Looking for beginner circruits, that are instructive and useful.. - Page 1
Forum section: electronics / beginners

author: mavu
author_rank: Contributor
timestamp: October 25, 2017, 06:38:01 am
content: Hello,I am an electronics beginner, although I have wielded a soldering iron for 10+ years, I only know electrical/electronic basics, and put together some kits or other small things.Now, I want to seriously learn electronics, not just replicate a schematic and solder parts.So I'm looking for things to build which are:Instructive:Something I can understand and learn from as a beginnerUseful:Something that helps populate my electronics lab and can be used for further learning/working with electronics.The first thing that came to my mind (due to not having one) is a bench power supply, but I would definitely consider that something advanced, because I don't want to mess with mains voltages until I feel confident that I know what I'm doing.The only other thing I can think of is a decade resistor box.If you have any ideas and suggestions please tell me.I hope all the experienced people in here still remember their beginnings

author: Fire Doger
author_rank: Regular Contributor
timestamp: October 25, 2017, 08:27:52 am
content: You can start with "The art of electronics" it's very nice for what you want to do. eBay is your friend for DIY tools, building a better versions requires some knowledge.Electronics is a big subject, for example embedded is completely different from radio, you have to specify in which subject you are interested in to give you more resources.There is no point to give you an AM modulation example if you want to play with Raspberry and vise versa.And if you want to learn fast you gonna need some tools like scope, ofc you can and without but it's more time consuming and play around with simulations etc.

author: mavu
author_rank: Contributor
timestamp: October 25, 2017, 08:38:23 am
content: Quote from: Fire Doger on October 25, 2017, 08:27:52 amCheck, had it for some time and starting to work through it nowQuote from: Fire Doger on October 25, 2017, 08:27:52 amEmbedded is certainly whats more on my mind when I think "electronics" but, learning about radio is quite interesting too, probably something for later.Quote from: Fire Doger on October 25, 2017, 08:27:52 amYes.. I discovered ebay.. my first scope is on the way, and I am looking at some other things, like power supply and maybe a bench multimeter.. With my rather lacking impulse control, I might have to block ebay on my router soon...

author: Fire Doger
author_rank: Regular Contributor
timestamp: October 25, 2017, 09:34:20 am
content: Well, for embedded you have some basic steps, powering mcu, know how to program mcu, design the rest of the circuit (what mcu will control).So you need some knowledge on basic electronics resistors, capacitors, transistors, gates, mosfets which you will find in the book.Also it's nice to play around with buck boost converters, with scope it will be very easy and fun. In Google or in the forum you will find every configuration, pros n cons to learn how to choose the part for each design based on requirements. There are some jellybeans too.Then you have to learn an MCU family, 8,16 or 32 bit, which is HUGE work! You can also find topics discussing families, I personally don't know a lot of them to guide you.If you want just to have fun you can start with Arduino which abstract the low level configuration. (Which also has a huge community and thousands of projects to try)But if you want to go further than simple designs you will have to dig further on datasheets. There are some great books for Avr, pic, st, choose your poisonLast but not least MCU will need some extra circuit which is highly dependable on the project. If you can do the rest you will have enough knowledge to search it on your own.After you learn something you can figure out what you can learn next. You can also check some open source projects and see what you don't know and search it, but you have to know the basics so the art of electronics or similar books are a great start.

author: danadak
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: October 25, 2017, 10:28:52 am
content: Here are a number of magazines, Radio Electronics, Popular Electronics, thatover the years have had beginners articles on various topics.http://www.americanradiohistory.com/Regards, Dana.

author: mavu
author_rank: Contributor
timestamp: October 25, 2017, 11:52:27 am
content: Quote from: Fire Doger on October 25, 2017, 09:34:20 amI have done some projects with arduino and atmel microcontrollers. That was rather accessible to me, because I'm a software engineer.What I want to understand more is all the jelly-beans (or chicken fodder as we call it in germany) around the MCU.Also, I'm pretty sure I suffer from the "If all you have is a hammer, everything looks like a nail"-Syndrome, and I think most things I made which used a MCU, could have been done without any code in hardware.

author: rstofer
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: October 25, 2017, 02:59:35 pm
content: I am going to suggest any form of robotics because, finally, all that code and hardware has to actually do something. Even a simple line follower has sensors, a control loop (logic) and motors/drivers. I know, too trivial! Anybody can do this...Well, add a voice module and use the forward IR sensors to determine which direction has an obstacle and have the module say "Break Left, Break Left" or "Break Right, Break Right" while making a 180 degree turn in the appropriate direction. Add another situation where the 'bot has been blocked such that it simply spins in a circle. "Danger Will Robinson!". Don't lose track of the line! You might want to continue when the obstructions are clear. Hint: you might have to abort one command in favor of another under certain circumstances.I built mine based on the MiniSumo Mark IIIhttp://www.junun.org/MarkIII/Info.jsp?item=1I have several robots of this style.Have you ever thought about Micro Mouse competition? The Japanese elevate this to near magic. Their mazes, unlike those in the US, have islands and getting trapped running in circles is part of the problem. Our mazes are 16 by 16, theirs are huge.https://youtu.be/hGNxXqQgHYYThe 'bot fails to find the goalhttps://youtu.be/bnFLi-peG78The US maze can be solved with the 'flood fill' algorithm as long as there are no islands. Fortunately, the US rules preclude the use of islands.The first pass builds a complete map of the maze and there will be a lot of backtracking. The second pass uses the optimum course to find the goal. I suppose there could be a cost matrix involved if multiple paths exist.Electronics is a pretty big sandbox. Find a corner that is interesting!

author: Awesome14
author_rank: Regular Contributor
timestamp: October 25, 2017, 03:07:06 pm
content: One project I always wanted to do, but never got around to, was to build a LED clock that would sync to a PC running ntp off a gps. That would require a processor, memory, operating system, connectivity, LED logic IC, possibly a PIC, a a driver circuit for the LEDs.It's not a difficult project. You could use Linux as the OS. Many embedded projects use it. In fact, Android and Kindle both run Linux. If you look in datasheets you'll find all sorts of little projects that don't cost much for parts and also do something useful.Another project I have in mind is a Peltier controller. The main problem with the project is a Peltier (thermoelectric) chip will burn out quickly if thermostatic control is used. You can use SMPS for power, but the TEC chip requires linear control.PWM does not work well with TEC chips. It causes parasitic heating. You also need to electronically throttle the cooling fans that cool the hot side of the TEC chip. Here's a great explanation of PID control:https://www.eurotherm.com/pid-control-made-easyBoth of those projects are for devices that are available commercially at very high prices.

author: Kalvin
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: October 25, 2017, 03:19:49 pm
content: Quote from: Awesome14 on October 25, 2017, 03:07:06 pmYou can do it with an Arduino and a GPS module if you wish. If you really want to use PC as NTP server, you can use some simple method and protocol to transfer the time data from the PC to Arduino using serial data, for example you could using simple low power radio chips to do that. Controlling LEDs can be simple as using Arduino's GPIO pins and/or 74HC595 shift register(s).

author: TimNJ
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: October 25, 2017, 04:14:09 pm
content: I think building your own power supply is fine as long as you know what its limitations will be. A lot of people just go down the LM317 route, which is basically just a adjustable constant voltage supply. A "proper" lab power supply has constant current and constant voltage modes. That is, if your circuit draws more current than your current limit point, it will throttle back the output voltage to limit the current.That'sreallyuseful for powering up your circuit for the first time. If you've made a mistake, chances are you won't damage it with a sufficiently low current limit.You can try a circuit like this:https://forum.allaboutcircuits.com/blog/a-16-16v-1-67a-constant-voltage-constant-current-lab-psu.480/Personally, I donotrecommend The Art of Electronics (by itself) for a first time learner. It is essentially an engineer's reference book. On the other hand, the "lab manual"Learning the Art of Electronicswould probably be much more helpful. You can buy all of the parts for it here:https://www.digikey.com/en/resources/edu/harvard-lab-kitI'd say don't bother with a decade resistor box. Most people don't find much use for them, though the build might be interesting.

author: ogden
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: October 25, 2017, 04:56:11 pm
content: Bench power supply seems like easy project, but it is not. Better find charger of your old phone - it can be your "5V 1A Lab Supply" at the beginning. For every beginner like you I usually suggest to get some "experimenters kit with breadboard". There's many on amazon. For example:https://www.amazon.com/Elegoo-EL-CK-002-Electronic-Breadboard-Potentiometer/dp/B01ERP6WL4/ref=sr_1_5?ie=UTF8&qid=1508950189&sr=8-5&keywords=electronics+kit+breadboard.Nowadays nearly every electronics have some microcontroller inside. So, you could consider some Arduino kit too:https://www.amazon.com/Elegoo-Complete-Ultimate-TUTORIAL-Mega2560/dp/B01EWNUUUA/ref=sr_1_3?ie=UTF8&qid=1508950189&sr=8-3&keywords=electronics+kit+breadboard

author: Kleinstein
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: October 25, 2017, 05:00:53 pm
content: Building a lab-supply is more tricky than is looks at first sight. It can still be a lot to learn on this, but if done right it a rather difficult part. One can get away from mains power if one starts with something like an old laptop supply for the raw power. Also start small, as there is less magic smoke involved.Another, slightly simpler project would be a simple analog function / sine generator. The triangle - square version can be rather simple, but get more evolved for a larger frequency range. The quest for a low THD sine-wave (Wien bridge) generator can also be fun and useful.

author: TheUnnamedNewbie
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: October 25, 2017, 05:32:42 pm
content: Powersupplies are overrated as a project, in my opinion. In addition, the powersupply is the base of all your experiments as a beginner. You need to be able to trust that the powersupply is rock solid. Better get a second hand old powersupply for starters if you want to play around with electronics (old low-power HP ones can be had for 50 euros).One thing a lot of my first projects were about is lighting or clocks. I staretd (but never finished) a binary clock that would display the UNIX time (32 leds, all done with discrete logic, 1PPS from mains voltage). A few other ones were various forms of analog PWM generators for LEDs or constant-current based dimmers. I was never a big fan of the arduino stuff, it felt like you were just taking a bunch of stuff other people made and using 10 lines of code to make it work and then called it your project. Then again, I guess the same can be said for most simple analog projects?Another usefull project can be DIY milliohm meters or voltage references. You can get high-performance voltage references for a few euros each, and build a box around them. This can be fun to work with, perhaps add a high-linearity DAC to build a programmable reference out. I've always wanted to build one (and have some really fancy DACs laying around waiting for me to do so), but never got to it.The main thing about projects is that they have to be usefull. Making a project for the sake of making a project is not really as fun as building something that has a purpose: be it control the lighting, tell time, or help you in other projects.

author: james_s
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: October 25, 2017, 06:24:08 pm
content: I always enjoyed building power supplies, they can be as simple or as complex as you like and when you finish you have another useful tool to put on the bench. As others have mentioned though "electronics" is a very broad topic so it depends on what areas grab your interest.

author: ogden
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: October 26, 2017, 07:15:09 pm
content: Quote from: james_s on October 25, 2017, 06:24:08 pmNow you have just lot of power supplies in result..You can do so much electronics just using 1$ "wall wart" power adapter. No offense, but open your mind. Seriously.

author: james_s
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: October 27, 2017, 09:39:11 pm
content: Quote from: ogden on October 26, 2017, 07:15:09 pmSure and I use a lot of wall warts, especially today when they're so common but 30 years ago I had to scrounge whatever parts I could get. E-waste was not a thing yet, people had a lot less stuff and everything was more expensive. I felt really lucky to find a broken stereo component or other gear out on the curb for the trash.But anyway, a good bench supply still has a lot to offer over a wall wart. Higher current, adjustable voltage, current limiting, meters, etc. I never said to limit yourself to power supplies, I only offered that as one suggestion that I found enjoyable to build.

author: mavu
author_rank: Contributor
timestamp: November 01, 2017, 10:04:13 am
content: Quote from: Kleinstein on October 25, 2017, 05:00:53 pmThe function/sine generator sounds like exactly what i was aiming for. Analog circruits, simple, and useful. I'll look into that, thanks!

author: mavu
author_rank: Contributor
timestamp: November 01, 2017, 10:07:21 am
content: Quote from: TheUnnamedNewbie on October 25, 2017, 05:32:42 pmI do like microcontrollers, but its just too easy to use them, and not understand a single (or very little) electronics around them.The voltage reference sounds like another very nice project, thanks!

author: mavu
author_rank: Contributor
timestamp: November 01, 2017, 10:09:37 am
content: Quote from: james_s on October 27, 2017, 09:39:11 pmI certainly would be intersted in building a good power supply, especially as good ones are still reasonably expensive even on ebay.But, for now, i'll stay clear of everything mains related until I feel I know all the ways I can kill myself with it

author: mavu
author_rank: Contributor
timestamp: November 01, 2017, 10:10:58 am
content: Quote from: TimNJ on October 25, 2017, 04:14:09 pmGood suggestion for the book, I'll see if I can get one. Thanks!

author: paulca
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: November 03, 2017, 03:05:47 pm
content: As someone in a similar position... Software engineer who isn't afraid of a soldering iron or some electrics hoping to make an effort to learn electronics I have found Dave's EEVBlog YouTube channel entertaining.I signed up forwww.tronclub.commonthly kit/lessons bag. A basic review is in Dave's Mailbag somewhere. First pack hasn't arrived yet, so I can't really comment, but one thing it will probably provide if nothing else is a good range of basic components for the expanding parts bin.I'm envious that you purchased a scope. I haven't even plucked up the courage to put some cash down on a bench PSU. Took me two weeks to make a decision on a DMM! Scopes... I can see weeks or months of procrastination and drooling over scopes I will never afford.Home automation seems a pretty cool area to get into. Plenty of opportunity for basic/intermediate electronics driven by SOHO level software development with options to expand out into machine learning and Internet of Things space.

author: mavu
author_rank: Contributor
timestamp: November 04, 2017, 04:44:10 pm
content: Quote from: paulca on November 03, 2017, 03:05:47 pmIf you are a software developer, chances are that you can afford it, just sell some of your old hardware you have flying around. (Yes, that old box in the corner too, you never use it anyway, and you really don't need that 2008 Thinkpad anymore.)Until today I spent 90€ for the used scope, and another 38€ for a new PSU + another 19€ for 2 scope probes.Just do it and start playing. If you don't enjoy it, don't use the stuff or decide to do something else, you can always sell it, the price for a 20 year old scope wont suddenly drop once you owned it for some months.I'm speaking from experience here, because I did the same dithering for literally years, and could kick myself for not just doing it.