Ask YC: Learning circuit/hardware; lab book? • Hacker News Board

Re: Ask YC: Learning circuit/hardware; lab book?

#21

Post by kurtosis » Sat, Mar 29, 2008, 8:01 PM UTC

Someone else mentioned this but I want to give another boost for the lab manual for the horowitz and hill's art of electronics - it's a little dated but still a great resource. For example I remember doing the project where you build a simple analog to digital converter. I had read the theory behind these devices many times without comprehension, but building the project illuminated it.

I've also found the ARRL handbooks to be extremely helpful for getting RF and microwave projects to work without sinking huge amounts of cash on expensive equipment like vector network analyzers.

Re: Ask YC: Learning circuit/hardware; lab book?

#22

Post by ph0rque » Sat, Mar 29, 2008, 8:11 PM UTC

watmough wrote: post #19

ph0rque wrote: post #11

Sorry if this is a bit off-topic, but I've had an idea for an online game that would secretly teach you circuit design. In the game, you would build a series of water pipes to preform a certain tasks for each level. The amount of water in a pipe would be voltage, and how fast the water flows would be current. The game would start off very simply, and after "beating" a level, you would get more devices available to co…

That's a really neat idea. I'm a programmer, and I wouldn't mind brainstorming with you if you wanted to try and put together a simple implementation. I'm just thinking that implementing components like resistors, diodes, and what-not sounds like a lot of fun.

Sounds good. I myself am a newbie programmer; just recently started to learn RoR. I'm busy with my startup, but I think it might be worthwhile to kick some ideas around. Drop me an email if you get a chance (my email is in my public profile).

Re: Ask YC: Learning circuit/hardware; lab book?

#23

Post by Emmjaykay » Sat, Mar 29, 2008, 9:10 PM UTC

gg wrote: post #14

I could probably list off $15,000 of Electrical Engineering course text books, but for getting into "hardware type projects" they really won't get you very far. You'll learn far more (and far more quickly) by finding more hacker oriented resources that will bootstrap you with absolutely necessary information and skip the rest. # Introductions # To begin with, Sparkfun[1] has a bunch of tutorials, including a great in…

Wow! lot sof links + text. Thank you for this information!

Re: Ask YC: Learning circuit/hardware; lab book?

#24

Post by Emmjaykay » Sat, Mar 29, 2008, 9:11 PM UTC

ph0rque wrote: post #11

Sorry if this is a bit off-topic, but I've had an idea for an online game that would secretly teach you circuit design. In the game, you would build a series of water pipes to preform a certain tasks for each level. The amount of water in a pipe would be voltage, and how fast the water flows would be current. The game would start off very simply, and after "beating" a level, you would get more devices available to co…

Not at all! As an aside, http://www.mmoworkshop.com/trac/mom/phpbb might be of interest but it is mostly kits for MMOs

Re: Ask YC: Learning circuit/hardware; lab book?

#25

Post by Emmjaykay » Sat, Mar 29, 2008, 9:14 PM UTC

bprater wrote: post #15

You may want to get started by jumping into the BasicStamp world. The advantage is that it is programmable, so it's be straightforward for you to make it "do stuff". Get it with the development board and you can make LEDs blink, drive a LCD panel, etc. Grab a high-level book on robotics and bam! it'll quickly click how all this fits together. It's high-level way to start, but a great way to dive into the hardware wor…

I've seen the BoeBot and it is quite adorable. I was wanting to put my software skills to a real test, though and I don't know if there is enough space on a BasicStamp chip. But it does seem like a good place to start! Even, still, I need to be aware of how components come together if I want to do something fancy on the bread board (don't want to short stuff out,e tc).

Re: Ask YC: Learning circuit/hardware; lab book?

#26

Post by Emmjaykay » Sat, Mar 29, 2008, 9:16 PM UTC

izak30 wrote: post #8

yangyang42 wrote: post #6

I don't have any good books in mind, but I think you need to know what you're really interested in learning about hardware. Define "very, very familiar with electronics." You might want to think about electronics on several level and topics: - Board Level: Op Amps, Feedback Control Systems... etc. - Chip Level IC design: Analog IC design, Bipolar/CMOS design... etc. - Firmware: C, Assembly language... ...each of thes…

I agree, what is "very, very familiar"? I would buy a circuit kit, like the one for 12 year olds, and you can knock out those projects pretty quickly, but they usually come with schematics and pieces for 100 projects or so. RadioShack sells them, but when you want to buy more parts, don't go there, go to Jamco or Digikey. Learning Chip Level IC means learning how to reduce binary functions, there are many 'tricks' to…

The Arudino looks neat. I will definitely keep it in mind. I have taken digital electronics while in college and do remember k-maps and so forth, so it should hopefully not be too far ahead of me. :) Thanks again!

Re: Ask YC: Learning circuit/hardware; lab book?

#27

Post by Emmjaykay » Sat, Mar 29, 2008, 9:19 PM UTC

yangyang42 wrote: post #6

I don't have any good books in mind, but I think you need to know what you're really interested in learning about hardware. Define "very, very familiar with electronics." You might want to think about electronics on several level and topics: - Board Level: Op Amps, Feedback Control Systems... etc. - Chip Level IC design: Analog IC design, Bipolar/CMOS design... etc. - Firmware: C, Assembly language... ...each of thes…

This seems like a neat way to break it down. Thanks for your suggestions!

Re: Ask YC: Learning circuit/hardware; lab book?

#28

Post by Emmjaykay » Sat, Mar 29, 2008, 9:23 PM UTC

kurtosis wrote: post #21

Someone else mentioned this but I want to give another boost for the lab manual for the horowitz and hill's art of electronics - it's a little dated but still a great resource. For example I remember doing the project where you build a simple analog to digital converter. I had read the theory behind these devices many times without comprehension, but building the project illuminated it. I've also found the ARRL handb…

I didn't realize that the Hill/Horowitz book also has a companion lab manual. It looks something like I would like to have. Some of the books in the ARRL store look neat, too. Thanks!

Re: Ask YC: Learning circuit/hardware; lab book?

#29

Post by Emmjaykay » Sat, Mar 29, 2008, 9:26 PM UTC

mdakin wrote: post #20

Digital and analog circuit design are art-like activities and doing them with grace requires knowledge of many other levels of abstraction all the way down to physics. It is possible to lack these fundamentals and become a decent designer by doing design and filling in the gaps as you go but that is the exception and not the rule. And I have only ever seen this exception happen with the help of a real-life mentor and…

The hands on approach definitely appeals to me. I've thought about a local community college but the hours are not compatible with work.

I guess I could n ot worry about details but part of me is genuinely curious about how that stuff works. :)

Re: Ask YC: Learning circuit/hardware; lab book?

#30

Post by krschultz » Sat, Mar 29, 2008, 9:27 PM UTC

Have you looked into MIT's open course ware stuff?

http://ocw.mit.edu/OcwWeb/Electrical-Engineering-and-Compute...

That is probably a good place to start although some background with physics and differential equations might be helpful.