electronics

E

EddieM

Thinking of things to do after my hopefully graceful retreat from the world of work I wouldn't mind having a bit of a play around with some probably fairly basics electronics.

Sort of thing I'm thinking about only amounts to resistors, capacitors, relays, diodes, transistors etc, anyone recommend a starter kit / book, needn't be expensive, it's purely just
 
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Might be worth having a look at Arduino if you are reasonably computer literate. It'll give scope for a lot more complex and interesting projects. Might be harder to get into but there is a load of support available online. You can also get loads of compatible plug in modules like relays, sensors, lights, etc.
 
Eddie,
I would immediately recommend getting a good soldering iron station.
And some solder flux.
Makes a world of a difference over an Iron on the the end of a plug - and often not much more expensive.

What you will always want is a "Weller or Hakko Soldering station". They are worth their cost for serious use.

But for more normal use, on ebay there are many good clones, so do a search for:
936 soldering station. << I like the 60W versions of these.
936D soldering station
858D soldering station
998D soldering station. <<< I like this one as it also has a hot air blower for heatshrink (which I seem to use a lot) and surface mount solder flow.

SFK
 
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Eddie,
I would immediately recommend getting a good soldering iron station.
And some solder flux.
Makes a world of a difference over an Iron on the the end of a plug - and often not much more expensive.

What you will always want is a "Weller Soldering station". They are worth their cost for serious use.

But for more normal use, on ebay there are many good clones, so do a search for:
936 soldering station.
936D soldering station
858D soldering station
998D soldering station. <<< I like this one as it also has a hot air blower for heatshrink (which I seem to use a lot) and solder flow.

SFK

I have a hakko fx-888D
 
Might be worth having a look at Arduino if you are reasonably computer literate. It'll give scope for a lot more complex and interesting projects. Might be harder to get into but there is a load of support available online. You can also get loads of compatible plug in modules like relays, sensors, lights, etc.

I'd like to think I'm reasonably IT literate, was a software developer for donkeys years, wouldn't want to end up too much like a busmans holiday though :LOL:
 
wouldn't want to end up too much like a busmans holiday though
I do it a bit for my day job but still enjoy a bit of arduino tinkering at the weekend. It allows for quite practical projects. I've recently added a servo drive with digital control to my lathe, also built a bat detector. Its good for home automation too.
 
I posted about adding an electronics section to this board a while ago but it wasn't a popular idea.
Wanting to get into this as a total newbie I reckon you would need to start with a kit which has a lot of built in incentives. Just observing how I deal with learning and progressing through things, it's very hard to stay motivated where you come up against failure after failure, you lose interest and drop it.
My motivation was to fix toothbrushes in my home that go wrong as most of the time the battery just needs to be replaced which is an easy job. I successfully mended one or two but never really got into it as a hobby. I did learn to solder which was good.
 
https://www.bookdepository.com/Technology-M-Horsley/9780003220360
Eddie, if you actually want to learn the basics rather than just plug and play, this technology book is very good and the one I used to teach kids up to GCSE.
OK, it may be dated a bit but does go up to integrated circuits and logic gates.
John :)

I ordered the book, as thinking a little more about it, I realised pretty much the limit of my knowledge is ohms law, and it sort of ends there.
 
try youtube too, there are plenty of tutorials teaching the basics on there.
 
Although you are looking at more general electronics, there are amateur radio clubs around the country filled with people who have the skills to teach you what you want to know who often run courses to teach you. OK aimed at passing radio exams, but think it would be worth a visit to your local club.

As with all hobbies you will need supplies, the loss of Tandy and Maplin has may this harder, the hams still have rallies where you can buy the parts you need, OK not as big as they use to be, when computers first arrived the rallies were flooded with computer parts and became massive, and many hams were annoyed that the computer element were taking over the rallies, but now the computer side has dropped off, and radio based part has returned.

I remember in the Falklands there was no one else other than the electricians to repair items with electronics, and it was interesting to look back to the electronics used years ago as a lad and try to use my small knowledge to repair stuff, I remember that was first time I came across a field effect transistor, they were invented before the bi-polar, but not really used in early days, and I had to use my knowledge of the thermionic valve to understand the FET.

Today hard to find bi-polar it is all FET's, my son also licensed, when at school was asked there are two types of transistor, can you name them, he answered as expected for a radio ham field effect and bi-polar sir, and was told no we have PNP and NPN as which my son burst out laughing. I had to explain to the teacher what the teachers error was, and that has been a problem with electronics, so many items raise and fall in popularly and use, and we get phases and names which often take some understanding, specially when called by the initials.

It took some time for me to understand what a switched mode power supply was and I still don't know where it is different from pulse width modulated. This is were the radio clubs really help, some one will take the time to explain. OK there are those in the clubs who are only interested in how to use the equipment and paper their walls with QSL cards, but you will also find those who still build their own stuff, it may only be a power supply not the whole radio, or an interface, but they still play with electronics.
 
Yeah, I miss those component shops, although maplin was seriously carp at the end. I'll enjoy my little dabble. If you don't go mad it's a pretty inexpensive hobby / pastime.
 
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