Hi All

I've been in the computing industry for 25+ years now, and have been anything from a UNIX admin to currently a enterprise architect. But always have been
at the software side of things. Obviously i have done my fair share of
setting up HW, from server, to SAN/Storage systems, network etc etc...
However I have never really had time to get into the nitty gitty - lige learning and understanding the electronics side of things. And with the availability of check kits to play around with i feel that now is the time to start learning, as the cost side of playing with boards etc have never been cheaper.
What would be your recommendations on where to start? Which learning material your be a good place to start - imaging that i need it to absolutely from scratch, learning the difference between Volts/Watt/AMP etc. I do understand some of this, or i would like to think i do - so just to make sure there i no wrong assumptions, i would like to start from step 1.

Any advice would be appreciated.

Thanks

Zapp82

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Hello Zapp82!

** On Sunday 09.05.21 - 21:58, Zapp82 wrote to All:

..i feel that now is the time to start learning, as the cost side of playing with boards etc have never been cheaper. What would be your recommendations on where to start? Which learning material your be a
good place to start - imaging that i need it to absolutely from
scratch, learning the difference between Volts/Watt/AMP etc. I do understand some of this, or i would like to think i do - so just to
make sure there i no wrong assumptions, i would like to start from step
1.

Any advice would be appreciated.

Electronics For Dummies | 3rd Edition | Paperback
Cathleen Shamieh
For Dummies (series)
Wiley, Wiley | For Dummies
Technology & Engineering / Electrical / Electronics
Published Dec 5, 2019
$29.99 US / $35.99 CA list price
https://www.edelweiss.plus/?sku=1119675596


Electronics All-in-One For Dummies | 2nd Edition | Paperback
Doug Lowe
For Dummies (series)
Wiley | For Dummies
Technology & Engineering / Electronics / Power Resources - Electrical
Published Feb 6, 2017
$39.99 US / $47.99 CA list price
https://www.edelweiss.plus/?sku=1119320798



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Thanks I will look into those. Anyone else have recommentations please add them.

Zapp82

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On 10 May 2021, Zapp82 said the following...

Thanks I will look into those. Anyone else have recommentations please
add them.

If you're looking to get into microcontrollers, I'd recommend the Adafruit Metro Express M0/M4 or Grand Central M4 Express boards. They're similar to
the Arduino Uno and Mega, respectively, and can use Arduino shields. However, they are much faster than Arduinos (120MHz vs. 16MHz), operate at 3.3V rather than 5V, have more RAM, are 32-bit rather than 8-bit, and can be programmed
in Python or C/C++. Adafruit also has a lot of learning resources.

If you can't get an Adafruit board, I'd recommend an Arduino Uno (or Uno
clone) over something like a Raspberry Pi, because it's closer to the inner working of the chip rather than being separated from it by an OS. Arduino.cc also has a lot of information for developers.

All of these chips are similar to microprocessors but have a Harvard architecture -- the data memory and instruction memory are on two different busses. So the amount of RAM spec tells you how much data memory you have,
and the flash spec tells you how much instruction memory you have. Most of
them have various interfaces (SPI, I2C, UART, etc.) implemented in hardware,
as well as GPIO pins to use for whatever you'd like.

One of the benefits of starting with microcontrollers, I think, is that you don't need to know much about electronics to get started. You'll definitely need to know about voltage, but you can pick up the rest as you go. Most
of the time sensors and other devices (but not single LEDs!) can connect directly to the microcontroller without any other components. Also, you can start with a breadboard and jumpers while you learn to solder.

For either the Adafruit or Arduino boards mentioned above, I would recommend getting some prototyping shields like these: https://amazon.com/Gikfun-Prototype-Shield-Arduino-Ek1038x3/dp/B00Q9YB7PI/ They're made to solder things onto, but you can also adhere small breadboards like these to the soldering area on the top of the shield:
https://amazon. com/Hailege-Solderless-Prototype-Breadboard-Raspberry/dp/B08D7CZYB6/
and use that instead of soldering.

And if you're interested in logic gates, etc., I'd recommend the "Taidacent FPGA Development Board with Spartan6 XC6SLX Compatible with Arduino," "Taidacent IO Shield FPGA Development Expansion Board," and "Programming
FPGAs: Getting Started with Verilog" by Simon Monk, all available from
Amazon. The boards are clones of the Mojo boards, which are no longer
produced by their original manufacturer, the book contains code specific
to the Mojo boards, and the Expansion board has LEDs, switches, and a
4-digit, 7-segment display so that you can interact with your FPGA designs.
The required but free Xilinx ISE software is somewhat of a pain to set up,
but works beautifully once it is. Also, don't read too much into the "Compatible with Arduino" part; it's not really what it sounds like. The Mojo boards aren't cutting-edge, but are well-priced for beginners.

Hope that helps,
Jeff.

"For every complex problem there is an answer that is clear, simple, and wrong." -- H. L. Mencken, who indeed was a racist thereby proving himself right.

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On 10 May 2021, Zapp82 said the following...

Thanks I will look into those. Anyone else have recommentations please
add them.

There's also a monthly subscription box here in the US, http://hackerboxes
com. I wasn't sure if they shipped outside the US and had to check. They
don't ship outside the US directly, but a forwarding service can be used.

Each box has a theme, some electronic parts, some gimmicky sort of thing like stickers or a lapel pin, or a hat), and sometimes a soldering kit. They don't announce the contents of the box before shipping, so it's always a surprise. You can see all of the past boxes here: https://www.instructables.com/member/HackerBoxes/instructables/

The soldering projects are pretty straightforward. There's a marked-up PCB
and you just solder the parts on, and then it does something. This month's project was an FM radio. The parts are usually microcontrollers and/or
sensors of some kind, although there have been antennas, robot chassis, 3D
LED matrices, and other things in some of the boxes. This part of the box is more freeform: they tell you how the parts work and how to use them, but
don't provide a specific project.

My current project uses the LEGO minifig/microcontroller from Box #63 and the 433MHz transceivers from Box #34, along with a Raspberry Pi Zero W, an LED display, a robot chassis, and a slew of sensors (compass/gyro/accelerometer, ultrasonic range finder, laser range finder, and photoresistor array). The general idea is to have a rover that wanders around the house taking sensor readings and radioing them to the Pi. The Pi will (hopefully) be able to construct a "map" from the readings and be able to calculate the current position of the rover and guide it to unexplored areas. I'm designing and printing all of the component mounts, and the photoresistor array is a group
of 8 photoresistors arranged in a circular pattern that will hopefully allow the Pi to factor in the position of house lights and windows into its "map" -- although there is only one light that stays consistently lit, so time becomes
a factor as well. That's the idea, anyway.

Jeff.

"For every complex problem there is an answer that is clear, simple, and wrong." -- H. L. Mencken, who indeed was a racist thereby proving himself right.

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Zapp82 wrote:

What would be your recommendations on where to start? Which learning material your be a good place to start - imaging that i need it to absolutely from scratch, learning the difference between Volts/Watt/AMP etc. I do understand some of this, or i would like to think i do - so just to make sure there i no wrong assumptions, i would like to start from step 1.

Get yourself an Arduino. I usually go for something like this because it has everything you need to get going.

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

It really does start at the beginning explain what a resistor is, how to read the values, and for the first project, why you need one when hooking up an
LED. It includes motors, remote controls, photosensors, it goes through addressing ICs, so you'll eventually be able to come up with your own projects and expand with your own components. Maybe, after tinkering with the Arduino for a bit, expand with one of the books listed on an earlier post.
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Most anything by Forrest Mims is useful.

Avoid paying collectors prices. Some are on the web I'm told.

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Zapp82 wrote to All <=-

What would be your recommendations on where to start? Which learning material your be a good place to start - imaging that i need it to absolutely from scratch, learning the difference between Volts/Watt/AMP etc. I do understand some of this, or i would like to think i do - so
just to make sure there i no wrong assumptions, i would like to start
from step 1.

I'd start with microcontrollers. Software enough so that you have a jumping off point, but their main purpose is to interface to hardware.

Raspberry Pi Pico or Ardunio are good starters.

Then think up some cool projects. One day I saw that American Science and Surplus had traffic light bulbs (LED) for sale. So using an Arduino, I made
my own traffic light. I had to learn how to use relays for that one.

You'll need to know how to solder. Head over to Tindie.com. They have many solder-it-yourself projects to give you practice (stay away from anything
that is SMD, or Surface Mount until you have more experience, though).

... "All my hidden skills are undiscovered." - Clinton
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On 10 May 2021 at 03:20a, Zapp82 pondered and said...

Thanks I will look into those. Anyone else have recommentations please
add them.

If you're really truly just starting out and need to learn
the basics about voltage, current, resistance, Ohm's law,
and all that good stuff, then the "Make: Electornics" book
isn't a bad place to start.

https://www.amazon.com/Make-Electronics-Learning-Through-Discovery-dp-168045026 3/dp/1680450263/

Once you've worked through that, "Practical Electronics for
Inventors" is a decent step up. It's much more comprehensive
and lower-level, but still designed for practical use.

https://www.amazon.com/Practical-Electronics-Inventors-Fourth-Scherz-dp-1259587 541/dp/1259587541/

The next step up from that is to go to Horowitz and Hill.
The Art of Electronics is pretty comprehensive, but much
more in depth; it's often used as a textbook for EE classes
(e.g., Harvard's Physics 123 course; Horowitz taught at
Harvard until his retirement several years ago). As you
might expect from a textbook, it's much denser and more
rigorous, but also more complex.

https://www.amazon.com/Art-Electronics-Paul-Horowitz/dp/0521809266/

You'll need some equipment and parts to get started, as
well. At a minimum, a good handheld digital multi-meter
(DMM) is a must; these can range in cost from a couple of
dollars to anywhere north of a thousand; benchtop
multi-meters even more so. You probably want to avoid
the really cheap stuff, as it tends to be wildly inaccurate
(it's good for telling you whether your car battery is
dead, but that's about it). Good brands to look for
include Fluke and Keysight; mid-level brands are Mastech
and Siglent.

The next step up past a multimeter is an oscilloscope,
particularly if you are working with AC or periodic
signals, but these can be useful for discrete signal/DC
stuff as well (e.g. you can always use an oscilloscope
as a kind of voltmeter). There's more options for brands
here; Rigol and Siglent are good low-end grands. On
the higher end you've got Tektronix, Keysight, Rhode and
Schwarz, Teledyne LeCroy, etc. You can spend from hundreds
of dollars to hundreds of thousands of dollars on a single
scope.

You'll probably want a power supply to provide, you
know, power. Again, there's lots of variation here,
but if you're just goofing around, the low-end stuff
is fine. TekPower, MasTech, etc, on the low end will
be fine and will provide plenty of power for messing
around with LEDs and microcontrollers like Arduinos
or Teensy's or little ARM things. But definitely get
one; goofing around with batteries or wall warts
gets really frustrating really fast.

You'll run into wanting a soldering station fairly
quickly, I imagine. Those junk 20W soldering irons
that come in hobbiest kits are garbage; throw them
away. The standard entry-level station is the Hakko
FX-888d. Get some good tips and good solder (Kester
FTW) and that'll last you a long time. On the
high end, stations from Metcal, high-end Weller
gear, and JBC are top notch. Don't skimp on a good
set of "helping hands" (get the ones with a solid
base that are actually adjustable, not the garbage
ones that fall apart and move while you're working)
or a soldering vise (PanaVise makes good gear).

Kits of assorted parts can be had reasonably from places
like Amazon or Jameco. The "Joe Knows Electronics"
packs of capacitors, resistors, transistors, etc, are
all really useful. Inductors are a bit more annoying,
but it's easy to source ferrite toroids and wind your
own with magnet wire.

That's all the basics; it can be spendy, but you can
pare down the initial outlay depending on your level
of interest.

Once you've set up your starter lab, you can replace,
upgrade, or augment as you see fit. Things like function
generators, frequency counters, programmable DC loads,
spectrum analyzers, VNAs, logic analyzers (the Saleae
Logic units are good for a starter unit), etc, can all
be had but they're also real money for the good stuff.

Hope that helps!

--- Mystic BBS v1.12 A46 2020/08/26 (Windows/32)
* Origin: Agency BBS | Dunedin, New Zealand | agency.bbs.nz (21:1/101)