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Need help getting back into electronics!

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solderjoint13:
First post all.

I'm a EET grad that got a job in telecom and its been over 10 years since I've really done any electronics design or circuit work. I've done some repair work and troubleshooting off and on, but nothing like what i used to do in high school and college. I'm sure like a lot of people after school, unless you keep up with electronics as a hobby or do it for work; you don't use what you learned in school day to day. The knowledge i learned from school and in my hours of spare time when i was younger is mostly gone.

I'm reaching out to the forum in hope that i could get some guidance. Any good suggestions for books and online resources to get back into electronics? I probably just need a beginning quick refresh and then get into the more general intermediate stuff. I still know the simple stuff like ohms law, how to use a DMM, oscilloscope, but all the equations and especially anything to do with semiconductors I am at a loss. :'(

Any help would be appreciated! I started pulling my scopes, power supply, function gen, boards, and meters out of storage so I'm getting ready.

wizard69:
Welcome aboard!

I'm in a similar boat.   Got a 2 year degree  and quickly a job in automation.   All my electronics knowledge kinda atrophied as Electronics repair quickly became an issue of yanking a model that isn't working and slapping a new one in place as fast as possible.   Said module then sits around in the shop until you realize you will never have time to spend time repairing said module.   Eventually it goes into the recycle bin as trying to send the item back to the manufacture is generally problematic.   

Sadly I've spent a couple of decades doing this so I literally feel like I'm new to electronics.    Starting in industry I could never have imagine the combination of waste and of no time.    I also laugh my ass off over the people whining about no jobs, it would be amazing to actually hire people with the required skills.


--- Quote from: solderjoint13 on August 31, 2020, 04:36:33 pm ---First post all.

I'm a EET grad that got a job in telecom and its been over 10 years since I've really done any electronics design or circuit work. I've done some repair work and troubleshooting off and on, but nothing like what i used to do in high school and college. I'm sure like a lot of people after school, unless you keep up with electronics as a hobby or do it for work; you don't use what you learned in school day to day. The knowledge i learned from school and in my hours of spare time when i was younger is mostly gone.

I'm reaching out to the forum in hope that i could get some guidance. Any good suggestions for books and online resources to get back into electronics? I probably just need a beginning quick refresh and then get into the more general intermediate stuff. I still know the simple stuff like ohms law, how to use a DMM, oscilloscope, but all the equations and especially anything to do with semiconductors I am at a loss. :'(

Any help would be appreciated! I started pulling my scopes, power supply, function gen, boards, and meters out of storage so I'm getting ready.

--- End quote ---

paulca:
The Arduino/ESP IoT eco-system is currently an interesting, easy and actually useful way to get into modern digital (and in some cases analouge) electronics.  Home Automation for example... without getting trapped in the proprietary cloud based data harvesting privacy nightmares like Alexa, EvoHome et.al.

drussell:
Rather than trying to re-learn or refresh your knowledge in general, I suggest simply finding something you're interested in to repair, modify or build from scratch.  Find a project you want to do, something you want to work on, then you'll work out where the gaps in your knowledge are as time goes on and you work through your project(s).

You may be surprised to find how much you begin to recall once you're actually "doing something," and there are certainly people here to help refresh your memory on specifics when the need arises.  :)

vk6zgo:

--- Quote from: drussell on September 03, 2020, 05:44:05 pm ---Rather than trying to re-learn or refresh your knowledge in general, I suggest simply finding something you're interested in to repair, modify or build from scratch.  Find a project you want to do, something you want to work on, then you'll work out where the gaps in your knowledge are as time goes on and you work through your project(s).

You may be surprised to find how much you begin to recall once you're actually "doing something," and there are certainly people here to help refresh your memory on specifics when the need arises.  :)

--- End quote ---

Repair is good, especially if it is something made by a reputable manufacturer, as you learn how things are done by companies who want their products to be something better than the level of grot being turned out everywhere.


Most Techs can regale you for hours with tales of EE's "howlers"!

"If you have a "clever idea", & wonder why "nobody else has thought of it", it is because they have, & discovered the pitfalls the hard way!

Bosch made some picture monitors which had two fold out PCBs .
Obviously, they needed hinges & flexible connections back to the rest of the device, so they could be operated by people doing maintenance.
Some "bright person" decided to combine the hinges & connections, which was good for a while, until the opening & closing made the contact fail!
Meanwhile, Sony used leads & plugs ------no prize for picking which one had the least failures!

Be wary of manufacturer's specs.
The very last generation of Pye TV transmitters used rectifiers in the High voltage supply which were quite small, but supposedly "adequately rated" .

They "popped like firecrackers" , so in its first year in service, we had exhausted the supply of them in Oz, & had to get a rush shipment from the UK.
NEC used big, solid, much "more than adequately rated" rectifiers which operated for decades without fuss!

By the way, if you must use "through hole" components, make the holes large enough that the part can be desoldered & replaced.

Another thing ----RF isn't very "plug n' play"!
EEs who have never worked with it try to take "short cuts", & it is usually the customer who suffers.


Sorry that this has turned into a "rant", but over many years, I have had to work around too many "stuff ups"!

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