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Show HN: Learn how to build electronics with monthly kits

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Re: Show HN: Learn how to build electronics with monthly kits

#41

Post by akiselev »

echelon wrote: post #13

This is exactly what I need. I got an undergraduate education in CS and biochem, and now that I'm employed it felt impossible to devote time or energy to studying electronics. The subject is simply too deep. I was worried the only way I'd ever be able to learn would be to go back to university. This looks like a solution to my problem! The only thing I worry about is a lack of mathematical rigor, but I suppose as lon…

Analytical solutions in circuit analysis are impossible for the vast majority of nontrivial circuit designs and few subfields of electrical engineering require computer simulations so you wont see much mathematical rigor in practice. Electrical engineering is all about rules of thumb, experience, and intuition unless you're designing something like a high efficiency power circuit, a complex high speed digital or mixed mode design, or an antenna. Most of the time, my circuit designs are based off of reference designs provided by the part manufacturer, who also provide routing and design guidelines. As long as I'm not pushing the limits with fabrication (bigger board, more layers to route, few overlapping power domains, large vias and no microvias, etc) the first prototype usually just works, with a few minor mistakes and oversights, without having to do any math or simulations.

By the time intuition and documentation fails an experienced electrical engineer, they're probably designing something that costs tens of thousands of dollars to prototype and hundreds of thousands worth of testing equipment. It'll be a long while before you get to that point so I wouldn't worry about the math, although I still recommend studying it because it might help develop that intuition.

Re: Show HN: Learn how to build electronics with monthly kits

#42

Post by jacobolus »

throwanem wrote: post #19
gus_massa wrote: post #14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I can solder. It's just that I have to redo 1/3 of them and most of the times the solder joint is too cold. (I have a Chemistry specialization in secondary school. We learned a bit about electric circuits including soldering, but it's not my specialization.) Anyway, I suspect that non-soldering projects may have a bigger audience.

Some advice I'd have appreciated early on, because it took me a long while to figure out on my own: Use a tiny dab of solder on the iron tip for better heat transfer, and heat the joint for longer than it feels like you should need to. Melt the solder wire against the joint, not the iron - the iron will always melt solder, but that's not what it's there for; it's there to heat the joint until that melts the solder, w…

> heat the joint for longer than it feels like you should need to.

You shouldn’t heat the joint for more than about 2 seconds before feeding solder into it. If you need longer than that, you probably don’t have a properly tinned tip or a properly cleaned joint, or your tip is too small, or perhaps your iron has low heat capacity.

I also highly recommend using lead-based flux-core solder, e.g. 63/37 Kester 44. The lead-free stuff is awful to work with.

Anyone trying to learn to solder should watch these videos, especially #1: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL926EC0F1F93C1837

Re: Show HN: Learn how to build electronics with monthly kits

#43

Post by coupdejarnac »

gravypod wrote: post #31
coupdejarnac wrote: post #29

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Presumably you have access to EE labs and don't need a kit at all? You're probably paying a lot more than $50 for access to EE labs.

Sadly no. You need to take an EE course AND buy an EE kit. Also don't get me started on the machine shop.

I'm willing to bet they have some old dev kits not being used by classes anymore that you could check out. Sure, they won't be Arduino, but you're not going to learn anything making Arduino sketches anyway. Look for a Freescale 6812 or TI DSP kit.

Re: Show HN: Learn how to build electronics with monthly kits

#45

Post by coupdejarnac »

Step 1: Buy Getting Started in Electronics by Forrest M. Mims, or any other book by him. Step 2: Build all the projects in his books. You'll only need a proto board and a few other cheap components.

You'll build up an intuition in electronics by doing all these projects. If you want to throw a microcontroller in the mix, get the cheap TI MSP430 Launchpad- it's about $5, and you can use C or Arduino.

Re: Show HN: Learn how to build electronics with monthly kits

#46

Post by Sir_Cmpwn »

My issue with learning electronics is that there's a steep gap between "plug this into that" and "plug this into that because x". I want to learn how to reason about the latter. Most resources I've seen like this don't give you that, they just have a bunch of prefab projects and lead you through them with the former strategy. Fortunately I've been able to learn some of the latter on my own but it would be great to see a good resource for the former.

I know how to program. I don't want to program a microcontroller to do all of the work. I don't want to build a "WiFi robot", I want to build a simple circuit with a few LEDs and understand completely how it works and why it was designed that way. I want to know how to choose the right batteries and resistors, or what components I need for arbitrary projects.

Re: Show HN: Learn how to build electronics with monthly kits

#47

Post by adammunich »

Sir_Cmpwn wrote: post #46

My issue with learning electronics is that there's a steep gap between "plug this into that" and "plug this into that because x ". I want to learn how to reason about the latter. Most resources I've seen like this don't give you that, they just have a bunch of prefab projects and lead you through them with the former strategy. Fortunately I've been able to learn some of the latter on my own but it would be great to s…

Check out "Engineers Mini Notebook" series by Forrest M Mims III

Re: Show HN: Learn how to build electronics with monthly kits

#48

Post by throwaway4891a »

HeathKit partically-reinvented themselves: https://shop.heathkit.com/shop

I remember changing the channel on a color HeathKit TV at my grandparents by shaking house keys because the ultrasonic remote sensor circuit interpreted it as channel down. (It had a diagnostic and circuit diagram on a fold-down panel IIRC.)

Also my father and grandfather both made multiple technology generations of oscilloscopes from kits. And, my father opened an electrical automotive shop in Santa Clara, thanks in part to learning from HeathKit and other study-at-home electronics courses.

Re: Show HN: Learn how to build electronics with monthly kits

#49

Post by vortico »

quineoa wrote: post #37
vortico wrote: post #32

All I have is a breadboard, some wire, a variety of passive components and ICs from HK ($20 total for tens of thousands of parts), a USB oscilloscope (eBay $60-$200), and maybe an AVR or STM32 development board. I'm overwhelmed by the number of analog and digital projects I can do, and I've been messing around with my kit for a couple years. I mostly do hobby filter design and audio synthesis.

Do you have a link to the "passsive components"? What sort of thigns were you able to get in that pack?

I won't link any, but it's probably cheaper to buy variety packs of individual types of components. Search on eBay for "resistor assortment", "transistor assortment", "electrolytic capacitor assortment", "diode assortment", "LED assortment", "ceramic capacitor assortment", etc. Each of these packs of a few thousand mixed components are $0.50 to $4 shipped worldwide from China. Then pick up the most common ICs like the ne555p, lm741, lm393, pc817, etc. The game here is quantity over quality, so you never need a part that you don't have. Once you prototype your idea, then use Mouser to pick out your parts made with better quality control, although they're 10x more expensive. But this isn't a problem, as you should know exactly what you need after a prototype.

Re: Show HN: Learn how to build electronics with monthly kits

#50

Post by AtheistOfFail »

Sir_Cmpwn wrote: post #46

My issue with learning electronics is that there's a steep gap between "plug this into that" and "plug this into that because x ". I want to learn how to reason about the latter. Most resources I've seen like this don't give you that, they just have a bunch of prefab projects and lead you through them with the former strategy. Fortunately I've been able to learn some of the latter on my own but it would be great to s…

So, get yourself a cheap arduino and an arduino circuits book.

Then look up each component and look at videos relating to them (most of them will include the technicals)

These kits are more for children in the software/hardware space.

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