New to Electronics - where to start

Other Hardware General Electronics
1

Hello I am very interested in learning some kind of electronics, I have no experience whatsoever however find it fascinating looking at circuit boards etc and would love to learn how to build, problem solve etc them.

Looking online I came across the Arduino which looks a good place to start, can anyone recommend a starting place? Should I start with the starter kit like http://www.amazon.co.uk/Arduino-Starter-Kit-UNO-Board/dp/B009UKZV0A/ref=sr_1_1?s=computers&ie=UTF8&qid=1438962779&sr=1-1&keywords=arduino+uno+r3+starter+kit

I seen there is coding involved too, do I need to learn this also? I have done some HTML and CSS in the past.

Any advice would be very grateful.

Kind regards
Mark

2

Just some references.

Arduino's own learning
The website has much to offer. Go through the tutorials even before picking up a package to get the idea and get ahead of the game.

Processing
The Arduino coding environment is based off of the Processing coding environment. If you have not picked up a micro-controller package yet you could download Processing in minutes and begin to play with it to get the idea. Processing differs in its use but much of the structure remains the same. You declare things in the Setup function, and run things in the Loop function. (Draw for Processing). Both coding environments have examples built right in to the menus, so you can load them up and study them to get an idea of how they run.

Learning for yourself
Or similar edition. Know what caps, resistors, diodes do. See example circuits. Know why they are used. Even see examples of communication buses and see controllers hooked up. Books like this have it all.

Others will likely have better advise about which Arduino package is best to start with.

3

Unfortunately.. HTML and CSS will not be of much help here..

If you have other programming experience (JS, PHP..etc) It will help with a 'background'..

My background was web programming only.. its a bit of a learning curve to grasp that you have memory constraints, casting values to the correct (or better/best) type, and linear execution...

The basic Arduino tutorials are good starters..

I also liked Jeremy Blum site and TronixStuff.. (I believe both links are in my footer)

4

ApexM0Eng:
Know what caps, resistors, diodes do

"Caps" is an abbreviation for capacitors.

xl97:
If you have other programming experience (JS, PHP..etc) It will help with a 'background'..

"JS" is an abbreviation for JavaScript.

5

Hi Wushuguan

I would suggest a basic "Electronic Kit" from a local toy/IT supplier.
This would give you the basic knowledge on components, eg transistors, diodes and basic IC

I started in electronics and then found a great book called "CMOS Cook Book" this was great for simple IC designs etc

Good luck
James

6

If you are serious about wanting to learn electronics - then pick up one or both of these books:

Grob's Basic Electronics

Horowitz's Art of Electronics

Note that both are EE101 level textbooks - as such, a brand new current edition will not be cheap (> $100 USD) - instead, shop around for an older edition, which will be much less expensive.

7

I second crOsh's suggestions.

Also, yes, you need to learn programming to use an Arduino. They are useless without programming.

If you don't know electronics or programming, I suggest you start with electronics and make learning programming your second task.

There are some decent videos on YouTube. Get the books, though, too.

"Op Amps for Everyone" is an excellent book after you've learned from a book like Grob's "Basic Electronics". Third edition here, or you can buy the paperback Fourth edition.
http://www.siongboon.com/projects/2008-04-27_analog_electronics/op%20amps%20for%20everyone%20third%20edition%202009%20(Texas%20Instrument).pdf