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Projects to help a beginner learn?

Nerdydude101

Jul 28, 2014
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Jul 28, 2014
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So I'm completely new to electronics, I understand the basics and enjoy physics so u would like to try and take it further by learning to build circuits and projects. I learn best while doing things and using information in practice so I was wondering if you could recommend some projects to help me learn. I'm able to solder and such fairly well so that's not too much of an issue. Thanks!
 

Gryd3

Jun 25, 2014
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So I'm completely new to electronics, I understand the basics and enjoy physics so u would like to try and take it further by learning to build circuits and projects. I learn best while doing things and using information in practice so I was wondering if you could recommend some projects to help me learn. I'm able to solder and such fairly well so that's not too much of an issue. Thanks!
Well. You could start with the basics. It's not a very impressive project but will greatly help.
The first steps I like to recommend are:
-Lighting an LED with a current limiting resistor.
-Using a transistor as a switch to turn on above said LED.

Begin googling for fun projects.

Getting the math for lighting an LED is important, and will ensure you know how to calculate current through a resistor.
Learning how to use a transistor is also very important, as they can act like simple switches to control larger loads, or can be used as amplifiers. (You can't directly connect a motor to a microcontroller or other simple logic components... so you connect them to a transistor instead and they handle the large current of the motor)
Once you have the basics of these two skills, you can tackle many other projects. Using something like an opamp may seem like magic... but as you learn projects, you will learn about the components it uses which will eventually give you a decent understanding of what kind of integrated circuits are available to buy and use.
 

(*steve*)

¡sǝpodᴉʇuɐ ǝɥʇ ɹɐǝɥd
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Jan 21, 2010
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Whatever you choose, choose something that is accompanied with good (i.e. accurate and understandable) descriptions of operation, and study these until you understand how the circuit operates.

Even if you start with something almost completely trivial (say something with a single transistor), there may be a lot to understand if you wish your level of understanding to be enough to design such a circuit.

Starting with something more complex, you may need to break down the circuit into small pieces and understand each part before you can fully understand the circuit as a whole.

Gryd3 has made some suggestions of what appear to be trivially simple circuits, but I agree with him that understanding them will be a very good start as they are deceptive in their actual complexity.
 
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