Maker Pro
Maker Pro

An intro

Sparky_zap

Jan 10, 2021
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Jan 10, 2021
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This is just a short into about me and a few questions... I'm a 16 yo engineering student, hoping for a career in energy/electronics. As such I'm getting into doing small projects just for fun.
Does anyone have any suggestions for projects or tips for getting resources as I tend to scavenge parts from broken or old stuff.. I find it fun. Many thanks
 

Nanren888

Nov 8, 2015
622
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Nov 8, 2015
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Welcome aboard.
small projects just for fun.
Wide range of accessible options nowadays.
Give an idea of the style, your interests?
Are you into analog, audio, digital, programming, ARM, arduino, Raspberry PI, phase control, robotics, AI on a PC?
There are also quite a few sites offering projects & project ideas. maybe Google for ideas.
Also some very good sites and online books on electronics basics.
Some online magazines are full of project examples, or some retailers offer project ideas & directions aimed at selling product.
 

Sparky_zap

Jan 10, 2021
14
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Jan 10, 2021
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14
Welcome aboard.

Wide range of accessible options nowadays.
Give an idea of the style, your interests?
Are you into analog, audio, digital, programming, ARM, arduino, Raspberry PI, phase control, robotics, AI on a PC?
There are also quite a few sites offering projects & project ideas. maybe Google for ideas.
Also some very good sites and online books on electronics basics.
Some online magazines are full of project examples, or some retailers offer project ideas & directions aimed at selling product.
Thanks for the tips.. I'll take a look, and to be honest I'm a complete noob and wouldn't know where to start and so I can't say what I'd be into. I do like the idea of lasers and magnets/electromagnets.. Some insane stuff can be done with those
 

dave9

Mar 5, 2017
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Mar 5, 2017
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1,188
Much can be cannibalized from old equipment being thrown away or found at yard sales for practically nothing, including repair candidates, but another way to get a lot of cheap, and sometimes marginal quality parts, is the electronics surplus sites. If you're in the US that could be some like BGMicro, Electronic Goldmine, MPJA, to name a few, though today if you have a month to wait, there are a lot of cheap, also marginal quality parts, coming direct from China and found on ebay or aliexpress.

IMO, LED projects are a better place to start than lasers, unless you are pretty disciplined as you can cause eye damage in an instant.
 

Harald Kapp

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Nov 17, 2011
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IMO, LED projects are a better place to start than lasers, unless you are pretty disciplined as you can cause eye damage in an instant.
I second that.
Before starting to work on the more dangerous stuff, get some practice with more harmless projects.
 

Frankchie

Nov 14, 2017
149
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Nov 14, 2017
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149
I would start with a electronic project kit like the one below. One reason I like this kit is that it includes a basic voltmeter and ammeter, instruments that are necessary to understand circuits. Many kits don't have such instruments. If you are a total newbie to electronics this kit looks pretty good to me. I didn't spend much time looking at kits so there may be better ones around.

https://www.amazon.com/EUDAX-Electr...electronic+training+kit&qid=1610379926&sr=8-7
 

Nanren888

Nov 8, 2015
622
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Nov 8, 2015
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I have learned a lot using the EE kits from philips more than 40 years ago:
http://ee.old.no/
Now you have the snap series from other makers:
https://www.amazon.com/s?k=electronic+training+kit+snap

Would second both of these. Great learning tools.
Comparing kits that allow multiple circuits to be built reliably, I have never seen one that rivals the Philips ones available for a time, well, yes more than 40 years ago. But a wide variety are available with updated components and various attachment/connection technologies.
The snap-circuits (~brainbox) kits were a lot of fun 40+ years later. Simple, easy, informative.
 
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