What is the correct learning procedures for learning electronics?

[dastructhm]

what books should I read? Then what projects should I do?

Where do I get codes for the chips I bought and will buy?

Thank you!

[sleemanj]

Try the book "Make: Electronics by Charles Platt", there is very recently a third edition released I believe, I have only seen the first edition which was really at the dawn of Arduino and it was very good as an introductory text to basic electronics.

I expect that the later editions will also include Arduino specific tutorials.

[CatalinaWOW]

There is no correct procedure.  Some people learn well in the structured environment of a classroom.  Others learn better by doing something and learning what is needed at each step.  And there are multiple other approaches.

You will figure out pretty quickly what works for you and what doesn't work as well.  Just dive in and get started and be ready to change course if it isn't working.  But whatever course you follow don't ignore the other paths.  They each have something to give.

Some things to try:  A local maker space.  On line courses.  Local schools.  Someone you know who is willing to take you as an apprentice.  Days at the library (where you can find old electronics magazines and books for beginners).   Don Lancasters' website.  Forrest Mims books.  The list is endless.

Projects:  Headphone amplifiers, crystal radios,  light dimmers, touch me not box (aka panic box), jacobs ladder, tesla coil, van de graaf generator, simple games.

[Grandchuck]

What kind of chips have you bought and what are you planning to buy?

[dastructhm]

What kind of chips have you bought and what are you planning to buy?

Thank you.
I bought some STM32F103C8T6. How do I get its drivers? From official website of ST.com?
Say I want to make a project using STM32F103C8T6 and a temperature sensor. How do I make a driver or program for my project? How does STM32F103C8T6  read data from my temperature sensor? 

[dastructhm]

There is no correct procedure.  Some people learn well in the structured environment of a classroom.  Others learn better by doing something and learning what is needed at each step.  And there are multiple other approaches.

You will figure out pretty quickly what works for you and what doesn't work as well.  Just dive in and get started and be ready to change course if it isn't working.  But whatever course you follow don't ignore the other paths.  They each have something to give.

Some things to try:  A local maker space.  On line courses.  Local schools.  Someone you know who is willing to take you as an apprentice.  Days at the library (where you can find old electronics magazines and books for beginners).   Don Lancasters' website.  Forrest Mims books.  The list is endless.

Projects:  Headphone amplifiers, crystal radios,  light dimmers, touch me not box (aka panic box), jacobs ladder, tesla coil, van de graaf generator, simple games.

Don Lancasters' website? I tried to Google it,  but failed to find it. What is its address? 

[rstofer]

There is a sticky at the top of the forum for primers and books.

For the STM device, you will use a lot of the code (drivers and application) that STM provides with STM32CubeIDE, their IDE.  There is a ton of provided code.

However, I wouldn't recommend starting with the STM device, I consider it a little more advanced than, say, an Arduino.  The thing about Arduino is that virtually every sensor invented already has project code on the Internet.  It has to be the best documented platform - EVER.  I would highly recommend you start with the Arduino UNO.

In fact, I would recommend you start with this Arduino Starter Kit because it comes with sensors and displays along will all the code to use them.  There is a series of graduated projects in the pdf files.  Everything you need to get started is included.

https://www.amazon.com/ELEGOO-Project-Tutorial-Controller-Projects/dp/B01D8KOZF4

You can download the files from:

https://www.elegoo.com/blogs/arduino-projects/elegoo-uno-project-super-starter-kit-tutorial

[rstofer]

There is a problem with the term 'learn' in 'learn electronics' and that has to do with expected outcome, yours, not ours.

You can build kits and work with starter kits from the very first day.  Kits like the Arduino Starter Kit I posted above will help you every step of the way and assume no particular background.  Most kits are fairly easy to build and don't require a ton of math.

There's a step up where you have learned some electronics theory and can design/build your own projects.  You won't be able to avoid math for very long but you won't need a lot of it.  This is a good place for hobbyists.  They can design stuff and complete their own projects as long as the goals are modest and perhaps similar to other projects on the Internet.

Then there is 'learn' as in 5 years of college and 10 semesters of increasingly complex math.  This is 'electronics engineering' and it's all math.  And that's just for an undergraduate degree and those are fairly useless in today's job market.  You need to think in terms of a Master's Degree (MSEE) to land a decent job so add at least another year of, you guessed it, more math.  But grad school is fun when compared to undergrad because you can focus on your interests plus two more math classes.

For beginners and hobbyists, I would always recommend Forrest Mim's books and there are several

https://www.amazon.com/s?k=forrest+mims&ref=nb_sb_noss_1

At a minimum, I would suggest "Getting Started In Electronics"

Others will suggest "The Art of Electronics" which is more popular as a suggestion than useful for a hobbyist.  There is a matching lab manual "Learning the Art of Electronics" and a book with addendum "The X Chapters".  I suppose you need it on your bookshelf for the theory but the Internet has better resources in terms of videos.  Remember, this book was written by a Harvard Professor at an undergrad level in a formal EE program.  There isn't a chapter on using an ultrasonic distance sensor with an Arduino.  Really!  It's not there, I just looked!

To be fair, if you knew the stuff in "The Art of Electronics" you would be well on your way in electronics engineering.

[YurkshireLad]

The spiral bound version of "Getting Started In Electronics" is C$56 on Amazon Canada. 

[Grandchuck]

Thank you.
I bought some STM32F103C8T6. How do I get its drivers? From official website of ST.com?
Say I want to make a project using STM32F103C8T6 and a temperature sensor. How do I make a driver or program for my project? How does STM32F103C8T6  read data from my temperature sensor? 
[/quote]

I suppose you could buy a book:

https://www.amazon.com/STM32-Arm-Programming-Embedded-Systems/dp/0997925949/ref=pd_bxgy_1/140-8620484-2297050?pd_rd_w=DP4GW&pf_rd_p=c64372fa-c41c-422e-990d-9e034f73989b&pf_rd_r=A626FVC6VXGB3QBGKGF9&pd_rd_r=80257a4a-ddc5-459c-b154-53df7d106f2c&pd_rd_wg=UnsZT&pd_rd_i=0997925949&psc=1

[rstofer]

The spiral bound version of "Getting Started In Electronics" is C$56 on Amazon Canada. 

There are used copies for less money at Alibris:

https://www.alibris.com/Getting-Started-in-Electronics-Forrest-M-Mims-III/book/21616441

The book is available at Forrest Mim's site for $20

https://www.w5yi.org/catalog_details.php?pid=34&sort=21

I don't know what is involved with getting the book into Canada.

I think I would buy direct!

[CatalinaWOW]

Learning requires effort.  Googling the name Don Lancaster leads you quickly to www.tinaja.com.

A little reading on the site, or more Googling will let you find out why that is the name of his site

[weirdaljr]

Try the book "Make: Electronics by Charles Platt", there is very recently a third edition released I believe, I have only seen the first edition which was really at the dawn of Arduino and it was very good as an introductory text to basic electronics.

I expect that the later editions will also include Arduino specific tutorials.

Agreed!   Make: Electronics by Charles Platt has become almost a standard for beginner electronics for Teens-Adults.   While it is not engineering level it is the perfect beginner book as Charles' style of writing is very down to earth and his "old school" style of teaching makes his experiments easy to understand and follow.   I did get the latest 3rd edition of Make: Electronics and it lives up the the legacy.  It hasn't even been out for a full month (Nov 2021) and it is already a best-seller in multiple categories on Amazon.

One cool thing I really like about it is that there are electronic component kits that the author recommends to follow the experiments in the book exactly so you do not have to spend hours searching online for parts.   The kits are by ProTechTrader, as mentioned a few times in the book and linked from Charle's site also.

Book:
Amazon - https://www.amazon.com/Make-Electronics-hands-electronics-enthusiast/dp/1680456873/ref=pd_bxgy_img_2/137-7357359-3864226?pd_rd_w=DY8wz&pf_rd_p=c64372fa-c41c-422e-990d-9e034f73989b&pf_rd_r=9KMYVACNNYW8BJ5M3NX8&pd_rd_r=8f3b3426-cabe-4dd0-86a5-f3ea2f4a891b&pd_rd_wg=sJKU3&pd_rd_i=1680456873&psc=1
Publisher's Site - https://www.makershed.com/products/make-electronics-3rd-edition-print

Electronics Component Kits:
Amazon - https://www.amazon.com/Make-Electronics-Intermediate-Component-Experiments/dp/B09HL6YXNQ/ref=sr_1_16?crid=3SXO2TMCUZGST&keywords=electronics%2Bkits%2Bprojects%2Badults&sr=8-16
Manufacturer's Site - https://www.protechtrader.com/Make-Electronics-Kits-3rd-Edition

*Side Note:*  While writing this I noticed that the publisher's site seems to be selling ProTechTrader's Electronics Kits for Make: Electronics also, but their prices are higher.

[armandine2]

there are learners I guess who have a "fix it" and "flog it" attitude - I'm more of the "disassemble and break it" type. However,  I do have a keyboard I'd like to pass on in good repair (at this time of year) - a google search has given me some reason to open up the "electronics" if only to check on the battery.

[armandine2]

then you find a service manual - if you're lucky - I got a link to one from Wikipedia (my recent donation feels warranted)

[heutnoch]

Nah, I can't see why not to start with ST32. The easiest uC to use is the uC you know best. If you don't know any you have to get started somewhere. Bluepills are/were cheap as dirt. Even if you don't get warm with it you can't lose much. Lost time? There is no such thing. All failed projects are counted as learning experience.

And as mentioned above there is no correct way of learning. Maybe nothing of the things I mention work for you. Consider them as some suggestions.

Why did you choose the STM32F103C8T6? I don't expect a great reason, but there should be some reason. It was cheep? You saw it being used in some project you liked? It was recommended somewhere? All totally fine reasons. If you want to learn about electronics - or anything else - you should start with something you fancy for some reason. You need to stay committed to your task with passion. It is okay to be frustrated after a few hours. It is okay to throw out the STM32 after three days and curse on it and to buy an Arduino 8 weeks later. But if there is no passion you won't come back to uCs/electronics 8 weeks later.

Why do you want to start with electronics? Is there a goal? A project that you want to build? Great! It is okay, when the project lands in the trash bin halfway or is never finished. Perhaps it is, because you started another project in the middle or realised it is to much at the moment. You can do something more modest. But you should at least learn something from all your trials.

Look into projects you like. Try to understand as much as possible. Why do you like them? Do you want to build something similar? What do you want to change? How can you change it? Is there usable documentation, some code? Great starting point.

And yeah, STM32Cube helps a lot to get the device running fairly fast and easily. It helps you to "generate" some code to set up your peripheries. And there are some sample projects for development boards and so on, that come along with the IDE. Great stating point. Look into them. Try to understand at least something.

There are enough hobbyist using the ST32, that there is tons of code out there. Some is good, some is bad. You will learn to spot is soon enough.

Make failures, get through your failures, learn from your failures. Cling to the problems you are trying to solve.

Look into the data sheets, programming manuals and so on. You can use some ready code but not without looking into the manual. You should know a few things about the peripheries you use.

What kind of temperature sensor do you want to use?
*An analog one? You need to digitalize the signal using an analogue digital converter (ADC). The uC comes with a few ADCs, learn to use them. Is the sensor output a resistance or a voltage? How can you read it into the uC? Which voltage refers to which temperature?
*A digital one? What interfaces can be used? How are they used?
*The uCs intern temperature sensor? How to read it?

There is a lot to learn just from that.

[Teledog]

Not sure of your location, but back in the early 80's, the local college had part time/DIY courses.
I took a home study "Heath DC electronics" course, then decided to go to the same college for a full time electronics course following that. (Kingston, Ont.)
Not sure if many Canadian schools still do that anymore.
Went back for more "re-edjumication" since then. (school is fun!) ;-)
Good luck in your studies! :-)

[rpiloverbd]

Hello, sometimes it depends on your educational background also. If you are studying in 1st year of  electronics Engineering, I would have suggested you some kits. Since I do not know at what level you read in and how much you already know, let me assume that you are a beginner. I would suggest you to start with the very basics. Like making circuits with push button switches and LEDs, small 3V motors, resistors, capacitors etc. Knowing about the simple sensors are also helpful. Such as LDR, thermistors etc. After knowing about these, you can move to transistors and MOSFETS.

If you already know all of the above and also know the basic C programming, you can get admitted to a course on AVR microcontrollers. It will help you a lot no doubt.

[Psi]

what books should I read? Then what projects should I do?

Where do I get codes for the chips I bought and will buy?

Thank you!

Don't read unless you need to know something or you enjoy doing it.

Build kits you find cool.  Figure out how and why they work. modify them and see what happens.
Try to connect more than one kit together into a bigger machine that does something cool.

If you're having fun you are doing it right.

[heutnoch]

Blow up some electrical components.

(I like capacitor popcorn.)

[tkamiya]

My suggestion is start the HOBBY by building kits.  If you want to become a professional, that's something entirely different. 

You keep asking about drivers....  there is none.  Most micro controller boards have interface and PC sees them as serial ports/USB ports.  From there, it's entirely up to you to code.  If you bought the chip itself, you could find a micro controller boards, which most of them are open sourced, and build something similar, and use its example codes.

Somehow, I get this strange feeling you are going at it backwards.  One usually doesn't buy a chip he/she doesn't know anything about.

[HB9EVI]

when I started into electronics as a pre-teen, I used to build kits, but it didn't bring me really forward. You might get fast a working project, but do you really learn something on the way there? and if your kit is not working like expected, what to do? how do you get the clue where to search for the bug? the kits manual won't guide you.
I really started to learn how things work by appropriate books and learning by doing + a certain portion of try and error, even if you're notoriously releasing the magic smoke in the beginning.

when switching from 8bit to 32bit mcus, I started with the STM32F103C8 (a.k.a. blue pill); it was quite a change from AVR to ARM. The reference manual for the 103 is about 10x longer than the one of an ATmega8, so it needs some patience to get the turn, but today I don't see any reason anymore to start with anything else than an ARM. Also there are plenty of code snippets online for the most ubiquitous STM32. Just start with a blinky code and expand from there.