A good repair project for a "semi" beginner

[idpromnut]

To frame the question, I am a software guy by day, and a hardware-wannabe by night (as a hobby).  That said, I think I have decent soldering skills a couple of decent multimeters (all checked against each other), an analog 50MHz 'scope (which I am getting better at using day by day).

My question is: in the software world, I find the best way to learn how a piece of software works is to download and read the source code. Does this translate well to the hardware world (i.e. repairing a broken piece of hardware), and if so, what would be a good piece of hardware (perhaps test equipment) that I should start off with? I would assume that being able to find schematics would be a first prerequisite, with "jellybean" components in it a close second and cheaply available via Ebay or some other source a third.

[lapm]

I would say best way to learn about hardware is design something, then find out it docent work and start troubleshooting it.

Electronics is lots of building stuff, figuring out why it docent work as you expect it to work and then learning to adjust your circuit so it actually does work as you expect it.

Yes, even repairing things can teach you thing or two..

[w2aew]

Having access to the service literature, or at least the schematic, is a good starting point.  If you find a piece of equipment available that doesn't have such literature with it or available online somewhere, the troubleshooting process will be much harder - regardless of what it is.  Also, newer equipment with custom ASICs etc. is generally harder to troubleshoot than older gear with standard off-the-shelf components.

[MatCat]

I also started my life on the software side, and in the last two years pretty much switched to hardware (and embedded software), for me the best way to learn was to both design and build things, as well as look at existing things.  I tend to look at hardware a lot like a programmer would look at OOP style programming, everything  can be narrowed down to simple 'blocks', which then kind of go together like legos, this philosophy has worked well for me sofar.

[JDubU]

Beside what has already been suggested, I would recommend downloading and getting familiar with the (free) circuit simulator LTspice:
http://www.linear.com/designtools/software/#LTspice

Then create some simple circuit projects on it and make them work. 

[Derick Freese]

I started with audio amps.  Made a decent buck repairing them, too.  Audio and computers are where I learned how to troubleshoot.  From there, I moved into audio amp modifications, then to building a few amps that I found the schematics for.  It's a shame that none of the amps I've built have required troubleshooting.  Figuring out what's gone awry is my favorite part of electronics.

-Derick

[Bored@Work]

  As a software engineer, one of the weirdest aspects of hardware design is the "yes", "no", "maybe"  non-binary domain. Hardware design is more like quantum computing than the predicate calculus of software.

The what? The "predicted calculus of software"?  You have apparently never hunted a Heisenbug or one of his ugly cousins.

Remembering also your strange statements about embedded system I have to ask myself what kind of software "engineer" you are. Self-styled? Woke up one morning and decided I am an engineer now, too?

[Shock]

Things you could make:
A signal/function generator
Small audio amp
Power supply

Or get something that is broken and search or email for the schematics.
If you are working/repairing/making mains voltage equipment or appliances read absolutely everything in the below chapter until you understand all the principles involved.
http://www.allaboutcircuits.com/vol_1/chpt_3/1.html

[Stonent]

Things to repair:
Motherboards with bad caps
Power supplies with bad caps
Monitors with bad caps
Monitors with bad MOSFETs

That's about as beginner friendly as I can come up with.

[con-f-use]

In the software world, I find the best way to learn how a piece of software works is to download and read the source code. Does this translate well to the hardware world (i.e. repairing a broken piece of hardware)

The equivalent, in my opinion, is taking a working peace of hardware and have somebody (or a detailed manual) explaining to you how it works. The software-equivalent of "repairing a broken peace of hardware" would be chasing a bug in a program from poorly documented source code someone else wrote. Poorly documented, because most commercial hardware is lacking vital information in its documentation, if there is any publicly available. I thing I learned most from reading design-logs, watching teardowns all supplemented by courses and lots of practical tinkering.

I'd say a good beginners project for you is not repairing things, but augmenting household items:
- Fixing your toilet light with a motion detector
- Adding a morse-code door buzzer/opener to the intercom of your apartment
- Adding temperature control to your water heater so you can have perfect 80°C water for black tea
- Building PC-controlled led-lighting for your work area
- Switching power for your printer, scanner, external hardrive and sound system via USB on you computer
- 4 button keyboard as foot mat with capacitive touch sensors to control your pc's audio player

You get the gist...

[idpromnut]

Thanks for the feedback!  I am pleasantly surprised to find out that I have already been following a few of the tips here, so I shall continue designing, building, ripping hair out, rinse and repeat

And thank you, w2aew, for an excellent series of hands-on videos about various circuits and oscilloscopes; the one regarding the signal generator with a few transistors was a very interesting to watch and to build and fool around with!