Projects for learning many areas

[richardnhoffman]

Hello everyone,

I wanted to ask everyone about projects that can teach a lot in electronics. I am looking for project kits or development boards that teach or at least introduce something and let the user learn with practice. Because I have not had much time on my own I have not been able to get into things such as displays, touchscreens, audio, function generation, ect. What projects and boards have you come across that have taught you a lot of concepts and have been highly useful?

All feedback is appreciated
Thank you,

Richard Nelson Hoffman

[rstofer]

Electronics lives in a pretty big sandbox.  Over in one corner we have radio, in another we have computers, in yet another with have audio and, somewhere, we have analog computing.

What interests you?

It seems to me the path, at the moment, is to start with something related to microcontrollers.  You can pick up an Arduino UNO pretty cheap and there are literally thousands of projects out on the Internet that use this platform.  There will be more programming than actual electronics but the end projects probably work better for 'show and tell'.  Nevertheless, there is some electronics involved with mechatronics - robotics.

If you are interested in audio, I'm no help.  Same with radio...  Actually, other then analog computing, I pretty much stay out of the analog part of the sandbox.  I have no particular interest in these topics.

If you want to learn the theory of electronics (which means drawing circuits and crunching numbers) then Khan Academy has an entire EE program.  Digilent Inc Real Analog is pretty good but isn't as expansive.

If you are interested in hardware design (like building your own CPU), FPGAs are a lot of fun.  It's a steep learning curve if you don't have some experience or education in digital design.

You need to refine your question.  What interests you?

[Cyberdragon]

If you want an all-purpose kit, go for the Maxitronix 500-in-one learning lab kit. It goes from basic analog electonics to computing.

There are also digital learning/development kits. They are basically big motherboard like things with various digital hardware like screens, keypads, and sensors.

[ucanel]

If someone wants to learn more
he or she needs to be stay away from
development boards or kits.
You need to design your own board
so you may also learn how to design a board and
what mistakes you may make while doing it.
You will had to dig into details to make it work,
and when it works you will never forget what you learned.
My first breadboard circuit was an one or two transistor FM transmitter,
and it took my six months to make it work,
at last and most important problem
i see that i was looking at transistor pinout in reverse order from datasheeet pictogram.
Never mind the big problem that
trying to make such a high frequency circuit work on a breadboard,
with all breadboard leads has enough capacitance to make it not to work.

But there is another option,
like arduino and some other stuff,
you see a lot of things but
never learn anything.

In reality when I started to working
when there is a real life commercial thing to produce,
regulations, laws, time restirictions, costumer needs, profit etc.
there was the real learning.