Education needed!

[littlerick]

Hi all... I wouldnt class myself as stupid and I have the confidence to tackle instuctions and maybe learn a skill or two on the way. So as far as building a kit goes I think I will be ok at putting it together.

However I would like to try and learn how the pieces work and what the jobs of each part is. Its ok to stick something together and say YEY it works! Its much better to know how it works.

Are there any good websites that can teach a little about the logic and function of parts.

[gootee]

First, learn that Google.com is your friend. I searched with

electronics tutorial online OR "on line"

and got the following, plus about 5.55 million more:

All About Circuits : Free Electric Circuits Textbooks

Useful Electronic Tutorials Sources on DiscoverCircuits.com

http://www.khake.com/page67.html

101 Electronics Links - www.101science.com

Enjoy!

[littlerick]

Thanks... bit of a google addict myself : )

[gootee]

If you want information that is more specifically related to amplifiers, you might want to also browse the Application Notes lists, at national.com, linear.com, analog.com, ti.com, and the other chip manufacturers.

[wakibaki]

I wouldn't class myself as stupid either but it took a lot of telling (and reading, and experiments) before I really started to catch on with transistor design. Then there's filters. Magnets, coils. Capacitor types. AC power. Then RF design, S-parameters, imaginary numbers, propagation, antennas, link budgets, microwave hardware, rain rates. RADAR. Then there's switching circuits, boolean logic, gates, finite state machines, ALUs, microprocessors and computer architecture, leading to direct sequence spread-spectrum and Digital Signal Processing. The Z-plane. Sampling and reconstruction. Nyquist. Coding. Optoelectronics. Fiberoptics, refractive indices. Telephone systems, hybrid transformers, queing, time-slot-interchange exchanges. LASERS, population inversions. There's control systems and feedback and Laplace transforms. GPS, accelerometers, magnetometers, Kalman filters, autopilots and UAVs (which you didn't actually mention).

Then there are design tools, particularly software, but also hardware. Oscilloscopes, spectrum analyzers, network analysers. Schematic capture, simulation and layout software packages, sometimes integrated and of varying degrees of complexity and capability. Compilers. Web programming.

Component, PCB specification and pick-and-place assembly.

Test, test automation, software test.

I guess what I'm saying is that it's much easier to get a grip on some of these things if you are actually being instructed in them in a structured fashion and there's so much of it that it takes some time. If you really want to understand electronics then your best bet is a full-time educational course.

Failing that, I like to recommend 'The Art of Electronics' by Paul Horowitz and Winfield Hill.

Good luck.

w

Sh1t, I left out valves, Freudian slip I guess.

[littlerick]

Well i can fit a mean plug!

[cbdb]

Lots of good info on audio electronics, including some basics at Rod Elliots site.

Elliott Sound Products - DIY Audio Articles

[gootee]

Originally Posted by wakibaki

I wouldn't class myself as stupid either but it took a lot of telling (and reading, and experiments) before I really started to catch on with transistor design. Then there's filters. Magnets, coils. Capacitor types. AC power. Then RF design, S-parameters, imaginary numbers, propagation, antennas, link budgets, microwave hardware, rain rates. RADAR. Then there's switching circuits, boolean logic, gates, finite state machines, ALUs, microprocessors and computer architecture, leading to direct sequence spread-spectrum and Digital Signal Processing. The Z-plane. Sampling and reconstruction. Nyquist. Coding. Optoelectronics. Fiberoptics, refractive indices. Telephone systems, hybrid transformers, queing, time-slot-interchange exchanges. LASERS, population inversions. There's control systems and feedback and Laplace transforms. GPS, accelerometers, magnetometers, Kalman filters, autopilots and UAVs (which you didn't actually mention).

Then there are design tools, particularly software, but also hardware. Oscilloscopes, spectrum analyzers, network analysers. Schematic capture, simulation and layout software packages, sometimes integrated and of varying degrees of complexity and capability. Compilers. Web programming.

Component, PCB specification and pick-and-place assembly.

Test, test automation, software test.

I guess what I'm saying is that it's much easier to get a grip on some of these things if you are actually being instructed in them in a structured fashion and there's so much of it that it takes some time. If you really want to understand electronics then your best bet is a full-time educational course.

Failing that, I like to recommend 'The Art of Electronics' by Paul Horowitz and Winfield Hill.

Good luck.

w

Sh1t, I left out valves, Freudian slip I guess.

Nice list. I wasn't sure that he wanted to get that deeply into it. But yes, if you want to REALLY understand electronics, then go to a major university for at least a four-year degree in electrical engineering, starting with the hard-core versions of calculus, differential equations, and physics as just 'the basics', and study 14 hours a day, seven days a week. Then you could have the necessary theoretical background to start getting the necessary experience to eventually "really understand" electronics (and lots of other good stuff, too).

[star882]

In my experience, undergraduate electrical engineering is nowhere as hard as it seems. Do expect to study but not 14 hours a day. More like 14 hours a week.

[gmphadte]

vias.org