Getting Started in Electronics!

[KarlosVandango]

I don't really post too much on this forum, but I'm a little overwhelmed by the recent news that my eldest has decided to get into electronics!! I've never tried to steer him into it, he just has "the nack"..  Now he has announced that he wants to become an EE! So I wanted to "share the joy"

So what's a guy to do? It's his 13th birthday, so I buy him:

18W Antex solder iron and station
Various precision tools ranging from side cutters to flush mount cutters, long nose pliers... And a tool box to put them in.
An adjustable power suppply 3V to 12V
Arduino Uno and starter kit
Solder sucker
Heat resistant A3 size cutting mat
And a heap of quality components: 555 timers, 741 Op-Amp, 4000 series chips, 78xx and 79xx Series regulators, resistors, capacitors, veroboard, breadboard, switches... LEDs...

All my Tandy "Forrest M. Mims" mini notepad books and my favourite 555 Timer book by E.A Parr (that was hard for me to let go!)

A decent multimeter, not quite a Fluke but he isn't going to be measuring mains voltages YET...

And he was shocked! He had no idea he needed ALL this kit... And on the day he was given the kit he made his FIRST 555 timer circuit from the 555 notebook... And it didn't work! Great! I can show him how to fault find... He suffered a bit of parallax vision and placed a component in the wrong place and was constantly pulling one of the pins of the 555 to ground instead of where it should have been going! 

Here he is testing his work:



So that makes things SO MUCH EASIER NOW for birthdays and Christmas... ELECTRONICS!!!!   

Is it too early to give him my old oscilloscope?  Are digital 'scopes a prerequisite now? My brother who is also full time EE thinks I went a little "too comprehensive" with the components... I think he wanted it for himself!

Bye for now

Regards,

Karl

[rstofer]

Congratulations!  Your son has the knack



I have trying for 17 years to get my grandson interested in electronics or computer science.  Now that he's starting college, he finally shows some interest.  Now he wants to become a EE (CS as a fallback).  So, I bought him some tools, some kits, a soldering station.  Well, you know the story!  If he gets far enough, he can have my DS1054Z or I can just buy him another.  At this point in my life, I can afford to finance his education.  I just hope he keeps it up!

[lapm]

If you buy him scope, teach him how to use it properly and safely... 

[rstofer]

If you buy him scope, teach him how to use it properly and safely... 

Why?  My parents bought me the parts to build a scope from scratch using the plans in the ARRL Handbook (somewhere around '56 or so).  High voltage supply and all!  I'm still here...  In fact, some of the Heathkits they bought me were based on vacuum tubes.

Seriously, training is everything.  We have been chasing circuits and replacing outdoor receptacles, electrical stuff like that.  I bought him a circuit tracer and a voltage tester which he used successfully for changing an outlet at his parent's house.  Good for him!

The next discussion will be Lock Out / Tag Out.

One of the things I will recommend is that he just steer clear of high voltages.  Most of the fun stuff is happening with Op Amps and 3.3V logic.  Leave the PSU stuff to others!

[KarlosVandango]

lapm: I'm not sure what you mean by safely? But thanks anyway for the concern, much appreciated

rstofer: I'll keep him away from anything higher than 12v for now... But he needs to learn the basics first before the fun of oscilloscopes... Where do I start? I was thinking about BRIEFLY explaining what an electron is, conventional and unconventional current flow... All in small bite sizes, what a resistor is, what a capacitor is, then diodes, then transistors...

No mains voltages yet! That's another discussion...

Heath kits were the best when I started, followed by Maplin kits... They were good back in the day.. Not any longer!

Regards,

Karl

[rstofer]

lapm: I'm not sure what you mean by safely? But thanks anyway for the concern, much appreciated

rstofer: I'll keep him away from anything higher than 12v for now... But he needs to learn the basics first before the fun of oscilloscopes... Where do I start? I was thinking about BRIEFLY explaining what an electron is, conventional and unconventional current flow... All in small bite sizes, what a resistor is, what a capacitor is, then diodes, then transistors...

No mains voltages yet! That's another discussion...

Heath kits were the best when I started, followed by Maplin kits... They were good back in the day.. Not any longer!

Regards,

Karl

From the point of view of electronics, by all means, 12V is high enough.  Even then, it needs to be limited in energy.  Car batteries can put out way too much current.  But part of what I want to teach my grandson is 'electrical' and, by definition, it is involved with 'mains'.  What I want more than anything else is to teach him how to identify the circuits, turn them off and lock them off.  Around here, the process is known as LOTO - Lock Out, Tag Out.  Don't do anything hot!  Ever!  And don't trust that someone won't come along and turn the circuit back on while you are working on it.  Lock it!

Small steps are best.  But more than anything, I want to provide a good role model.  I try not to do anything myself that I don't want him to learn by bad example.

[luxfx]

Congratulations!  Your son has the knack

My favorite Dilbert reference ever

Good for your son Karl! It's exciting when kids start getting real directed passions, EE or something else! My eldest has shown some interested in photography (another one of my hobbies) so I've done some similar gift giving lately. I'm still waiting to see a spark (ANY SPARK PLEASE) from the next two    that's not playing video games or watching Disney channel afternoon shows.   

[ZeTeX]

No! Make him build a power supply!!
also I highly recommend a calipers, even cheap one will work - great thing!
and perfboards! lots of them!

[MK14]

I don't really post too much on this forum, but I'm a little overwhelmed by the recent news that my eldest has decided to get into electronics!! I've never tried to steer him into it, he just has "the nack"..  Now he has announced that he wants to become an EE! So I wanted to "share the joy"

So what's a guy to do? It's his 13th birthday, so I buy him:

18W Antex solder iron and station
Various precision tools ranging from side cutters to flush mount cutters, long nose pliers... And a tool box to put them in.
An adjustable power suppply 3V to 12V
Arduino Uno and starter kit
Solder sucker
Heat resistant A3 size cutting mat
And a heap of quality components: 555 timers, 741 Op-Amp, 4000 series chips, 78xx and 79xx Series regulators, resistors, capacitors, veroboard, breadboard, switches... LEDs...

All my Tandy "Forrest M. Mims" mini notepad books and my favourite 555 Timer book by E.A Parr (that was hard for me to let go!)

A decent multimeter, not quite a Fluke but he isn't going to be measuring mains voltages YET...

And he was shocked! He had no idea he needed ALL this kit... And on the day he was given the kit he made his FIRST 555 timer circuit from the 555 notebook... And it didn't work! Great! I can show him how to fault find... He suffered a bit of parallax vision and placed a component in the wrong place and was constantly pulling one of the pins of the 555 to ground instead of where it should have been going! 

Here he is testing his work:



So that makes things SO MUCH EASIER NOW for birthdays and Christmas... ELECTRONICS!!!!   

Is it too early to give him my old oscilloscope?  Are digital 'scopes a prerequisite now? My brother who is also full time EE thinks I went a little "too comprehensive" with the components... I think he wanted it for himself!

Bye for now

Regards,

Karl

One comment about the video.

If you hold the phone (at 90 degrees different to where you just had it) horizontally, rather than vertically, the video will look much nicer, and will fill the screen, when we watch it.

Anyway, congratulations, on getting another electronics hobbyist up and running.

[jewelie]

18W Antex solder iron and station
...

Is it too early to give him my old oscilloscope?  Are digital 'scopes a prerequisite now? My brother who is also full time EE thinks I went a little "too comprehensive" with the components... I think he wanted it for himself!

At 45 I've just got my first analogue CRO - it's about as old as I am.    I didn't get to be an EE (although ironically I've got the degree) but have just come back to playing with it all and my GOODNESS how much easier it is now - to get parts, to get information, and to get old CROs.

In honesty, I bet he'll still be using that equipment in 20+ years time if it still works.  My Antex 25W and 12W irons are at least that old.  Once you've got the bug you still at least do basic repairs, make basic leads etc.

I'm loving the CRO.  It's actually turning out to be so useful, repeatedly so, just to verify/check/understand/learn things.  It's a great help to learning to be able to see (as well as hear ) what you think is happening in a circuit.  I've only had it about a week too.    If he can learn to visualise things with a scope, I suspect he'll probably appreciate it actually.  There's something very pretty about a perfect, real, analogue line, without aliasing, on an old fashioned screen; very sci-fi, very retro. 

Congratulations to the both of you! 

Regards
Julie
x

[Chris Mr]

I can thoroughly recommend a box to put everything in.

One of the issues with any hobby / activity is accessibility.  If you have something like a joiner's toolbox, with a fold down front lid where you can work on that surface it means it's dead easy to put things away / get them out again - which in the long run means there is a higher chance they will be used; and it also means the table you are working on doesn't get damaged   You can even have an IEC socket on the side so everything inside gets powered up with one cable.

I used to do quite a bit of freelance work, moving all over the place, and this was a great asset in hotel rooms / on site and so on.

[tggzzz]

Is it too early to give him my old oscilloscope?  Are digital 'scopes a prerequisite now? My brother who is also full time EE thinks I went a little "too comprehensive" with the components... I think he wanted it for himself!

A key thing with any learner is not to overwhelm them with too much information and too many opportunities - lest the "TL;DR" syndrome kicks in. Of course "too much" depends on the learner and varies with time, so no generalisations are possible.

Old analogue scopes have a very significant advantage for beginners: they are simple and all controls are visible on the front panel.

A few simple tools have one subtle advantage: they encourage mastery of the tool and imaginative use, and careful step-by-step design mentality. Example: it is possible to build an arduino-class computer from scratch using no more than a multimeter, some switches and some LEDs.

[onesixright]

Is it too early to give him my old oscilloscope?

A nice vintage TEK? :-)