Newbie Mom/Son Team Progress

[Wilksey]

Electronics is a mine field, you never stop learning.

Even the best of us blow stuff up (sometimes on purpose) it would be pretty boring if it all worked first time right!

It takes a lot of patience to go through everything and understand it, but it'll be worth it in the end!

I have just today received in the post the 3rd edition of "the bible" (art of electronics) and oh the memories of how long it took to read the 2nd edition came flooding back!  It's expensive (though I paid more for a 2nd hand copy of the 2nd edition than the brand new 3rd edition!) but in a year or two when you have had a chance to move on past your electronics kits it is a wealth of information worth every penny!

[tggzzz]

Watching you make mistakes, and the way you deal with them, is a useful learning experience. I always told my daughter that everybody makes mistakes, but let's try and make new mistakes.

One of my favourite grooks is

The secret of success
Is simple to express.
To err
and err
and err again.
But less
and less
and less

[TrunKate]

In case anyone is interested I have started a YouTube channel. It will be slow starting, as I have no experience with that kind of thing. Excuse the bad production, I am sure they will improve over time!
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCLjb9Ilg6vJ-6m3bTD5X4vg

[Wilksey]

Good job! Maybe it is not supposed to sound like that, and you blew a transistor, but as I said earlier, that's how you learn, you will be able to at some point in the not so distant future, look at the difference in transistors (datasheets) and figure out why it doesn't work the same, at least it presented a "chirp" of some kind, and it worked, call it a variation

Bottom line, you experimented, it's what it's all about!

[TrunKate]

Thanks Wilksey! It was very rewarding to hear it work at all. My son's favorite is the two transistor radio!

[MarkO]

I started about  year ago, and indeed it a really deep well of information.  Here is what has helped me

1. http://www.amazon.com/Getting-Started-Electronics-Forrest-Mims/dp/0945053282
This dude walks through and explains electronics and components with tons of small little projects to help you understand and apply the info.  Very GOOD Starting place.

2. http://everycircuit.com/  This is a electronics ciruit simulator, and its GREAT.  Every Circuit It allows you to actually create circuits and actually see how they work.  VERY Educational, and it make theoretical ideas view-able.  Its an App as well as a Chrome plugin, and to my knowledge now completely free.  I gave like $4 for it, but id give em $20 if they had asked.  They even released a game on Android called Circuit Jam. 

Anyway... that's what I have enjoyed and learned a good deal from, hope it helps. 
 

[tggzzz]

Thanks Wilksey! It was very rewarding to hear it work at all. My son's favorite is the two transistor radio!

And so he begins to realise that marvellous things are done by people like yourselves, not superhumans. Good start!

[zerorisers]

#TrunKate4#1Mom