Intro (Not sure if...)

[Eclipse]

Hi guys,
For starters, I'm not sure if this s the right section to write this, or if it is forum etiquette around here to do so at all, but I made an intro thread. In case you're wondering my background is as follows:

-Did very basic electronics (all of short circuits 1 and some of 2) around the age of 8-11. I'm coming on 15 now and really want to start again. It's a great hobby and being an electronic engineer is my aspired occupation. But at the same time, a lot of what I learnt from when I was younger has gone in one ear and out the other, so I am essentially a total newbie. 

-I'm planning on building a workshop in a little while, but it's something that I'm needing to take my time with. In essence, I have blown an absolute shizload on other hobbies and I'm still in debt... I'll have some descent cash again soon. I do work and I end up with a reasonable amount for my age to put towards hobbies. It's also worth noting I'm gonna go for a ultracompact lab in my wardrobe. Think PACKED tight.

-I've watched the show for some time, and it's what has inspired me to come back. Thanks a lot to Dave for making it. I've watched countless videos and used google to try and make sense of a lot of the technicalities, but I don't really know where to start.

With that out of the way, has anyone got some beginner tips or words of advice on projects and or gear?

Cheers,
Dylan

[blewisjr]

I will give you the same advice I was given even though I did not follow it exactly because I had a rather large budget of about $1500 to get started with.  Personally I do not have much space either but there are a few must haves that I have experienced.

1.  Decent breadboard.
2.  Passive components (lots of them) Resistors and Capacitors. Joeknowselectronics on amazon.com has some great kits for these
3.  Multimeter dave has some videos on these as well scope out the $50 series.
  - This is where I deviated from the advice and I bought 2 Fluke meters of ebay.
4.  Lab power supply.  I got a Korad 1 - 30V  1 - 5A supply.  Small relatively quiet.  Never did get around to explicitly checking it's common noise.  I do know there is some but a cap easily fixes it so should not be too bad.
5. Hakko FX888 Soldering station <-  Amazing for $80 glad I bought it.
6.  If wanting to work with Microcontrollers I would recommend PIC.  I tried both PIC and AVR have 10 AVR's and 10 PIC16's and I still much prefer the PIC.  Nice to code and has more bang for the buck in the chip.

Just raw basics and you might want to save up for a Oscilloscope.  Not necessary in the beginning but mine has come in handy and I am a total noob as well.

I am sure others can give better advice if you can say what kind of budget you have to get your lab setup.

[Eclipse]

Thanks a lot mate. My budget is probably going to be somewhere around $1500-2000, but it would more than likely be progressive. That budget would factor in  multimeter(s), soldering gear and actually setting the lot up... In terms of things like oscilloscopes, that would be next and I'd slowly build it until it's complete. It works best around my income, and it should allow me to do things while I'm still getting set all way up.

[Recyclojunk64]

I reckon you could easily fit an old $50 analogue CRO into that budget, (maybe not into the wardrobe though). It will come in handy even after you get your DSO (although you could easily fit that in too if you don't go overboard with the other stuff)
http://www.gumtree.com.au/s-oscilloscope/k0 usually can get them alot cheaper than the asking price.

Alot of dirt cheap stuff that may be of use if you want to be a cheapskate can be found on http://www.aliexpress.com/, LEDs (less than a cent each), fake (carbon film) resistor packs and medium quality stuff for next to nothing

Probably don't blow all 2K at once, make sure you know what sort of stuff you want to get for what areas of electronics you want to get into.

Also, I'd stay away from lead-free solder. Its fumes are far worse than 60/40 (specially in a bedroom) , and lead is really only toxic when in ionic form.

[kfitch42]

Did you watch this?
http://www.eevblog.com/2011/04/30/eevblog-168-how-to-set-up-an-electronics-lab/