How Can I Learn Electronics?

[BigJunk]

I'm realizing now that the life of a Pro Tools editor is not going to bring me the money and women that it claimed to in the brochures. It would be great to augment my small income with some tech work. So now I need to learn stuff.

Where do I start? Is there any online courses or easy to follow books or DVD Courses? Time is low because I work two jobs. I know a lot of techs who never went to school but just somehow "learned" electronics. Thanks for any advice.
Junk

[tINY]

Originally Posted by BigJunk

I'm realizing now that the life of a Pro Tools editor is not going to bring me the money and women that it claimed to in the brochures. It would be great to augment my small income with some tech work. So now I need to learn stuff.

Where do I start? Is there any online courses or easy to follow books or DVD Courses? Time is low because I work two jobs. I know a lot of techs who never went to school but just somehow "learned" electronics. Thanks for any advice.
Junk

You could work for someone who does repairs. They often need help taking things apart and putting them back together.

If you work 2 jobs, finding the time to learn to solder is about all you could hope for to start. Get some old gear and practice with a decent iron in front of the TV or radio when you wind down...



-tINY

[5.333V]

you can find alot in the library (its free) get some basic learning litrature.

theres alot of diy kits you could try out.

forums on the net like this one are full of techers and students.

when you find broken equipment you could achive info while trying fixing them.

[Beefy]

Get electronic circuts for the evil genius. It's really easy to read cheap and covers a lot of basic information and its not a huge book. look for how to videos for soldering. After that replace a cap or an op amp in something. Also read a lot of stuff on this forum. Tapeop message board foruns and after a while prodigypro forums and that should get you started.

[craig9045]

Im currently trying to get into the 'How to fix stuff' trade, just baught a soldering kit, should get it delivered soon

Im probably going to be attempting to repair my old cables(gotta start somwhere) whilst sitting in front of youtube and forums for a good while but looking forward to knowing more about it.

Hopefully get to the stage of servicing my own amp and guitar and maybe even studio equipment eventually. No rush though as there is always somone who can do it better haha

[aclarson]

As a professional electronics tech of 10+ years, I can say that you can pretty much learn all you'll ever need to know from free resources on the web and practice. Most importantly, you NEED GOOD TOOLS. This is not like audio engineering where the tools are only as good as the ears. The tech is only as good as his tools. If you go cheapo, you'll be cussing at something you fried for sure. There's definitely a skill factor, but good tools will make it FAR easier to learn.

[temetrepo]

I'm in the same boat
i've succesfully repaired some simple stuff using youtube and google
also while googling i found this
Electronics 101 - Fundamentals of Electricity - Lesson 1 - MATTER

and this
How-To: Introduction to soldering - Hack a Day

hope it helps and best of luck

[Matt Syson]

Hi
You start 40 years ago when gear was designed to be repaired. Most new gear is designed to be assembled then thrown when faulty, not repaired.
Matt S

[Jimbo]

This book is easy to read, clear in its explanation, and covers everything.

Amazon.com: Teach Yourself Electricity and Electronics (0639785330844): Stan Gibilisco; Stan Gibilisco, Stan Gibilisco: Books

You can read cover to cover, or pick different parts (as I do.)

[2N1305]

Hi,

I've said it before before and I'll say it again: Learn the basics of electronics. What is this? things that NEVER change, like Physics. As a matter of fact, it IS physics.

Learn

-Kirchoff's voltage law
-Ohm's law
-Basic Passive and Active components, then Integrated circuits. Then Microprocessors and junk like that.

You can get by without knowing Ohm's law, but as soon as someone will mention either current or voltage, you will not be able to follow. This is why the first two points are super important.

I always suggest people to get this book, or one of its earlier versions: Getting Started in Electronics Book - RadioShack.com

good studying

Cheers,

2N

[antoniosolo]

Seems like a science to me, prepare for some serious studying if you really want to learn it. I could be wrong and someone please correct me if I am wrong. Tons of fun what they come up with though....

[Raider]

I really think you'd better serve yourself learning software development. Hardware design has reached a peak and manufacturing is done in China, so everything is disposable before it's obsoleted.

Learn Postgres, Java, and MySQL. Internet centric database apps.

Unless you want to become a specialist working on old gear...

Just knowing basic electronics though can be very useful in life. Discrete circuits... then you move on to digital logic.

[Gus Elg]

Good tools are great, but you don't have to spend a lot to get a decent rig going. The Weller WLC100 is a fine soldering iron and under $50. I use one of the blue Weller stations that's truly temperature controlled but it's not essential. Old fashioned 60/40 leaded solder is much easier to use than lead-free stuff. Get some solder wick and learn how to desolder without ruining circuit boards.

Get a decent multimeter, Fluke, Green Lee, Ideal, etc. make meters in the $50-$100 range that are fine. Good ones will read much faster and more accurately than the cheapo ones. Make sure you get one that reads capacitance.

I highly recommend buying some sort of diy kit, maybe from PAIA or Jameco for something cheap or Hamptone or Seventh Circle for something more useful. Build the kit, troubleshoot your mistakes, learn by experience.

I bought the textbook Analog Electronics: Devices, Circuits, and Techniques by Gerald E. Williams and found it easy to read and incredibly informative.

Good luck!

[thethrillfactor]

Originally Posted by BigJunk

I'm realizing now that the life of a Pro Tools editor is not going to bring me the money and women that it claimed to in the brochures. It would be great to augment my small income with some tech work. So now I need to learn stuff.

Where do I start? Is there any online courses or easy to follow books or DVD Courses? Time is low because I work two jobs. I know a lot of techs who never went to school but just somehow "learned" electronics. Thanks for any advice.
Junk

If you are in NYC, myself and the guys over at EARS NYC started a 3 month tech mentoring program/course for anyone who is interested in becoming a music tech.
Ears Expert Audio and Repair Service: (212) 868-HELP (4357) Fax: (212) 868-2492

Its a pretty extensive program that covers all the basics through repair and assembly. There is also a class project and individual project as well. Also there is an entire database available for the students for the class and when they continue in the future(including videos & DVD's of the classes).

If you want more info about it PM me. The next 3 month program will be in the summer starting in June through Aug.

[dlhylton]

You can learn electronics through many different types of books, but browsing the web is the probably the best way. There are many websites that explain beginning electronics, including Learning about Electronics and many others if you want a jumpstart. It shouldn't be too difficult to begin learning concepts with all the tools around.

-David
Home Page of All Things Discussed

[oweng]

I really think you'd better serve yourself learning software development. Hardware design has reached a peak and manufacturing is done in China, so everything is disposable before it's obsoleted.

the life of a Pro Tools editor is not going to bring me the money and women

oh yeah

i gotta leave this thread - nothing good will come of me being here ....

ex -

you need motivation - i suggest a goal of building a
robot hooker = the money and girl of your dreams


..... that's the best flippin' i idea ever had....

[robertshaw]

Originally Posted by Raider

so everything is disposable before it's obsoleted.... Java

I'm surprised this language isn't obsolete??............... lame

Anyway. Software is cool and it's nice to learn but it's way more complicated to master than electronics
at least as far as developing anything unique and useful. Also to really master software you have to know digital
electronics to a degree otherwise you'll just be a web developer. Id rather rake leaves at that point

The cool thing about electronics is it is tangible. Noone can pirate it, and you have something that is cool to look at and you can feel it it and earn a sense of accomplishment. Software is too complicated it never gets finished since it is impossible to finish. The feature lists are too involved and testing is a bear and a nightmare, it is soooo time consuming to do correctly. There are so many SW products already developed you could never play catch up. Unless you want to make peanuts selling silly little android applets or designing web applets

I think electronics is the way to go. And you are off base saying everything is done in china that is so not true. U.S. Military contractors and medical companies do not outsource electronics to china or india. Companies that have innovative ideas will never hand over drawings and BOMS to foreign countries. In fact many companies are outsourcing software to india now. from an innovative technology standpoint all new ideas still come out of American electronics companies. Intel, Motorola , TI etc......it's all America still. there is still plenty of opportunity. In fact so many people now go to College to learn to develop Java applets and write pearl scripts the electronics field is becoming more in now demand because of lack of new talent.

Software has peaked. there is nothing that hasn't been done. Sure there are a few things yet to become popular but that is due to lack of hardware speed which is still as a bottleneck. that's why we need more people going into chemistry and electronics to find new ways to make computers run faster. Everything in software was developed in the 50s. The technology was just held back because the hardware still isn't fast enough.

hardware/electronics is still the future

[JakeAC5253]

Are you a guitar player? If so, grab a Tubescreamer and start modding it, just try things, and hang around the forums so people with more experience can guide you. If you aren't into guitar, then maybe find an old radio or stereo amp or something, just something that has discrete components and no SMD, and do the same.

Also the Yamaha Sound Reinforcement Handbook should hit home with you. You seem to be used to studio gear, and this book is a sort of "into" for recording engineers to learn how gear works and such, in a very practical manner, without too much math or science.

[henryf]

One way to start would be with a job in a tech industry. A fair number of companies provide some form of tuition assistance.

FWIW, I just checked what monster.com had for entry level jobs, by searching for a keyword in the title plus the string "entry level", and here's what I found:

• Music: 1 opening.
  
• Electronic: 12 openings.
  
• Software: 136 openings.

[robertshaw]

Originally Posted by henryf

[*] Software: 136 openings.[/LIST]

problem with 'software positions' is it is misleading, it's like 80% web development which is not software development. Entry level software usually means testing and/or QA which is also not software development. At the end of the day there is no such thing as an entry level software development position. Not writing real code like C/C++/asm

[henryf]

Originally Posted by robertshaw

problem with 'software positions' is it is misleading, it's like 80% web development which is not software development. Entry level software usually means testing and/or QA which is also not software development. At the end of the day there is no such thing as an entry level software development position. Not writing real code like C/C++/asm

Let me add:

• web: 42 openings

[engtech]

Watch these lectures: MIT OpenCourseWare | Electrical Engineering and Computer Science | 6.002 Circuits and Electronics, Spring 2007 | Video Lectures

Then dig through the EE courses here: nptelhrd's Channel - YouTube

Get this book, its probably the best for beginners: Practical electronics for inventors - Paul Scherz - Google Books

[engtech]

Originally Posted by henryf

One way to start would be with a job in a tech industry. A fair number of companies provide some form of tuition assistance.

FWIW, I just checked what monster.com had for entry level jobs, by searching for a keyword in the title plus the string "entry level", and here's what I found:

• Music: 1 opening.
  
• Electronic: 12 openings.
  
• Software: 136 openings.

I think Dice.com is more the place engineering company's tend to use, or RHI Technology division, rather than Monster.