Just want some direction

[borngborn]

Hi i am starting to learn about electronics a nd electrical egineering and would like to do stuff like this for a living maybe some day. Right now im learning the basics like ohms law what different terms mean and components like resistors ics transistors diodes. I also want to learn how to read schematics and analyze them. I wana really learn the basics atleast and get into component level motherboard repair and eventually even design my own little diy projects but right now i wana focus on component level repair. I dont need help with techniques etc. I wana learn how to find and diagnose problems to which ive been learning a little but i wana get a handle on actually knowing what things are and what im actually fixing a little more if you know what i mean. I get the most joy out of fixing things and soldering but i want to learn more and maybe take it further someday if someone can point me in the right direction thankyou

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Also sorry for the terrible grammer i am traveling and on my phone currently

[Etesla]

My advice would be to find a hobby that interests you and is heavy in the use of electronics (for me it was audio and high voltage systems), and jump right into the deep end. This way you are bound to run into many, many, many problems that you will have motivation to solve. I think that the troubleshooting skills you develop doing hobbyist work like that are extremely valuable and can translate well to most other electronics work you may find yourself doing. Just my 0.02...

[rstofer]

Hi i am starting to learn about electronics a nd electrical egineering <snip>

It's one thing to learn enough theory for hobby level projects, engineering is an entirely different subject.  How are you with math?  That's going to be the discriminator; you can't even get past DC circuits without calculus if you are learning it at an engineering level.  That depth usually isn't necessary for hobbyists.

There is an Electrical Engineering course over at Khan Academy and, of course, there are dozens and dozens of math videos - great site!  The EE program doesn't go very far but, without telling the viewer, it does dabble with Laplace Transforms.  Unfortunately, the program stops when it gets to the first non-linear component, a simple diode.  Maybe it will be expanded over time.  But it's a start!  In fact, it may be a nice way to get introduced to the higher level math just to see what is going on.  You can see it used without actually having to use it yourself.

There's a lengthy section on Fourier Analysis which I skipped over.  Maybe I'll take a look later this week.  Laplace Transforms are discussed at length in the Math portion of the site.

Engineering is all math, there's no way around it.  Fortunately, hobby projects don't often require that level of knowledge.  You can get by with Ohm's Law and Kirchhoff's Laws in most cases.

There's a Real Analog course at DigilentInc.com.  Pretty good presentation.

[Old Printer]

This is a good book that I just picked up. They just released the 4th edition a few weeks ago. For $20 it will get you a ways in reading schematics. It is spiral bound and will lay flat on your work bench while building circuits. You can probably find an old edition free online, but some things are just better in print. The author also has a lot of linked videos on YouTube. He is a little strange, but knows a lot.

Beginner's Guide to Reading Schematics 4th Edition
by Stan Gibilisco

https://www.amazon.com/Beginners-Guide-Reading-Schematics-Gibilisco/dp/1260031101

[Pirateguy]

i followed a cryptography course on kahn academy once. great stuff, highly recommend.

also i would suggest looking up some tutorials on how to use multimeters and osciloscopes.
they will be your main tools for circuit analysis and learning how they are used will prolly yield some insights
into the process and what you might want to learn next.

[borngborn]

Thanks for all the the suggestion fortunately ive also been gifted at math always never really hated but never liked it ethier fortunately this stuff has sparked my intrest. Please anymore suggestions are welcome
 And while i do wana get into egineering to start with i just wana learn the basics i love tinkering putting things together. I love soldering and love fixing and modifiying things to make them work again or make them better


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[rstofer]

By all means, wander through the Electronics Engineering track at Khan Academy.  Even the Fourier Transform stuff is understandable.  Mostly it deals with simple circuit analysis and that's really at the heart of schematics.  It's worth it just to get up to speed with Ohm's Law and Kirchhoff's Laws.

It's really just to get back into the groove of slinging numbers around.

[rhb]

I'd like to suggest getting a copy of "Electronic Principles"  by Malvino and Bates.  *Don't* get the latest edition.  It's ridiculously expensive.  Older editions are cheap.  It's a trade school text for technicians, so the math is simple.  The writing is first rate and Dr. Malvino took great pride that he personally built and tested every circuit in the book.

After that read "The Art of Electronics" by Horowitz and Hill 3d ed.

I got a BA in English lit, went back for an MS in geology which required I take Cal I.  I had so much fun I took II, III and DiffEq.  First day of Cal I I took a 100 point quiz.  The next day the instructor handed them back and said, "Students, if you made a 17 or below on this quiz, you need to drop this course and take precalculus because statistically it can be shown you won't pass the course."  I was sitting looking at a 17. 

I'd taken precalculus for my BA and got a C out of boredom.  I'd taught myself algebra and trig in the 6-8th grades.   It took doing calculus problems 4-5 hours a day, 5-6 days a week to get up to speed.  But at the end of the semester I sometimes had the high score on the weekly 20 point quiz.  I was utterly entranced by what it made possible.

At this point I have no idea how many semester hours of math I've taken.  I recently spent about 3 years learning wavelet theory and compressive sensing.  That was really the first time I was ever able to teach myself from a mathematician's level treatment.  I did it because I was having fun.

Have fun and see where it takes you.

[rstofer]

Calculus is easy, it's the pre-Calc that will sink you!  At our community college, pre-Calc is a two semester course.  And that's just to get table stakes for Calculus.

[eev_carl]

+1 on the importance of pre-calc

This book is a good cross reference for your text.  It covers the differential equations used growth and decay formulas for capacitor discharge (not explicitly stated as such).

http://store.doverpublications.com/0486660974.html

[rhb]

Calculus is easy, it's the pre-Calc that will sink you!  At our community college, pre-Calc is a two semester course.  And that's just to get table stakes for Calculus.

I've always wanted a T shirt that said "Calculus is Easy" on the front and "But the Algebra is Hell" on the back.

[Pirateguy]

as a fellow noob, my advice is:
don't be shy to start your own design projects.
there's lots of fun stuff you can do that is quite simple yet satisfying.

my first project was a logic analyzer.
all it is is a probe with 2 leds in it that indicate positive or negative voltage on logic circuits.
very simple project but very satisfying to have made a functional piece of test equipment.

more then anything though: don't be afraid to fail (unless you are working with high power of course ).
you learn more by failing then you do by success.

[rhb]

as a fellow noob, my advice is:
don't be shy to start your own design projects.
there's lots of fun stuff you can do that is quite simple yet satisfying.

my first project was a logic analyzer.
all it is is a probe with 2 leds in it that indicate positive or negative voltage on logic circuits.
very simple project but very satisfying to have made a functional piece of test equipment.

more then anything though: don't be afraid to fail (unless you are working with high power of course ).
you learn more by failing then you do by success.

Very sound advice.  My LED probe was built for 5 V TTL logic.  So it was just a test probe, LED and alligator clip.  I haven't had occasion to use it in a long time because I haven't been working on anything that required it.

Much of my  electronics education was the result of building simple test gear such as a 10 KHz square wave oscillator based on an op amp for testing audio gear.  The harmonics go quite high, so with a scope you can get a very good idea of the frequency response.  I had very little money to spend on electronics and as I was not an EE student, no access to the labs.

Pick a project that interests you and pursue it until you either succeed or get frustrated.  In the latter case, put it in the junk box and start something else.  But put it in a baggie with a schematic so you don't have to figure out 10 years later what it is ;-)

Having spent 12 years at university, I became very accustomed to failure.  You do it the first time to find out what you need to do.  You do it the second time to learn how.  You do it the third time to get it done.  And if it's really important to you thesis, you do it a fourth time to make sure you get the same result.

Research who  Jim Williams was and read anything he wrote, especially "Max Wein, Mr. Hewlett and a Rainy Sunday Afternoon".  Same thing for Bob Pease and Bob Widlar.

Have Fun!
Reg