design course and resources wanted

[ehab abbas]

Hello everyone
I'm an electrical engineer and never did design before, I am working now
as technologist.
I like to learn design. does anybody know about good courses in Toronto
area in Canada or some resources sites . Thanks for reading

Ed

 

[[email protected]]

Just what exactly do you want to design?

It's been pointed out on this group and many others that design skills
come with experience, so the quick answer is that you go get some
experience. However, there are plenty of fundamental skills that aren't
taught in EE or ET programmes that you could certainly teach yourself,
and people here will be happy to point you towards some good resources.
But all this is dependent on what you want to design.

There's plenty of resources of one sort or another in the Toronto area,
but all are specific to certain areas of electrical engineering.

If you respond with what it is that you are interested in learning
about the design of, there may be some more specific answers I can give
you.

Cheers,

Chris

 

[Luhan Monat]

Hello everyone
I'm an electrical engineer and never did design before, I am working now
as technologist.
I like to learn design. does anybody know about good courses in Toronto
area in Canada or some resources sites . Thanks for reading

Ed

I learned all my basic electroncs stuff out of the Radio Amateurs
Handbook. Its a great source for comprehensive knowledge (minus the
over abundance of seldom needed mathematics found in most'text' books).

 

[ehab abbas]

thank you very much for the reply. yes you are right I will try to
explain more in details.
I like to learn how to design logic circuits using CPLDs also iam
interested in learning about microcontroller cos I know C language and I
would love to learn how to program embedded microcontrollers.
Regards

Ed

 

[John Larkin]

Hello everyone
I'm an electrical engineer and never did design before, I am working now
as technologist.
I like to learn design. does anybody know about good courses in Toronto
area in Canada or some resources sites . Thanks for reading

Ed

Trying to learn electronic design in a classroom, or on the web,
would be about as effective as learning tennis in a classroom. Design
is not an intellectual activity; to learn how to design, just do it.
It would be helpful to design things in the presence of a mentor who
is already good at it, which implies a job with a small company, under
somebody who is willing to give you a job you can already do
productively but where you could gradually transition into design (if
you have the talent and temperament, which not everyone has.)

John

 

[Luhan Monat]

thank you very much for the reply. yes you are right I will try to
explain more in details.
I like to learn how to design logic circuits using CPLDs also iam
interested in learning about microcontroller cos I know C language and I
would love to learn how to program embedded microcontrollers.
Regards

Ed

I recommend a good development system in each area. Something that lets
you try things out and is helpful at debugging. Programming (in the
early phases) has much more to do with analyzing your mistakes than
anything else. Mostly *have fun*, if not, learning is an awfully big chore.

 

[[email protected]]

Ah, now we have a bit more information.

For microcontrollers, pick up a Microchip PIC (www.microchip.com) and a
programmer (various models available, ranging from dirt cheap to
several hundred $, google "PIC programmer"). The development
environment is free (look for MPLab on the Microchip site) Resources
abound on the net, www.piclist.com is a good start, as are the app
notes on the Microchip website. Pick a simple project and get started.
Learn from your mistakes. Start with something like making an LED blink
then work your up. C compilers are available, but cost $, start with
assembly first. Once you get the hang of PICs, other microcontrollers
will be easy to learn.

For CPLDs, the path is similar, but the learning curve is a bit more
steep. Both Altera and Xilinx have some cheap models, programmers can
be bought or made. I believe the basic development environment for both
costs some $, unless you are a student. Again, start with a small
project like a binary adder and work your way up. I'm not especially
familiar with what resources are out there for programmable logic
devices, but if you google something like "CPLD programming" or "FPGA
programming" you're bound to find something eventually.

Chris

 

[Rich Grise]

I learned all my basic electroncs stuff out of the Radio Amateurs
Handbook. Its a great source for comprehensive knowledge (minus the
over abundance of seldom needed mathematics found in most'text' books).

I'll second that. I had the 1963 edition. But I didn't actually _learn_
from the book - I learned by getting my hands on parts and building stuff.

Do they have Radio Shack or Fry's in Canada? They have hobbyist starter
kits. Learn what makes the 'bits' go up and down - the rest is
conversation.

Cheers!
Rich