R
Rui Maciel
Guest
I'm looking into picking up electronics as a hobby. What advice can you spare?
Thanks in advance,
Rui Maciel
Thanks in advance,
Rui Maciel
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1
1jam
Guest
Cydrome Leader wrote:
out a magazine like Nuts & Volts.
good one. Also get a book on basic / beginner electronics and maybe checkRui Maciel <rui.maciel@gmail.com> wrote:
I'm looking into picking up electronics as a hobby. What advice can you
spare?
Thanks in advance,
Rui Maciel
start to tear things apart.
out a magazine like Nuts & Volts.
R
Rui Maciel
Guest
Cydrome Leader wrote:
Rui Maciel
Could you elaborate on that?start to tear things apart.
Rui Maciel
R
Rui Maciel
Guest
1jam wrote:
Volts, I would prefer to keep away from providers of subscription-only content. Are there any sites
that are worth following?
Rui Maciel
What information should be covered in those basic/beginner electronics books? Regarding Nuts &good one. Also get a book on basic / beginner electronics and maybe check
out a magazine like Nuts & Volts.
Volts, I would prefer to keep away from providers of subscription-only content. Are there any sites
that are worth following?
Rui Maciel
E
ED
Guest
"Rui Maciel" <rui.maciel@gmail.com> wrote in message
news:4c3b1d01$0$494$a729d347@news.telepac.pt...
take a look at this:
http://www.electronickits.com/Books/Electronics%20For%20Dummies.htm
news:4c3b1d01$0$494$a729d347@news.telepac.pt...
You've said nothing of your experience level. If you're very new at this,I'm looking into picking up electronics as a hobby. What advice can you
spare?
Thanks in advance,
Rui Maciel
take a look at this:
http://www.electronickits.com/Books/Electronics%20For%20Dummies.htm
J
John Doe
Guest
An LED flasher!
C
Cydrome Leader
Guest
Rui Maciel <rui.maciel@gmail.com> wrote:
start to tear things apart.I'm looking into picking up electronics as a hobby. What advice can you spare?
Thanks in advance,
Rui Maciel
J
John Larkin
Guest
On Mon, 12 Jul 2010 14:47:45 +0100, Rui Maciel <rui.maciel@gmail.com>
wrote:
math as much as you can.
John
wrote:
Get Win Hill's book, The Art of Electronics. And try to follow theI'm looking into picking up electronics as a hobby. What advice can you spare?
Thanks in advance,
Rui Maciel
math as much as you can.
John
R
Rui Maciel
Guest
George Herold wrote:
powered fans, but it would be great if I could go from there onto building simple peripherals that
could interface with personal computers.
in order.
Rui Maciel
My short term goal is to be able to make terribly simple stuff, such as LED flashlights and solar-What kinds of stuff are you interested in. Computers and micro's?
Audio stuff, hacking existing products, blowing things up and making
big sparks, Ham radio, electric power, robots,????
powered fans, but it would be great if I could go from there onto building simple peripherals that
could interface with personal computers.
No, I'm a bit empty-handed on this one. What gear do you suggest? I guess at least a multimeter isDo yu have any gear or access to it? Gear is the stuff you use to do
electronics, oscilloscopes, signal generators, power supplies,
voltmeters, and all that.
in order.
Rui Maciel
R
Rui Maciel
Guest
John Doe wrote:
problem-free.
What do you recommend I should read/purchase before I start this sort of project?
Rui Maciel
Oddly enough, building a LED flash light did crossed my mind. It looks simple enough and somewhatAn LED flasher!
problem-free.
What do you recommend I should read/purchase before I start this sort of project?
Rui Maciel
R
Rui Maciel
Guest
ED wrote:
blur by now) and it never delved beyond the basics. What topics do you suggest I should wrap my
head around?
Rui Maciel
I've had a electromagnetic field and waves course in college, but it was a long time ago (it's all aYou've said nothing of your experience level. If you're very new at this,
take a look at this:
http://www.electronickits.com/Books/Electronics%20For%20Dummies.htm
blur by now) and it never delved beyond the basics. What topics do you suggest I should wrap my
head around?
Rui Maciel
C
Cydrome Leader
Guest
Rui Maciel <rui.maciel@gmail.com> wrote:
inside, see the parts, touch them, read about them.
cheap junk electronics is a good source of parts too.
you can grab a cheap am radio, remove the cover and even just poke around
at the parts while it's on.
somebody mentioned an LED flasher. this is a fairly easy project, and a
good start. You can probably find LEDs just looking in the garbage for 3
seconds.
Reading books and stuff in the inernet is great, but cannot ever replace
actually using your hands and just playing with parts to see what happens,
or even just learning how to take things apart and to put them back
together again.
take things apart if they're not dangerous and aren't expensive. LookCydrome Leader wrote:
start to tear things apart.
Could you elaborate on that?
Rui Maciel
inside, see the parts, touch them, read about them.
cheap junk electronics is a good source of parts too.
you can grab a cheap am radio, remove the cover and even just poke around
at the parts while it's on.
somebody mentioned an LED flasher. this is a fairly easy project, and a
good start. You can probably find LEDs just looking in the garbage for 3
seconds.
Reading books and stuff in the inernet is great, but cannot ever replace
actually using your hands and just playing with parts to see what happens,
or even just learning how to take things apart and to put them back
together again.
G
George Herold
Guest
On Jul 12, 9:47 am, Rui Maciel <rui.mac...@gmail.com> wrote:
Audio stuff, hacking existing products, blowing things up and making
big sparks, Ham radio, electric power, robots,????
Do yu have any gear or access to it? Gear is the stuff you use to do
electronics, oscilloscopes, signal generators, power supplies,
voltmeters, and all that.
George H.
What kinds of stuff are you interested in. Computers and micro's?I'm looking into picking up electronics as a hobby. What advice can you spare?
Thanks in advance,
Rui Maciel
Audio stuff, hacking existing products, blowing things up and making
big sparks, Ham radio, electric power, robots,????
Do yu have any gear or access to it? Gear is the stuff you use to do
electronics, oscilloscopes, signal generators, power supplies,
voltmeters, and all that.
George H.
S
Sjouke Burry
Guest
Rui Maciel wrote:
For fun:ED wrote:
You've said nothing of your experience level. If you're very new at this,
take a look at this:
http://www.electronickits.com/Books/Electronics%20For%20Dummies.htm
I've had a electromagnetic field and waves course in college, but it was a long time ago (it's all a
blur by now) and it never delved beyond the basics. What topics do you suggest I should wrap my
head around?
Rui Maciel
All do fun things with electricity(and other stuff).http://scitoys.com/
http://www.exploratorium.edu/snacks/snacksbysubject.html
http://www.funsci.com/texts/index_en.htm
D
David Eather
Guest
On 12/07/2010 11:47 PM, Rui Maciel wrote:
http://www.sparkfun.com/commerce/product_info.php?products_id=9600
I'm looking into picking up electronics as a hobby. What advice can you spare?
Thanks in advance,
Rui Maciel
http://www.sparkfun.com/commerce/product_info.php?products_id=9600
J
John Doe
Guest
Rui Maciel <rui.maciel gmail.com> wrote:
called "electronics handbooks" maybe from RadioShack. They were
small cheap paper pamphlet style books that diagrammed simple
circuits you can make with some basic integrated circuits (ICs).
Another source of circuits, again for building stuff, was National
Semiconductor's 1988 CMOS Logic Data Book (available on CD about
the time I stopped using it). I would bet that nowadays you can
find massive amounts of all levels of circuits on CDs. That is
what I would look for.
Also not long before I stopped enthusiastic electronics hobbying,
I made a Tonal Voltmeter that might be instructive if not useful
for electronics. If you can work your way up to that, I would make
one as soon as possible. It lets you listen to small voltage
output waveforms. It requires little more than a CD4046 IC. You
can find it on the Internet doing a search for "Tonal Voltmeter".
I sure wish they would include it on a voltmeter/multimeter, it
would be a simple addition. Then again, that would make little
difference to me now, my current interests are skating and gaming.
Electronics is powerful stuff, I still reminisce and get that
"force" feeling from time to time.
Whatever you eventually decide to do, good luck and have fun.
As I recall, the first do-it-yourself references I used wereJohn Doe wrote:
An LED flasher!
What do you recommend I should read/purchase before I start this
sort of project?
called "electronics handbooks" maybe from RadioShack. They were
small cheap paper pamphlet style books that diagrammed simple
circuits you can make with some basic integrated circuits (ICs).
Another source of circuits, again for building stuff, was National
Semiconductor's 1988 CMOS Logic Data Book (available on CD about
the time I stopped using it). I would bet that nowadays you can
find massive amounts of all levels of circuits on CDs. That is
what I would look for.
Also not long before I stopped enthusiastic electronics hobbying,
I made a Tonal Voltmeter that might be instructive if not useful
for electronics. If you can work your way up to that, I would make
one as soon as possible. It lets you listen to small voltage
output waveforms. It requires little more than a CD4046 IC. You
can find it on the Internet doing a search for "Tonal Voltmeter".
I sure wish they would include it on a voltmeter/multimeter, it
would be a simple addition. Then again, that would make little
difference to me now, my current interests are skating and gaming.
Electronics is powerful stuff, I still reminisce and get that
"force" feeling from time to time.
Whatever you eventually decide to do, good luck and have fun.
J
John Doe
Guest
On second thought, I would probably skip CDs and just find the exampleI would bet that nowadays you can find massive amounts of all
levels of circuits on CDs. That is what I would look for.
circuits on the Internet.
J
Jasen Betts
Guest
On 2010-07-12, Rui Maciel <rui.maciel@gmail.com> wrote:
but it's good to have somthing you can kick too.
electronics hobby magazines.
at instructibles is sometimes wanting.
There's some free lectures here too.
http://ocw.mit.edu/courses/electrical-engineering-and-computer-science/6-002-circuits-and-electronics-spring-2007/
--- news://freenews.netfront.net/ - complaints: news@netfront.net ---
The book should have some projects you can build, theory is important,1jam wrote:
good one. Also get a book on basic / beginner electronics and maybe check
out a magazine like Nuts & Volts.
What information should be covered in those basic/beginner electronics books?
but it's good to have somthing you can kick too.
Check out a few public libraries you may find one with a collection ofRegarding Nuts &
Volts, I would prefer to keep away from providers of subscription-only content.
electronics hobby magazines.
makezine and instructibles often have good stuff, although the qualityAre there any sites that are worth following?
at instructibles is sometimes wanting.
There's some free lectures here too.
http://ocw.mit.edu/courses/electrical-engineering-and-computer-science/6-002-circuits-and-electronics-spring-2007/
--- news://freenews.netfront.net/ - complaints: news@netfront.net ---
J
JW
Guest
On Mon, 12 Jul 2010 21:06:30 +0000 (UTC) Cydrome Leader
<presence@MUNGEpanix.com> wrote in Message id:
<i1g04m$aig$2@reader1.panix.com>:
<presence@MUNGEpanix.com> wrote in Message id:
<i1g04m$aig$2@reader1.panix.com>:
Battery powered of course, if poking with your fingers!you can grab a cheap am radio, remove the cover and even just poke around
at the parts while it's on.
B
Bob Masta
Guest
On Mon, 12 Jul 2010 23:11:54 +0100, Rui Maciel
<rui.maciel@gmail.com> wrote:
demise of DOS it has gotten *much* harder to build simple
peripherals. Used to be you could use the parallel printer
port for lots of neat interface tricks, from digital I/O to
simple A/D and D/A. But printer ports are all replaced by
USB these days, so a "simple" peripheral usually requires a
not-so-simple USB interface and driver software.
One thing that almost every computer has, however, is a
sound card. This is not only something you can use to
generate and analyze audio-range signals (see sig), but it
can also be a way to interface certain devices to the
computer. You have to deal with the fact that sound cards
don't respond to DC, nor to really high frequencies, but
that still leaves a lot of room for useful projects.
As one simple example, you can use the sound card to measure
frequency, so if you have some sensor (temperature,
pressure, etc) that only responds to DC, you can build a
simple voltage-to-frequency converter and use the sound card
to measure the resulting frequency.
cheapie. Harbor Freight has nifty little units that are
often on sale for a couple of bucks... including battery!
The drawback over a pro-level meter is that they don't have
low AC Volts ranges (but they do have low DC Volts). So,
use this as an excuse to build a little precision recifier
and filter circuit, so you can read AC on the DC range.
You can use the sound card to measure low AC volts,
including true RMS (which cheap DMMs don't do), but you'll
have to calibrate the inputs if you want absolute results...
there is no way to get calibration data from the sound card
driver, etc. But you can do a lot of useful things with
only relative measurements, which don't require any
calibration. (For example, distortion is a relative
measurement.)
But back to simple circuits: I always enjoyed
sound-generating circuits. They can be as simple or complex
as your abilities, and it's great fun to hear the results.
The sound card can help you visualize the results, since it
was designed for just this audio range.
It wouldn't hurt to have a "real" hardware scope as well,
but you can save that expense for later, when you really
need high-frequency or DC capabilities.
I use a 100 MHz hardware scope for general-purpose stuff,
and the sound card (and software) for audio stuff. The
"real" scope is an old analog model, so it doesn't have the
fancy spectrum analysis features that you can get on
high-end digital scopes. But (for me, anyway) I can do all
that with the sound card, plus lots more (like color
spectrograms) that the digital scopes don't do.
Best regards,
Bob Masta
DAQARTA v5.10
Data AcQuisition And Real-Time Analysis
www.daqarta.com
Scope, Spectrum, Spectrogram, Sound Level Meter
Frequency Counter, FREE Signal Generator
Pitch Track, Pitch-to-MIDI
DaqMusic - FREE MUSIC, Forever!
(Some assembly required)
Science (and fun!) with your sound card!
<rui.maciel@gmail.com> wrote:
Just so you don't get any false hopes, note that since theGeorge Herold wrote:
What kinds of stuff are you interested in. Computers and micro's?
Audio stuff, hacking existing products, blowing things up and making
big sparks, Ham radio, electric power, robots,????
My short term goal is to be able to make terribly simple stuff, such as LED flashlights and solar-
powered fans, but it would be great if I could go from there onto building simple peripherals that
could interface with personal computers.
demise of DOS it has gotten *much* harder to build simple
peripherals. Used to be you could use the parallel printer
port for lots of neat interface tricks, from digital I/O to
simple A/D and D/A. But printer ports are all replaced by
USB these days, so a "simple" peripheral usually requires a
not-so-simple USB interface and driver software.
One thing that almost every computer has, however, is a
sound card. This is not only something you can use to
generate and analyze audio-range signals (see sig), but it
can also be a way to interface certain devices to the
computer. You have to deal with the fact that sound cards
don't respond to DC, nor to really high frequencies, but
that still leaves a lot of room for useful projects.
As one simple example, you can use the sound card to measure
frequency, so if you have some sensor (temperature,
pressure, etc) that only responds to DC, you can build a
simple voltage-to-frequency converter and use the sound card
to measure the resulting frequency.
You absolutely need a DMM, but you can start out with a realDo yu have any gear or access to it? Gear is the stuff you use to do
electronics, oscilloscopes, signal generators, power supplies,
voltmeters, and all that.
No, I'm a bit empty-handed on this one. What gear do you suggest? I guess at least a multimeter is
in order.
cheapie. Harbor Freight has nifty little units that are
often on sale for a couple of bucks... including battery!
The drawback over a pro-level meter is that they don't have
low AC Volts ranges (but they do have low DC Volts). So,
use this as an excuse to build a little precision recifier
and filter circuit, so you can read AC on the DC range.
You can use the sound card to measure low AC volts,
including true RMS (which cheap DMMs don't do), but you'll
have to calibrate the inputs if you want absolute results...
there is no way to get calibration data from the sound card
driver, etc. But you can do a lot of useful things with
only relative measurements, which don't require any
calibration. (For example, distortion is a relative
measurement.)
But back to simple circuits: I always enjoyed
sound-generating circuits. They can be as simple or complex
as your abilities, and it's great fun to hear the results.
The sound card can help you visualize the results, since it
was designed for just this audio range.
It wouldn't hurt to have a "real" hardware scope as well,
but you can save that expense for later, when you really
need high-frequency or DC capabilities.
I use a 100 MHz hardware scope for general-purpose stuff,
and the sound card (and software) for audio stuff. The
"real" scope is an old analog model, so it doesn't have the
fancy spectrum analysis features that you can get on
high-end digital scopes. But (for me, anyway) I can do all
that with the sound card, plus lots more (like color
spectrograms) that the digital scopes don't do.
Best regards,
Bob Masta
DAQARTA v5.10
Data AcQuisition And Real-Time Analysis
www.daqarta.com
Scope, Spectrum, Spectrogram, Sound Level Meter
Frequency Counter, FREE Signal Generator
Pitch Track, Pitch-to-MIDI
DaqMusic - FREE MUSIC, Forever!
(Some assembly required)
Science (and fun!) with your sound card!