Question probably gets asked a lot but, where do I start?

[Destryalhmns]

Hello all,

I'm very new to electronics. I do have a degree in Computer Information Systems but really all that covered was how to program computers. My ultimate goal is to be able to write a program and hook it up to a circuit board and have the circuit board do stuff... blink a light or whatever. I realize it could take a year or two of studying before I can do this.

Where should I start? I went down to the library and got a book on the basic math of electronics which I read a lot of and now have a decent idea of how to find the values of V, I, R, and P in different parts of a circuit. But the book never really explained HOW those things translate into functioning electronic devices.

So my question is how can I learn more about this? Say I want to build some kind of simple circuit and actually understand how it works. What should I do?

Thanks for your help

 

[jackorocko]

start to look up circuits that come with helpful explanations. Find simple circuits and study them, it will become clear when you try to modify a small circuit to suit your needs. That is when you can turn theory into practice.

You could always try out a legend, reading is slightly advanced but it shows some very useful circuits.
http://www.amazon.com/Art-Electronics-Paul-Horowitz/dp/0521370957/ref=pd_sim_sbs_b_6

 

[daddles]

Here are two possibilities, both of which I've done. First, buy a selection of parts and learn to build some simple circuits that interest you. I find it best to build and troubleshoot a circuit that does something I want. You can find a gazillion different designs on the web and ask for design help on the forums.

Second, buy something like a PIC programmer and parts kit to help you start building some microcontroller circuitry. A friend visited for a week and bought the PICkit2 and the low parts count board and we worked through the tutorial. I normally don't like assembly (because it's not portable), but in this case it was a good thing because it helped us learn the architecture of the PIC chip we were using. We also had a PICkit 3 and another board that allowed doing things in C and that was also good to learn from. You can also get Arduino stuff that's very popular with experimenters, as well as Atmel stuff.

 

[Destryalhmns]

I will try both suggestions.

Also, speaking of Arduino there was a book about it at the local electronics store which looked really good.

Okay, thanks for the help. I have a direction to head in again.

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Arduino looks awesome!
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arduino

 

[sherjan]

Dear you should study the book of 8051 microcontroller and embedded system written by Muhammad Ali Mazidi. It is an easy approach to learn the communication between computer and electronics circuits.

 

[new_hope]

lol whats up with the username? I tend to go with peaceful usernames...anywho.

If you know how to program then you got half the battle. Learn Resistance in parallel, Resistance in series. Capacitance in parallel/series. Ohm's law. Kirchoff's law's. Kirchoff's law is really important if you are looking at more complex circuits with series and parallel combined. You will also have to understand what different components do. I dont know very much so i still come across components in schematics that throw me off. When it comes to having circuits do what you want you have to learn the architecture of your microcontroller of choice. Its not to complex....if you can program on a computer then you can easily program a microcontroller to do what you want.

its hard to say where to start to make a simple circuit and understand how it works. You would probably pick it up from looking at other schematics and following through them to understand how they work. Then when you are making your own you just build it around your requirements.

All a microcontroller is is just a simplified computer processor for embedded projects. It has serial communication for communicating with other MCU's and can perform simple arithmetic and logical executions, timers, various interrupts and many more features. Getting it to do a certain task is as simple as setting a couple bits in a register or clearing them out. You just gotta learn which bits to set and so forth. The main microcontrollers of choice are the PIC, 8051 and the AVR family. The avr family is the best because of the low cost for programmers and development boards and because it has built in PWM and ADC.

But once you learn you can do alot of sweet stuff. There is alot of easy to make technologies not on the market. Specially if you can communicate the MCU with a computer. Their is alot of room to start a successful business.