Need Help Starting Out

[Scott Greenberg]

I've taken a few electronics courses and learned some basic information, unfortunately it was mostly theoretical knowledge and I have no idea how to apply it to anything useful. I've built a few kits, but I want to be able to do more than just follow directions and "solder by number". Any tips where to start out? Good books to get on the subject? A refund of my college tuition?

[Jitters]

Poke around http://www.prodigy-pro.com/diy/ awhile and I'm sure you'll find what you're looking for.

[The Scum]

Get yourself the Student manual for the Art or Electronics (Horowitz & Hayes, the little comb bound book). Follow their recommendations on equipping a lab, as you can best afford to - oscilloscope, signal generator, solderless breadboard, power supply, etc. Then run through all of the lab exercises in the analog half of the book. It might help of you had the Horowitz & Hill book, too, to reinforce.

Download the spice package from Linear Tech, and get to know it.

Craig Anderton's Electronic Projects for Musicians has a bunch of circuits, with reasonable analyses...I spent years just studying them, before I was really comfortable with the concepts mentioned.

Get good with sourcing components. Mouser and Digikey are pretty good in the states...I've no experience elsewhere...

Get some Forrest Mims & Rudolf Graf books, build & analyze some of the more interesting circuits. Get the Bob Pease book, read it 3 times...he has similar recommendations for setting up a lab.

Will Opamp Labs still send free catalogs? Lots of neat little notes in there. Maybe Paia, too?

The Handbook for Sound Engineers (Ballou) has some good audio circuits. There's a brand new Douglas Self book that looks promising, too.

Scout the web for interesting articles - check out what Rod Elliott, Nelson Pass, Fred Forssell and Doug Self have written.

When you see some piece of gear with a patent number on it, go download the patent docs (uspto.gov among others) and analyze them.

Hit the newsstand and library from time to time...there are some periodicals that can have interesting stuff in 'em...some more consistently than others...Make, Nuts & Volts, Audio Express, Elektor, Circuit Cellar. There are also the electronics trade rags, usually free subscriptions - Electronics Design and EDN are the two best suited for design stuff.

Do you live near a hamfest?

There are piles of schematics and services manuals online...check out some of them. Borrow, analyze, improve...

[Scott Greenberg]

Thanks, lot of good information there,
couple questions though

Craig Anderton's Electronic Projects for Musicians

Everybody seems to be saying that this book is outdated and a lot of the projects aren't even build-able anymore because the components aren't available.

Do you think its still worth reading?

Whats the difference between Horowitz and Hill and the Horowitz and Hayes book? They kind of look the same.

Thanks for the help.

[The Scum]

If you're after concept and not paint by numbers, then Anderton's book is as good as it ever was. Just because you're studying his designs doesn't mean you need to build them.

I think Paia has an interposer for the obsolete opamps, too.

If you're going to get discouraged by obsolete components, then you might stop now...part of this DIY bug is being able to source components, and the internet is a tremendous resource in that game.

As to Hayes vs Hill? Ideally, you'll want both books, they're made to be a set. But the student manual gets you out of the theoretical and into the hands on, with a good effort made to bridge the gap...so it sounds like just the ticket for the situation you described.

[kslight]

I have the Craig Anderton book and it is fairly obsolete, not worth it unless you really want it.


Sounds stupid but I learned a lot from one of those learn electronics kits they sell at Radioshack...it uses real components and a solderless powered breadboard and has a couple books worth of projects (all components included) to learn from. Also shows a real schematic too so you get some kind of practical application. The one I got is written by Forrest Mims.

I wouldn't say I learned what I might from a college level program but it was relatively inexpensive ($60-70?) and I have put many many hours into doing the projects and studying them, as well as modifying them.

[single_fin]

i know you were asking after books:

but maybe the next step after kits could be -- buy PCBs and make those projects. you could say, make a modular synth or something from gyraf http://www.gyraf.dk/gy_pd/gyraf_diy.html.

or buy some vero board and look up the schematics for guitar pedals or some pieces of gear you like. maybe a hi-fi amp http://diyaudioprojects.com/ or guitar amp http://www.drtube.com/guitamp.htm. there are so many schematics on the web it makes my head spin with indecision.

[ThePitz]

I took a highschool class in electronics and then two in college. I didn't think it helped me at all UNTIL i started building kits. (mostly from generalguitargadgets.com.)

It's totally 'solder-by-numbers' - but if you go back and look at the actual schematic and try to follow it through from input to output - you'll pick up a lot on what it takes to pass and affect sound. Especially if you do a dozen or so of them and begin to see the similarities and differences.

Breadboarding it is great, too. It's awesome to be able to swap out parts and see how it affects (or defects) the sound.

+1 on getting your lab together, too. When I decided I was in it to win it I dropped about 400 bucks on 'common' parts and testing equipment and whatnot.

[Scott Greenberg]

Awesome. Thanks everybody.