Okay. I have decided that I want to be a badass electronic making type of guy. I want to build robot armies to do my bidding. I want to design guitar effects pedals that will make empires fall before me. I'll probably need a soldering iron.

So, yeah. I'm not a student, so I don't think taking a low level ECE course is in the cards for me. Are there any good web sites, or preferrably books, that contain the basic knowledge needed to get started with simple electronics? What sort of equipment would I need? I guess a soldering iron, for starters, and other paraphenalia that's related. What else? Is there anything you would recommend? Thanks!

12/30/2005 6:29:27 PM

I think a library card and joining a club would suit you better than dumping a bunch of money in random books.

12/30/2005 6:32:50 PM

you need at least a sound understanding of electricity, else you'll kill yourself

12/30/2005 7:03:16 PM

^^ Okay, regardless of whether I buy a book or borrow a book, I still need to know what kind of book.

12/30/2005 7:18:32 PM

books are fucking gay

anyone who is anyone uses the internet

12/30/2005 7:30:35 PM

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0521370957/qid=1135989297/sr=8-1/ref=pd_bbs_1/002-8541927-0156012?n=507846&s=books&v=glance

12/30/2005 7:35:16 PM

^ That one looks really interesting, thanks.

12/30/2005 8:13:26 PM

Get a solderless breadboard from Jameco. Also, various component kits (assorted resistors and capacitors are useful).

http://jameco.com/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/ProductDisplay?langId=-1&storeId=10001&catalogId=10001&productId=20600

This book is also very good as a basic intro to electronics.


http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0071448810/qid=1135994518/sr=8-2/ref=sr_8_xs_ap_i2_xgl14/002-4571657-7012830?n=507846&s=books&v=glance

If you're at all interested in robotics, check out my website, http://www.GoRobotics.net for info. The book, Robot Builder's Bonanza ( http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0071362967/robotcentral/ ) is excellent.


Circuit Cellar (http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/B00006K8WS/robotcentral/002-4571657-7012830?%5Fencoding=UTF8&camp=1789&link%5Fcode=xm2) and Nuts and Volts ( http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/B00006KQV7/robotcentral/002-4571657-7012830?%5Fencoding=UTF8&camp=1789&link%5Fcode=xm2 ) are must have magazines.

12/30/2005 9:06:54 PM

just start takin shit apart and see how they work. That's what i've been doing since i was 6 or so...and i'd say i have a pretty damn decent knowledge of electronics now.

12/30/2005 9:19:14 PM

Or if you have an idea about what you want, buy a DIY kit. You end up with something you know is supposed to work and can tweak it from there.

One day I'll connect the dots for one of these:
http://tangentsoft.net/audio/cmoy-tutorial/

12/30/2005 9:34:21 PM

snewf has an alias?

12/30/2005 9:38:22 PM

it would be great to make and modify my own effects boxes

12/30/2005 11:22:07 PM

http://www.radioshack.com/product/index.jsp?productId=2102913&cp=2032062.2032398.2032405&pg=1&numProdsPerPage=20&parentPage=family

Depending on how basic you mean, that can be a lot of fun. I think there's one (that might be it...) that has an 8bit microcontroller on it to play with.

12/31/2005 12:18:25 AM

once you discover the power of the PIC, you will never have a week go by where you dont come up with some stupid gimmick to implement



my current one is the power hour count down with buttons , and completion log

12/31/2005 10:40:17 AM

^ Programmable Interrupt Controller?

jk

12/31/2005 11:00:05 AM

there's always nice articles of new technology and stuff at:
http://www.gorobotics.net/

they also have links to other sites that tell you how to do stuff too.

12/31/2005 1:07:39 PM

bttt

Where do you people get your test equipment from? Have any of you tried any of the software that uses your sound card as an o-scope/spectrum analyzer? Is it worth it or do you look for old equipment on ebay?

3/13/2006 5:49:26 PM

I don't know if you're talking about an o-scope for music, if you are, and you use a VST compatible sequencer, they have a good number of spectrum analyzer plugins on the web.

And for any beginner electronics guys, go ahead and buy a weller pyropen and a fluke multimeter, I've used cheap ones and an really can't stand using anything less than a weller and a fluke anymore.

3/13/2006 6:25:44 PM

http://www.generalguitargadgets.com/index.php
http://www.diystompboxes.com/pedals/index2.html

These are two sites that I have looked at before when I was thinking about making some of my own effects. They both go pretty in depth and the first one has a shit-ton of links to other diy sites.

The wiring diagrams from http://www.guitarelectronics.com/ have been pretty helpful in the past too, if you ever want to get into fooling around with the electronics on your guitar.

[Edited on March 13, 2006 at 6:55 PM. Reason : ]

3/13/2006 6:52:37 PM

Quote :

"Have any of you tried any of the software that uses your sound card as an o-scope/spectrum analyzer?"

You're going to be pretty limited in bandwidth if you go this route.

I bought a Tektronix 475 as my first scope http://tinyurl.com/keew8 this was a pretty popular and robust scope and you should be able to find a few of them out there. When I had my Audi I was trying to hack the head unit interface to make it think I had a cd changer in there such that I could have an AUX in. Commercial products existed to do this but they were pricey. That said, I need a storage scope so that I could capture the wave forms and then decipher the protocol out of it. I picked up a Tektronix 2201 150mhz digital storage scope off ebay for around 150 I think (been awhile), I think we have these in a lab somewhere at NCSU. Other than that I have a $100 fluke desktop multimeter like can be found in the labs also.

If I had a laptop, I'd highly consider spending 2-400 on a standalone box for your oscope needs as the storage capabilities are much greater for your money. That's assuming you are playing with more digital than analog, which I think a lot of people do because it is easier. If you are sticking with the analog realm then a scope like the 475 will work assuming 100mhz is the max frequency you'll want to play with.

3/13/2006 7:45:57 PM

^ thanks a lot! I was thinking a decent scope would be much more than a couple hundred bucks.

3/13/2006 8:49:51 PM