. Make a flashing light, a photoresistor driven relay, a latching circuit with nothin but relays.. just jump in there man. Keep us posted when you create something..

Don't worry, I'll keep you posted. All the kits mentioned seem a bit expensive, would it cost less to buy all the seperate parts?

The good thing about the kits is that all of the parts needed for the experiments in their included book are provided. It would be cheaper to buy them individually, but it might be pretty annoying to determine what you'll need and to find the precise parts. For instance, you might need a capacitor, but when you go to the store they only have electrolytic ones and you'll wonder whether they will work instead of the ceramic one the experiment manual recommended. Or, the book may use one family of chips and your local store only carries another family. Or, you might find a part rated at 3.3V instead of the 5V recommended; or, you might accidentally buy an LED with series resistor and not realize it, etc. etc.

Basically, when it comes to components, unfortunately there is no "standard set" for learning or otherwise. So, if you want everything hassle-free, the kits are a good way to do it.

A big second for "The Art Of Electronics" here. Granted, it only covers the very very basics in one, skimmed over chapter (stuff like Ohms law, the Kirchoff ones, and so on), however you don't really need more than that IMO. After that, it really does explain things in easy-to-understand terms, and actually gives you practical advice, rather than just theoretical knowledge.

I'd also highly recommend "Electronics : Circuits and Devices". It's a fabulous book, the first chapter centred on basic circuit elements, and values, and exactly what they mean (mathematically). It then goes onto teaching you the fundementals of transistors, and eventually goes on to Op-Amps, amplifier circuits, and so on. Everything is covered in a lot of detail, and is rather mathematical (you AT LEAST need to be very comfortable with calculus). You'll also learn quite a bit of semiconductor chemistry with this book.

That's all I can think of really books wise (certainly the only two on my shelf that are suitable for beginners). One thing I have noticed though, is that there really aren't any online references that are even remotely any good, which is a shame.