Learning electronics

I wanna learn to fix and build my own music hardware, it sounds like fun. Does anyone know any places to start and learn electronics? Thanks

Get yourself an inexpensive kit of some sort.. I remember i built my own distortion pedal when I was a kid - even drawing out the circuit board, & using chemicals to eat away at the parts I didn't want conductive material. I was really excited about it but it ended up sounding terrible. The kits usually come with instructions.. As you go you'll start figuring things out & probably better than reading electronic texts which can be pretty boring & extremely math heavy (not that math is bad, but it starts getting into calculus level stuff).

Multi meters are cheap but once you use a good soldering iron you'll never be able to use a cheap one again. I recommend getting a good one with variable power - it's a tool you'll keep & use your whole life.

When I solder I still use heat sinks to keep components safe; alligator clips are wonderful & have many purposes.

Circuit bending might be fun for you too.. just go down to the 2nd hand shop & find any kind of cheap electronic gizmo that makes sound. Probably a great way to of learning to not be afraid.

This book is pretty cool and has a DVD featuring the author taking you through step-by-step instructions (in a slightly Blue Peter way lol) for simple stuff like building an oscillator and making a contact mic

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Handmade-Electronic-Music-Hardware-Hacking/dp/0415998735

That book looks really good! Cheers. Bookmarked for when I have time to absorb it :)

Start by building some easy kits, typically guitar pedals.

http://buildyourownclone.com/

Once you get the hang of those, try a medium sized synth kit, like the x0xb0x or the Sound Lab Mini-Synth:

http://www.ladyada.net/make/x0xb0x/

http://www.musicfromouterspace.com/index.php?CATPARTNO=&PROJARG=SOUNDLABMINIMARKII%2Fpage1.php&MAINTAB=SYNTHDIY&SONGID=NONE&VPW=2550&VPH=1209

Lots of resources at Music From Outer Space! Also check out Ray Wilson's book:

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Make-Analog-Synthesizers-Ray-Wilson/dp/1449345220

Thanks guys!

start with some kits that you don't really care about

soldering is a skills that takes some time to perfect so don't dive into anything you care about too much

grab a reasonable soldering station with a fine(ish) tip, some pliers, cutters and a DMM (multimeter) that can measure capacitance, resistance, connectivity

you will pickup some electronics when you start troubleshooting your circuits when they don't work but as you build stuff follow along with the schematics. once you are familiar with the blocks in schematics you will start to realise they repeat a lot in circuits and after a while you will be able to absorb them with ease

http://www.amazon.com/Make-Electronics-Discovery-Charles-Platt/dp/0596153740

^ that looks awesome thanks

  On 4/7/2015 at 10:11 AM, psn said:

Start by building some easy kits, typically guitar pedals.

http://buildyourownclone.com/

 

Once you get the hang of those, try a medium sized synth kit, like the x0xb0x or the Sound Lab Mini-Synth:

http://www.ladyada.net/make/x0xb0x/

http://www.musicfromouterspace.com/index.php?CATPARTNO=&PROJARG=SOUNDLABMINIMARKII%2Fpage1.php&MAINTAB=SYNTHDIY&SONGID=NONE&VPW=2550&VPH=1209

 

Lots of resources at Music From Outer Space! Also check out Ray Wilson's book:

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Make-Analog-Synthesizers-Ray-Wilson/dp/1449345220

great post, don't have much time and money right now but that sounds like a very logical path, thanks for the links

I'll second both Handmade Electronic Music and Make: Electronics. Great places to start. I've used both books over the years and learned quite a bit.

dunno, are there good kits which come with text / tutorials about the circuit designs?

I.e. something which lets you learn what the individual components do in a filter and how they work together,

possibly with options and alternative designs explained etc..

I find electronics kinda has a steep learning curve, basic parts can have complex behavior (transistors etc)

recently tried to figure out what's necessary for a trigger circuit for high power LED strobes and even this simple thing involved some head scratching..

step by step kits are nice but you don't learn a lot about what's actually going on electronically...

  On 4/8/2015 at 5:39 AM, phling said:

dunno, are there good kits which come with text / tutorials about the circuit designs?

I.e. something which lets you learn what the individual components do in a filter and how they work together,

possibly with options and alternative designs explained etc..

 

I find electronics kinda has a steep learning curve, basic parts can have complex behavior (transistors etc)

recently tried to figure out what's necessary for a trigger circuit for high power LED strobes and even this simple thing involved some head scratching..

 

step by step kits are nice but you don't learn a lot about what's actually going on electronically...

yeah it's quite frustrating since you may be like making a circuit but it might not work not because the logic behind it is incorrect but cuz there might be a faulty part... Also, I haven't read (and too lazy to search) about Arduino. It, at least, teaches the extreme essential stuff.

wouldnt using a breadboard kinda set up be less messy and good for learning. i imagine soldering is just like learning how to sew

true but for most people the main gain of learning electronics is being able to build gear and stuff you can use

for the most part that is just assembling established projects

but yes building stuff on breadboard is a good way to learn circuits

if you want to be able to design your own stuff this is definitely the way to go

yea I'm currently in the process, and sure, breadboard, wires and some assortment of basic components is a must.

Also a multimeter.

Soldering is easy if you just do it for a bit.

Arduino is nice, and I have no problems programming it from previous experience.

I guess experience might also be the only real way to learn electronics. Some things seem to click after a while. But still, something like a decent learning program with a focus on teaching pragmatic knowledge about circuit design with good example circuits would be nice to have.

Arduino itself doesn't really teach anything about electronics. Rather, you have to learn electronics to be able to do things with an Arduino, unless you're happy with following step by step guides for existing designs.

Electronics is a deep fucking hole, but it's definitely healthier than crack and/or whores. Personally I feel it's very important to just jump right in with low voltage projects, where you can get a "feel" for things, and general understanding of components will come by putting things together and changing components in and out. If you're totally just starting out, never ever ever start with something like amp repair, because you could literally die or disfigure your face, which would totally ruin your international modeling career.

If you're interested in music related stuff, tons of circuits are based on the 555 timer IC and the LM386, respectively, so building projects based around those can cover simple synth building and simple amps, and you can branch out from there.

The only benefit of buying kits is that the boards have connections already traced out on them, which makes them simple plug n' solder projects-- BUT, buying the components yourself and finding the prolly available schematic online will be muuuch cheaper, if you don't have unlimited moneys.

As others have stated...: I also recommend buying a breadboard, then just searching for the type of thing you want to build. Buy all components, and voila! (one thing with audio projects, though, and something you might not come across for ages... the possible importance of "star ground", where all leads that go to ground meet at one point. This prevents various leads going to ground not acting like fucking antennas and making your mini-synth sound like a radio through a distortion petal.)

Anyway, stick with projects that max out with 9V battery power, so you can be pretty safe. (p.s. I blew a pair of earbuds with an un-double-checked pre-amp circuit I was working on, so even 9V is enough to fuck your shit up.)

BTW, if any of you use LTspice, I just finished a 1:2180000000000 overunity circuit- AHAHAHAHAHAHHAHAahahhaa.....- which you can DL here:

http://nothinggg.com/electronics/

~4.8W input, ~10.9TW output

Obviously that shit would explode or tear a hole in the fabric of spacetime, but if I can get it to work in the real world, then I might be able to power my hoverboard and have it released before BTTF day.

LOL, good job!

  On 4/9/2015 at 10:45 PM, psn said:

LOL, good job!

Thanks, man. I'm waiting for my Nobel Prize in Physics. If that thing actually worked real world, we could power the whole world with a single solar panel.

  On 4/9/2015 at 2:57 PM, peace 7 said:

If you're totally just starting out, never ever ever start with something like amp repair, because you could literally die or disfigure your face, which would totally ruin your international modeling career.

im more interested in repair. diagnosing problems. nothing worse than having to ship a huge heavy synth to some tech cause a pot is broken or a slider doesnt work.

Building kits that don't work on the first attempt is a pretty decent way to learn trouble shooting/diagnosing.

p.s. My overunity circuit simulation was fixed with Tstep .001ns (upping calculation interval). I was hoping the error would be somewhere else, but- alas- my hoverboard will just have to look stupid, with a massive battery bank behind it.

Also- luckily with repair, it seems a common problem is damaged capacitors, which are pretty easy to replace. But again, if you're working with high voltage shit and don't know what you're doing, you could discharge a high voltage cap and get shocked hardcore. Some dude in some electronics forum was talking about someone discharging a super high voltage cap with a screwdriver-- the shock did not kill him-- the fucking screwdriver evaporated and exploded in his face, killing him.

On the plus side, with a little practical experience, you can buy broken guitar and similar amps, and fix them by merely replacing components. Sometimes you can just eyeball that shit. The bad side is that sometimes you need to actually plug things in to monitor where the circuit is failing, and if you're being ghetto about it, you can basically say bye to your IDM career.

BE SAFE Y'ALL~~~~~

tube gear is very dangerous. wen i was little adults always warned to stay away from the back of the tv.

forbidden planet is basically tube gear being pushed to death.