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How I learned electronics [video]

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Re: How I learned electronics [video]

#51

Post by buescher »

sigmaprimus wrote: post #30
exDM69 wrote: post #23

Earlier quoted context omitted.

A hobbyist grade electronics lab doesn't need a lot of space and it's not super expensive either. You can get a lot of projects done with tools and components that fit in a shoe box. Learning electronics is easier than ever before. You can buy smartphone-sized oscilloscopes for less than $200 or even use your smartphone or computer as an oscilloscope/signal generator if you work with audio frequencies. Or plug in a m…

Just curious, I see many people comment on buying or having a oscilloscope for beginning electronics. My question is how many people actually use these devices for anything other than trivial purposes these days? I feel that mine just collects dust and takes up space and does not compare to my multimeter which is probably my most used tool, but maybe I'm missing something.

You will use a multimeter a lot more than an oscilloscope.

An oscilloscope is invaluable if something dynamic isn't working correctly. All that LCR stuff becomes real when you can see it. SPI bus and i2c bus issues become possible to visualize - though a protocol analyzer is even nicer, a scope will do.

Re: How I learned electronics [video]

#52

Post by nhecker »

II2II wrote: post #39
sigmaprimus wrote: post #30

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Just curious, I see many people comment on buying or having a oscilloscope for beginning electronics. My question is how many people actually use these devices for anything other than trivial purposes these days? I feel that mine just collects dust and takes up space and does not compare to my multimeter which is probably my most used tool, but maybe I'm missing something.

From my limited experience, oscilloscopes are useful while learning since you can see what is happening in the circuit. For example, you can build an oscillator or filter circuit then have a visual of the results. In terms of needing one: no, if you can borrow one or have access to someone else's lab. Oscilloscopes have relatively low benefit given the cost. They will either be too low frequency to be of value for ma…

In my (also limited) experience I was able to get by with just a high-impedance piezo earpiece I could listen to in order to debug audio-frequency circuits. Ears are surprisingly sensitive detectors and can provide quite a bit of data into your brain. Some higher-frequency circuits you can still debug, but not well or at least not as thoroughly. It's not a perfect solution, but dirt cheap, and consumes a tiny amount of space. It's instant feedback and after a while you can start recognizing (guessing at?) different waveforms and types of signal quirks. I've found that a surprisingly useful part of my kit over the years. Just stay away from high voltage!

Re: How I learned electronics [video]

#53

Post by pjc50 »

k_sze wrote: post #11

How do you learn electronics when you don’t have access to a lab? I live in HK, where real estate is at a premium. I’m a family of 4 people, living in a 700 sq-ft home with no garage. (And I’m reckoned to be on the fortunate side of things.) There is no way I can set up a home lab here. I know there are circuit simulators, but simulators are not the real thing. I think that simulators (the free ones that I know of an…

While a lot of us learned from breadboards, you could go straight into surface mount these days, which takes up a lot less space. Can keep an entire catalogue of parts in the size of a large book.

Re: How I learned electronics [video]

#54

Post by showerst »

If you're interested in starting electronics, I recommend getting one of the elegoo ardiuno kits off of amazon. They're a surprisingly good hands on way to learn a bunch of basic theory and how to use common parts and sensors.

Re: How I learned electronics [video]

#55

Post by buescher »

nhecker wrote: post #52
II2II wrote: post #39

Earlier quoted context omitted.

From my limited experience, oscilloscopes are useful while learning since you can see what is happening in the circuit. For example, you can build an oscillator or filter circuit then have a visual of the results. In terms of needing one: no, if you can borrow one or have access to someone else's lab. Oscilloscopes have relatively low benefit given the cost. They will either be too low frequency to be of value for ma…

In my (also limited) experience I was able to get by with just a high-impedance piezo earpiece I could listen to in order to debug audio-frequency circuits. Ears are surprisingly sensitive detectors and can provide quite a bit of data into your brain. Some higher-frequency circuits you can still debug, but not well or at least not as thoroughly. It's not a perfect solution, but dirt cheap, and consumes a tiny amount…

The poor-man's scope, yes. I still have an AM-radio-sized battery-operated amplifier from Radio Shack in my toolbox, but it's been a long time since I used it.

An AM radio works too, and works above audio frequencies, wirelessly! The loopstick will pick up harmonics off everything in the circuit so you can hear a lot of what's going on. Helps to know what might be going on though.

I had a boss that had retired the following interview question (maybe it was a PhD qual question, I forget): He'd give the candidate a portable TV and an AM radio and have them measure the horizontal scan frequency of the TV. It was probably a chestnut in some circles.

Re: How I learned electronics [video]

#56

Post by keithnz »

k_sze wrote: post #11

How do you learn electronics when you don’t have access to a lab? I live in HK, where real estate is at a premium. I’m a family of 4 people, living in a 700 sq-ft home with no garage. (And I’m reckoned to be on the fortunate side of things.) There is no way I can set up a home lab here. I know there are circuit simulators, but simulators are not the real thing. I think that simulators (the free ones that I know of an…

soldering iron, solder, and solder sucker don't take much space. But start with bread boards, and wire strippers/cutter and a multi meter, then add in a scope. You can do most everything in the same space a keyboard / mouse take up on a desk. Get creative with finding plastic containers to store parts, and then just put them all in a small suit case. If you get the electronics bug, you'll naturally work out how to grow your area. I mostly just stick with a small kit of stuff for random things using dev boards mostly. Once you get confident, you can get boards made for cheap, then solder it together yourself, but you can get a lot of it done for you, which you will want with surface mount components.

Re: How I learned electronics [video]

#57

Post by keithnz »

sigmaprimus wrote: post #30
exDM69 wrote: post #23

Earlier quoted context omitted.

A hobbyist grade electronics lab doesn't need a lot of space and it's not super expensive either. You can get a lot of projects done with tools and components that fit in a shoe box. Learning electronics is easier than ever before. You can buy smartphone-sized oscilloscopes for less than $200 or even use your smartphone or computer as an oscilloscope/signal generator if you work with audio frequencies. Or plug in a m…

Just curious, I see many people comment on buying or having a oscilloscope for beginning electronics. My question is how many people actually use these devices for anything other than trivial purposes these days? I feel that mine just collects dust and takes up space and does not compare to my multimeter which is probably my most used tool, but maybe I'm missing something.

scopes are like EEs console.log / print / writeline

Re: How I learned electronics [video]

#58

Post by asar »

int3rlop3r wrote: post #5

Another awesome youtube channel (Ben Eater) - https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCS0N5baNlQWJCUrhCEo8WlA

My favorite is TPAI https://www.youtube.com/c/ThePostApocalypticInventor

He has a very interesting series of videos on repairing a wide variety of things he buys from scrapyards in Germany.

Re: How I learned electronics [video]

#59

Post by Stevvo »

clktmr wrote: post #15
k_sze wrote: post #11

How do you learn electronics when you don’t have access to a lab? I live in HK, where real estate is at a premium. I’m a family of 4 people, living in a 700 sq-ft home with no garage. (And I’m reckoned to be on the fortunate side of things.) There is no way I can set up a home lab here. I know there are circuit simulators, but simulators are not the real thing. I think that simulators (the free ones that I know of an…

You can start with a breadboard, oscilloscope and a set of standard parts (LEDs, resistors, capacitors, inductors, diodes). Combine this with a microcontroller you can flash via USB dongle or an RaspberryPi. Should all fit on a desk. The lab is really only necessary for soldering and creating custom PCBs.

Oscilloscope is probably overkill for starting out, better a good multimeter for much cheaper.

Be careful with the microcontrollers; it's easy to fry them when you make mistakes!

Re: How I learned electronics [video]

#60

Post by contingencies »

k_sze wrote: post #11

How do you learn electronics when you don’t have access to a lab? I live in HK, where real estate is at a premium. I’m a family of 4 people, living in a 700 sq-ft home with no garage. (And I’m reckoned to be on the fortunate side of things.) There is no way I can set up a home lab here. I know there are circuit simulators, but simulators are not the real thing. I think that simulators (the free ones that I know of an…

Just across the water in Zhuhai here. Used to have some friends doing electronics in HK Island apartments. If you are ruthless about space you can fit a lot in to no space at all. Vertical helps. For an example just look at any phone repair stall. Buy them a beer and chat to them about it. The basics are an oscilloscope, multimeter and soldering iron; a good bench PSU helps. Avoid the yesteryear learning method of storing and manually mounting components, instead order circuit boards with SMT components: far more relevant today and far more efficient in space, time and money terms.
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