Starting Electronics

[[email protected]]

Hi,

First of all, forgive me if this is the wrong place to post this, or if
I'm posting a long-dead question. I've been interested in learning
electronics for some time now, and finally borrowed several books on
the subject. However, a friend recommended that I buy a starter kit
over the bare components, since that will be more helpful in teaching
me. I've done some searching, and the best deal seems to be the Elenco
300 In 1 Project Lab MS-908, which has a low cost-to-project ratio.

Has anybody else used this kit before? If so, what are you opinions on
it? Any critique would be appreciated, as would recommendations for
other starter projects.

Bill

 

[Jonathan Kirwan]

First of all, forgive me if this is the wrong place to post this, or if
I'm posting a long-dead question. I've been interested in learning
electronics for some time now, and finally borrowed several books on
the subject. However, a friend recommended that I buy a starter kit
over the bare components, since that will be more helpful in teaching
me. I've done some searching, and the best deal seems to be the Elenco
300 In 1 Project Lab MS-908, which has a low cost-to-project ratio.

Has anybody else used this kit before? If so, what are you opinions on
it? Any critique would be appreciated, as would recommendations for
other starter projects.

What interests you about it? Learning how things work? Certain
projects in mind? What?

Jon

 

[[email protected]]

What interests you about it? Learning how things work? Certain
projects in mind? What?

A little of everything, I guess. I'm generally interested in how things
work, and like to apply my knowledge (I program as a hobby, for
example.) I guess I'm planning on using the books to understand the
fundamental knowledge and the starter kit to get a feel for how it
works in practice. I hope to persue it further, although I don't have
any particular projects in mind.

Jon

Bill

 

[Homer J Simpson]

First of all, forgive me if this is the wrong place to post this, or if
I'm posting a long-dead question. I've been interested in learning
electronics for some time now, and finally borrowed several books on
the subject. However, a friend recommended that I buy a starter kit
over the bare components, since that will be more helpful in teaching
me. I've done some searching, and the best deal seems to be the Elenco
300 In 1 Project Lab MS-908, which has a low cost-to-project ratio.

Some of the projects are minor variations on others so don't get too hung up
on that 300.

Try for one with a digital section. BTW, try thrifts, eBay or
http://freecycle.org/ or http://www.craigslist.org/ as other places to find
these kits.

 

[Jonathan Kirwan]

A little of everything, I guess. I'm generally interested in how things
work, and like to apply my knowledge (I program as a hobby, for
example.) I guess I'm planning on using the books to understand the
fundamental knowledge and the starter kit to get a feel for how it
works in practice. I hope to persue it further, although I don't have
any particular projects in mind.

ok. That's a good enough answer, I suppose. Some folks just want to
go "build a guitar amplifier" or something specific in mind and figure
they have to "walk through coals" to get there. If you need something
electronic that is already available, you are probably better off
buying it unless you really intend on getting a learning experience
and not the end product. If it isn't available, of course, you have
to do the learning. But then, most things you are likely to want are
already available these days. That wasn't always the case and many
were forced to learn to achieve those things.

Since you do program as a hobby, you might also consider adding
another facet to this. That is, embedded programming. So I'm going
to talk about two directions, either of them is fine. Both are fine,
too.

(1) I like the idea of getting some kind of simplified project kit
your friend recommended. Some of these have "compressed springs" that
make it easy to slip in part legs and attach them quickly into a
circuit. Some of these are blocks you can snap together. The only
problem with the blocks is cost, really, and perhaps some wear that
may trick you up sometimes later on when the connections don't quite
make a solid tie-in. But they are easy to put away for later and easy
to use. Having formulaic things to do is a nice way to go.

(2) There are, today, so many really great and nifty embedded project
boards for very little money (sometimes free.) I bought some (a
dozen) USB prorgamming modules with two CPUs on them and some very
sophisticated features for $9.90 each. I mean, you could just take
one of those and start exploring right away, all the software comes
with them to get started. Wasn't like that, years back.

Either way, you need to put some thinking work into things. This
means playing around with the concepts so that they deepen within you.
Just keep that in mind.

Jon

 

[David L. Jones]

Hi,

First of all, forgive me if this is the wrong place to post this, or if
I'm posting a long-dead question. I've been interested in learning
electronics for some time now, and finally borrowed several books on
the subject. However, a friend recommended that I buy a starter kit
over the bare components, since that will be more helpful in teaching
me. I've done some searching, and the best deal seems to be the Elenco
300 In 1 Project Lab MS-908, which has a low cost-to-project ratio.

Has anybody else used this kit before? If so, what are you opinions on
it? Any critique would be appreciated, as would recommendations for
other starter projects.

Bill

Hi Bill
Your friend is right.
I don't know about that kit in particular, but these project labs with
the spring terminals are the ideal start to electronics in my opinion.
I (and many others in the industry) started out with the
Tandy/RadioShack 200-in-1 type kits which this is basically a copy of.
I found the RadioShack manuals excellent bacuse they started out by
getting you to build "idiot proof" stuff to gain your confidence, and
then slowly branch you out into more difficult designs, and then
encouraging you to experiment.

This Elenco one in particular looks good because it has a real
breadboard on it.

Get yourself some test equipment like a multimeter and a cheap
secondhand oscilloscope (from eBay), they are essential.

The world of electronics has headed toward microcontrollers these days,
but starting at the ground roots component level is essential.

Also, you'll find you'll learn the most when your project actually
*doesn't* work first go. When you follow instructions to build
something and it works first go you haven't really learned much. But
when you have to troubleshoot something and figure out *why* it doesn't
work, that's where the real learning begins.

With every project you build with this thing, start changing component
values one by one and see what happens, you'll learn a heck of a lot.

Enjoy.

Dave

 

[Jonathan Kirwan]

<snip>
Also, you'll find you'll learn the most when your project actually
*doesn't* work first go. When you follow instructions to build
something and it works first go you haven't really learned much. But
when you have to troubleshoot something and figure out *why* it doesn't
work, that's where the real learning begins.

With every project you build with this thing, start changing component
values one by one and see what happens, you'll learn a heck of a lot.

Good advice. One of the best teaching books I ever saw on BASIC was
Radio Shacks' for the TRS-80, Level 1. It would walk you through some
programming steps that would NOT work. The author didn't warn you,
but would then later tell you that it shouldn't work and talk about
why it didn't. The author made you make mistakes so that you could
see what happens when things didn't work right.

One of those good ideas in teaching.

Jon

 

[[email protected]]

Good advice. One of the best teaching books I ever saw on BASIC was
Radio Shacks' for the TRS-80, Level 1. It would walk you through some
programming steps that would NOT work. The author didn't warn you,
but would then later tell you that it shouldn't work and talk about
why it didn't. The author made you make mistakes so that you could
see what happens when things didn't work right.

One of those good ideas in teaching.

A few programming books I've used have done that, too. It's definitely
a useful tool in learning.

Jon

Bill

 

[Homer J Simpson]

Good advice. One of the best teaching books I ever saw on BASIC was
Radio Shacks' for the TRS-80, Level 1. It would walk you through some
programming steps that would NOT work. The author didn't warn you,
but would then later tell you that it shouldn't work and talk about
why it didn't. The author made you make mistakes so that you could
see what happens when things didn't work right.

http://www.trs-80.com/ : Books : BASIC Computer Language: It's Easier Than
You Think! Year: 1978 Author: Dr. David A Lien

Another excellent book is Understanding Digital Computers Year: 1978 Author:
Forest M Mims

also published by Radio Shack which is the only clear explanation of CPU
micro code I have seen.

 

[hdjim69]

other starter projects.

Hi, I'm also just starting out and I'm using a software program called
Edison by Design Soft. http://www.designsoftware.com I just started
using it and so far it seems like a great learning tool for creating
circuits and measuring values, etc. I have the student version, cost
$39. I have no affiliation with this company, just wanted to let you
know what's available to assist in your learning. You should check it
out.

J

 

[Jonathan Kirwan]

[email protected] wrote:
Any critique would be appreciated, as would recommendations for

Hi, I'm also just starting out and I'm using a software program called
Edison by Design Soft. http://www.designsoftware.com I just started
using it and so far it seems like a great learning tool for creating
circuits and measuring values, etc. I have the student version, cost
$39. I have no affiliation with this company, just wanted to let you
know what's available to assist in your learning. You should check it
out.

LTSpice is free and with professional quality analysis. The problem
for beginners will be the relative lack of common parts libraries
(other than those parts Linear sells.)

What it doesn't do, though, is blink the LEDs on the schematic.

Jon

 

[hdjim69]

LTSpice is free and with professional quality analysis.

cool, you got a link to this ??

 

[Jonathan Kirwan]

cool, you got a link to this ??

Go here:
http://www.linear.com/company/software.jsp

You will see LTSpice listed near the top of the page. Click it.

An alternative where you get it directly is:
http://ltspice.linear.com/software/swcadiii.exe

There is a group for this software that is pretty active and likely to
help with questions:
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/LTspice/

Best of luck,
Jon