Arduino and Electrical Engineering

Where do I start learning electronics when I don't even know how circuits work?

I am new to arduino, much less electronics. I am VERY BIG on salvaging and upcycling virtually everything and I can build almost anything. It's kinda my thing. Which is very unusual for kids from my generation; I'm 21. But now that I know welding, machining, etc; I want to learn about electronics and arduino. So where do I start?

I know jack squat about electronics and how circuits work and even less about building circuit boards and Arduino. My goal is to be proficient enough to be one of those guys who as a shop in their basement where they make all sorts of nifty gadgets.

Can someone help?

Start by getting one of the starter kits and going through the examples. There are lots of them, the one sold on this site is good but there are others.

I was going to do that but I was afraid that the kit would be like "going through the motions". Thanks for the response.

I want to learn about electronics and arduino. So where do I start?

Did they burn all the books in your country ?

I found books on Arduino, electronics, and electrical engineering but I didn't understand a word they said, so I figured I'd ask people who had "been there and done that."

Oh and thanks for the positive comment, because that's what I really needed; someone basically asking if I was stupid enough to not look at books first. -.- Try not to be so rude. I thought the whole point in interacting in the forums was to help people. Think next time please.

Cadena:
I was going to do that but I was afraid that the kit would be like "going through the motions". Thanks for the response.

If the experience is going through the motions or not. It is very much up to you. Yes you can go through exercises like joining the dots or you can put in an effort to try and understand what you are doing at each step.
Also do not be content with just doing each exercise but make small changes, play with it and get a feel for the limits and possibilities of what each exercise is showing you.

Grumpy_Mike:

Cadena:
I was going to do that but I was afraid that the kit would be like "going through the motions". Thanks for the response.

If the experience is going through the motions or not. It is very much up to you.

Yep. The key to learning isn't looking at things, it's analyzing/modifying them.

michinyon:

I want to learn about electronics and arduino. So where do I start?

Did they burn all the books in your country ?

Be more polite.
If you thinked that the answer was too trivial for you, you had the choise to ignore it and pass over.

A lot of "Electrical Engineering" is physics and fine detail; analyzing things at the level of single transistors (and finer - the internal workings of such components.) In the modern world, you can build a lot of electronic gadgets without ever learning much at that level of detail, because modern electronics devices incorporate MANY components into single modules that operate a much higher level and are much easier to understand. A good example is the "op-amp." The internals of an op-amp are complicated. But externally (if you stay within the limits of the module) an op-amp exhibits behavior that is relatively simple to understand, and subject to relatively elegant and simple mathematical analysis. "Advanced" means having a good understanding of those "limits of the module" - not solid state physics required.

A microcontroller like Arduino is not as good as an example. Sure, you give up needing to know about the details of the inside of the microcontroller. And using C/C++ lets you avoid having to mess with individual computer instructions. And the Arduino libraries and core lets you avoid some of the other more confusing issues of "computer science." But you still have something that is pretty complex (32K of memory is 256k bits, for a total of 2^262144 possible configurations; more possibilities than there are atoms in the universe!) But the same idea applies. Bigger building blocks - easier to accomplish bigger things.

If you are interested in radio, I'd recommend books aimed at "ham radio operators." While I never quite caught that bug myself, a lot of that instructional material is aimed at people who don't have a lot of physics background, and whose "module" is commercial equipment approximately the size/complexity of, well, a radio.
Similar material can be found labeled as "cookbooks" or "handbooks"; I grew up with Lancaster's CMOS cookbook, TTL cookbook, and TVT cookbook. (TVT handbook is online and can be downloaded. Although it's pretty obsolete (pinouts for assorted 1k memory chips. Oooohh...) A lot of vendor-provided (free, or nearly so) info is at an appropriate level. (Here's a bunch of stuff on op-amps that was reported recently: Analog Dialogue Technical Journal | Analog Devices ) And of course a lot of "Arduino" and other "electronics projects" books are more focused on coming up with interesting devices than examining the internal details of operation.

Start with Physics, most physics I've seen is taught over 2 semesters, the first semester is usually motion, then the second semester is usually Electricity/Magnetism and maybe optics. That is where you start. Next, assuming you aren't in at a university/college, look at your local Community college, and try to take the initial circuits class. They should have something that will explain how you calculate the various properties of circuits and usually includes diodes, transistors and sometimes op-amps. Admittedly, you don't NEED all of this to learn how to use the Arduino, but it will help to understand why certain circuits are connected the way they are.

That would give you the basic knowledge of how most everything works together enough to understand what is going on.

Also, maybe Udacity or one of the other distance Ed courses have some classes on it now.

Edit: I'm not saying it is required to take classes, but even the first basic one will help you immensely if you take the time to learn. And no, you do not need to know WHY a diode conducts one way, just that it does, and how to model it on paper so that when you start troubleshooting you can figure out why your circuit is producing 0V when it should be producing 5.

Cadena:
Which is very unusual for kids from my generation; I'm 21.

You aren't alone. The maker movement is full of people your (our?) age doing exactly what you are. You should try to find a nearby Hackerspace or attend a MakerFaire to meet others like minded. Or even sit in Adafruit's "Show and Tell" Google Hangout.

Cadena:
I found books on Arduino, electronics, and electrical engineering but I didn't understand a word they said, so I figured I'd ask people who had "been there and done that."

First, one pass will never be enough. You'll need to do some reading, some experimenting, then some reading again.

Also, don't be discouraged if the materials are "over your head" (today). Many engineering tutorials are written by engineers. Who often believe the only way to learn something is how they learned it. You know, understand the molecular theory of how transistors work, before you use it to turn on a relay. Which doesn't work for everyone.

You might find my series of electronics videos interesting: AddOhms - YouTube. I try to take a more high-level approach with the intent to at least arm you with the right words and phrases to do deeper searches. I also try to add "more in depth" stuff on the show notes pages (linked in the descriptions).

Cadena:
Try not to be so rude.

Sadly there are a couple of members of the forum who think belittling new (to Arduino, Programming, and Electronics) users is a requirement of the forum. This is sad because that small number has convinced a larger number it's okay to act that way on occasion.

Here in the colonies they have two year institutions called community colleges many of which have very good technical courses, are relatively inexpensive to attend and often have night classes available. I'd be surprised if they don't have similar schools on your side of the pond.

I don't think you really need to study for a year or two to get enjoyment out of Arduino projects. Learn some very basic theory and spend some time on the web researching. Do some experimenting with your Arduino connected to components and modules with all the help available on the Arduino Playground and other sites.

It's not rocket science; most of the heavy lifting has already been done for us.

Maybe this is a good place to start: http://www.allaboutcircuits.com/vol_1/chpt_2/1.html
It's good basic theory. Just keep clicking on 'Next Page >>' at the bottom of each page.

On a different thread, Grumpy_Mike suggested this: http://www.electronicstheory.com/
It is really good for theory. I looked it over - highly recommend it for newbies and now think it is the best on the web..

I started playing with Arduino a few months ago. I knew nothing, I didn't even know it existed. All I knew was I wanted to put some lights in a guitar. I googled LED to start with, and as I got reading I stumbled on this cool little device called arduino. I haven't done all the examples yet, as my primary goal was to put some lights in a guitar. I have however, after reading and using google, along with this very important site, ordered more parts and pieces, of which I play with, following the examples, and try to change it up. I have almost got all the lights in my guitar, and my code is complete, and works on 8x8 grids.
I am a self taught… well just about everything. It isn't impossible to learn on your own, and you will get help on forums like this. People love to see other people grow and expand into something more, and most open source people are great for that.
That being said, If you cannot find an idea to motivate you, then yes go threw the motions and do the examples. When I started with Arduino, I had a few LED's, some jumper wires, a bread board, a mitt full of capacitors and diodes (of which I have only used 3 of), and a couple of resistors, which had little to no value for anything I was doing. I bought a switch and a potentiometer later, and I did what I could with the examples. Now I have a 24 sensor pack, a gsm shield, a sensor shield, 2 lcd button shields, an LCD screen. I haven't played with everything yet, but I am not stopping to learn. You do not have to have it all at once to start learning. You just have to want to.
Cadena step out on a limb buy an arduino and some parts, if you can afford to get a starter kit, do it. Show yourself what you can do. I know you can do it.