Cranky One said:
What equipment do I need to get to learn the basics of AC/DC? I have
texts and online sources for the theory but I am not sure what hardware
I would need to augment the texts. The CIE courses are just too
expensive for me and I cannot find out what their "personal electronics
trainer" consists of.
I have seen many "personal electronics trainers" and they usually
consist of some kind of prototype board and some common components like
resistors, diodes, transistors, op-amps, etc..
You can get such things a lot cheaper buy buying it yourself as you need
it. Or buy an electronics experiment kit, usually found in toy stores.
Youngster who get such a kit can put together circuits and be happy that
it works, but you can also measure everything and do theoretical
calculations and check them in reality. And change the circuits far
beyond the simple instructions in the kit. It's the same components as in
a personal trainer. You just use it in another and more advanced way than
youngsters do who get such a kit for christmas.
But there is an even cheaper, and better, option.
Learn to use an electronics simulator and you can do electronics
experiments in your computer. That will add a very valuable experience to
your merits list, and you can do experiments without having to buy real
components and tools.
One of the best simulators is switchercad, and it's free.
http://ltspice.linear.com/software/swcadiii.exe
To find experiments to do you can take circuits from the theory sources
you have found, and from all the circuits for beginners you can find on
the web. Or from the electronics experimenters kit, if you got one.
You might still want to do some soldering experiments too, to get a feel
for the real components. Buy a cheap soldering iron and some pcb board
material and components and a cheap digital multimeter.
But such soldering experience is of very little value if you are looking
for a job, unless you want to move to Malaysia and get a work in a
factory and assemble circuits together with thousands of very low paid
malaysian women.
If you learn to work with a simulator in your computer you will have the
knowledge needed to design circuits, and that is of great value if you
want a future job in electronics.