
Ask HN: How do I get into electronics from scratch? - osrec
I&#x27;m a very enthusiastic hacker, and have built software for ages. It gives me immense enjoyment to the point my day job feels like a relaxing hobby.<p>For a while I&#x27;ve wanted to get into electronics. I&#x27;ve used a PIC programmer in the past, and have hacked around with a few electronics kits here and there (built a radio, some Christmas tree lights etc). I&#x27;ve got a good grasp of the mathematics involved too (probably a bit rusty currently, though)<p>I want to improve my ability to make custom electronic gadgets. Happy to start with something simple to build my understanding, and I&#x27;m prepared to put in the work. If feasible, I want to eventually become as comfortable with electronics as I am with software. I&#x27;m just not sure what&#x27;s the best way to go about it.<p>So HN, how do you suggest I proceed? Which tools&#x2F;books&#x2F;info really helped you become more confident when working with electronics?<p>Thank you very much in advance :)
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Hydraulix989
Read The Art of Electronics by Horowitz

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osrec
I have used parts of that book at university, and have a reasonable grasp on
parts of it. I assume it serves more as a reference, as you carry out more
practical exercises?

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Hydraulix989
Building circuits is a very different thing than designing them.

You can always start with digital too. It's easier to grasp if you're already
a software engineer.

Analog circuits will put new wrinkles in your brain though.

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roland35
I started out with a 300 in 1 electronics learning kit from RadioShack which
had a breadboard and lots of projects you could assemble to learn all the
basics, from resistors to diodes and transistors - and make fun projects like
door alarms and synthesizers.

RadioShack obviously does not make them any more but the good news is that
there are lots of other electronics kits out there now! Learning digital
design with an Arduino is great but it is also important to learn the analog
side of electronics too.

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sunstone
Having some idea of the context of the field wouldn't be a horrible place to
start. Just like say, software or structures, electronics covers a multitude
quite different things which like the others, start simple and get
exponentially more difficult to execute as complexity rises.

An example of a hard electronics thing would be the 5G radio for cell phones.
Intel spent millions (at least) trying to do this and failed. So don't start
with this as a project.

I recommend to start simple and pay attention to the "how to reason" about the
various things you encounter.

So a useful and simple way to start is with networks of resistors attached to
a 5 volt supply. If you're only interested in digital electronics start with
chips that implement nand nor type logic. In either case, do yourself a favour
and get a good wire wrap tool and sockets. It will take a few hours to use
these properly but will save you hours of heartache as you're learning.
(because breadboards cam have flakey connections that can take forever to
track down)

Digital is much like low level software so there's not much more you need to
learn to do this stuff in it's simple, and low frequency, implementations.

On the analogue side starting with resistor networks may sound simple but it
really is the basis of much of the reasoning needed to understand active
components as well.

Resistor networks can usefully be thought of as water flowing through a
network of pipes of different diameters. Design a few networks, calculate
voltages at various nodes and confirm with your circuit that you're
understanding is correct.

After resistors and in capacitors and inductors. Capacitors and inductors can
be thought of as resistors whose resistance various with the frequency of
current going through them. Mathematically they are the inverses of each
other.

The next level is to start with diodes, FET transistors and opamps.

Once you feel you have a handle on the physics of these and their mathematics
you would have a decent foundation for doing some real stuff.

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schappim
I'd highly recommend you checkout
[https://techexplorations.com/](https://techexplorations.com/) . They (Peter
Dalmaris[1]) has by far the best content for starting from scratch. He also
runs a bootcamp if you really need a helping hand.

Chris Gammell from Contextual Electronics and "The Amp Hour" podcast also has
good content
[https://contextualelectronics.com/](https://contextualelectronics.com/) .

[1]Disclosure: I often co-host an unrelated STEM podcast w/ Peter, so I'm
little biased.

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osrec
Thank you - I will check it out!

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h2odragon
Building a cheap 3d printer kit and improving it is a good project with
achievable goals. it might be lower level than you want to begin with. It need
not be more difficult than plugging boards together and routing wires but its
a good reason to learn about why those components need to be beefed up etc.

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mrfusion
This sounds fun. I never realized this was a possibility. Can you recommend
one?

~~~
h2odragon
I bought in October of last year, the market has had at least one generation
since then. so i might be dated telling you I got the "RepRapGuru" kits off
amazon returns and found them fun to put together.

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vinylkey
\- As recommended by another post, The Art of Electronics is great

\- Make stuff! Adafruit has some great kits and project instructions. Find
something that looks interesting and make it.

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spacedog11
I would recommend grabbing a Raspberry Pi and start tinkering with it. If you
want to learn about low level electronics, start by learning PCB design and
design your own custom board.

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xenospn
Start with a simple Aruino board from Adafruit. Tons of documentation and
kits, and an endless array of sample projects to get you started in every
direction.

~~~
roland35
I started with an Arduino myself. It is a simple and accessible piece of
electronics (basically just a microcontroller and a power supply) so it is
simple to understand.

This is for digital design at least, there is a lot more to electronics!

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Jugurtha
You can visit these excellent forums:

\- [https://www.electro-tech-online.com/](https://www.electro-tech-
online.com/)

\- [https://www.allaboutcircuits.com/](https://www.allaboutcircuits.com/)

\- [https://www.edaboard.com/](https://www.edaboard.com/)

The forums are extremely useful because you can submit your work for feedback
and they'd point out things you didn't even knew were a thing. For example,
suppose you're designing a PCB for your project. You can design your PCB,
submit it and ask for feedback. You'll then have a list of things that are
wrong in your board. Rinse, repeat. On something like the third board
iteration or fourth, you would have a board that is pretty darn good for a
beginner because it went under the eyes of really good people. You wouldn't
get there on your own on the third iteration and your board would still suck.
Your skills will take off pretty fast.

Forums are also good because you can see what people you interact with on a
regular basis are working on, their projects as they're building them, etc.

Analog:

There was a good site that had a recommendation for learning analog
electronics. It has changed but here's a link to a previous version:

\-
[https://web.archive.org/web/20170521151227/http://wisewartho...](https://web.archive.org/web/20170521151227/http://wisewarthog.com/)

\-
[https://web.archive.org/web/20160225152142/http://www.wisewa...](https://web.archive.org/web/20160225152142/http://www.wisewarthog.com/electronics/)

The site offers recommendation and a "track" as a function of your experience
and what you want to do. It also offered review of the materials recommended
(application notes, books, etc).

On PCB design:

 _PCB Design Tutorial_ , Dave Jones (eevblog): 25 pages of excellent
actionable information to make your boards professional looking (routing,
tracks, pads, etc.):

\-
[https://alternatezone.com/electronics/files/PCBDesignTutoria...](https://alternatezone.com/electronics/files/PCBDesignTutorialRevA.pdf)

Also from Dave Jones, check out his soldering tutorial if you want to solder:

\-
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J5Sb21qbpEQ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J5Sb21qbpEQ)

On entertaining and informative content:

Dave Jones channel in general is good to acquire culture. He also has in mind
that you might not be wanting to spend thousands of dollars and gives you good
quality/price ratio tools.

Ben Krasnow's "Applied Science" channel. This one is amazing.
[https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCivA7_KLKWo43tFcCkFvydw](https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCivA7_KLKWo43tFcCkFvydw).
Ben is concise and I like that a lot. He does not ramble. Technical talking.

Books:

For books, there's a big book by Tony Kuphaldt titled "Lessons in Electric
Circuits", available on his website
([https://www.ibiblio.org/kuphaldt/electricCircuits/](https://www.ibiblio.org/kuphaldt/electricCircuits/))
but also on the AllAboutCircuits forums.

Tony Kuphaldt is prolific and has another (3000+ page) book titled " _Lessons
in Industrial Instrumentation_ ", if you are interested in control and
instrumentation, feedback systems, etc:

\-
[https://www.ibiblio.org/kuphaldt/socratic/sinst/book/liii.pd...](https://www.ibiblio.org/kuphaldt/socratic/sinst/book/liii.pdf)

There's also "The Art of Electronics" to learn stuff every time you pick it
up.

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ausjke
there are some arm devkit too

