Electronics

Some of us have been learning electronics for quite some time - in my case about 55 years.

I know quite a lot of stuff, and I know enough to know that there is more that I don't know than there is that I do.

Like all skills, electronics requires a little aptitude and  at least 10000 hours of practice, to reach a level of reasonable competence. (because that's what the other guys have put in and some are always going to be smarter than you.)

I estimate I've put in over 100k hours of effort in electronics - there are no short cuts - so we are talking about where you might start.

If you need just one pointer, then try "The Art of Electronics by Paul Horowitz and Winfield Hill" (Third edition ISBN 978-0-521-80926-9).

Chances are you won't understand a lot of it so you'll need to read around it as well.

Be very careful about sites like EEWeb and All About Circuits - both are popular and crammed full of errors and misconceptions.

There is good stuff on the web, but more poor stuff - and it can be hard to tell the difference.

I agree with fmilburn and jancumps advice.

MK

Totally agree with Michael.

I have a formal education in electronics very similar to what Ability is looking for, as an engineer specialized in electronics, automatic control and robotics.

My studies lasted 6 years at the university, about 60 different subjects, plus a project year. It is not an easy path, almost 6 hours of study a day apart from classes. You have to like it a lot.

But I don't have those 10,000 hours of practice that Micheal says. My professional career has been focused on high-level software development, I have been dedicated to software for almost 40 years and therefore I have never considered myself an engineer.

Now that I am older I am approaching retirement and have decided to give electronics a try as a hobby and I can only say that sometimes I have no idea what I am doing but I get great satisfaction when things work or magic smoke doesn't come out.

In recent years I have followed some courses on Coursera and EDX, they are courses taught by prestigious universities, they require dedication and many of them have a very good level. But electronics is very extensive. Start with a good foundation of circuit theory, analog electronics, digital electronics, combinational and sequential circuits, power electronics, control electronics, microcontrollers, and FPGAs. Now there are tools that didn't exist in my college days. Just after finishing university I was lucky that my company was a distributor of National Instruments for Spain and I had to specialize in LabView to sell to universities. LabView is a great tool for learning.

If what you want is to tinker with some electronics and microcontrollers by building something, there is a highly recommended course that I followed a few years ago. TI Robotics System Learning Kit (TI-RSLK). All material is free and the kit is very affordable. https://training.ti.com/ti-robotics-system-learning-kit

Totally agree with Michael.

I have a formal education in electronics very similar to what Ability is looking for, as an engineer specialized in electronics, automatic control and robotics.

My studies lasted 6 years at the university, about 60 different subjects, plus a project year. It is not an easy path, almost 6 hours of study a day apart from classes. You have to like it a lot.

But I don't have those 10,000 hours of practice that Micheal says. My professional career has been focused on high-level software development, I have been dedicated to software for almost 40 years and therefore I have never considered myself an engineer.

Now that I am older I am approaching retirement and have decided to give electronics a try as a hobby and I can only say that sometimes I have no idea what I am doing but I get great satisfaction when things work or magic smoke doesn't come out.

In recent years I have followed some courses on Coursera and EDX, they are courses taught by prestigious universities, they require dedication and many of them have a very good level. But electronics is very extensive. Start with a good foundation of circuit theory, analog electronics, digital electronics, combinational and sequential circuits, power electronics, control electronics, microcontrollers, and FPGAs. Now there are tools that didn't exist in my college days. Just after finishing university I was lucky that my company was a distributor of National Instruments for Spain and I had to specialize in LabView to sell to universities. LabView is a great tool for learning.

If what you want is to tinker with some electronics and microcontrollers by building something, there is a highly recommended course that I followed a few years ago. TI Robotics System Learning Kit (TI-RSLK). All material is free and the kit is very affordable. https://training.ti.com/ti-robotics-system-learning-kit

javagoza said:

Now that I am older I am approaching retirement and have decided to give electronics a try as a hobby and I can only say that sometimes I have no idea what I am doing but I get great satisfaction when things work or magic smoke doesn't come out.

Me.  Although I retired/gave up on work 4 years ago.  I'm still immensely satisfied with designing a project and seeing it through.

It's hard to tell really what the OP is after and I'm not clear what 'undergraduate' really means in this case: I've always applied it to someone actually in study.  Know-nothing hobbyist like I was (and only little more advanced from that now) I could recommend the Make: Electronics books by Charles Platt; professionally I could only suggest that Michael is talking sense (although the Art of Electronics is incredibly dense material)

Andrew J said:

(although the Art of Electronics is incredibly dense material)

You have a point. Although it includes basic material, it doesn't teach it at a basic level. For an electronics person, maybe the most complete book. For a student without a teacher, it can be a level too high.

I think if you can pass the Linear Systems (resistors, inductors, capacitors in DC and AC context, Network/circuit analysis) course and exam on Coursera, you're at a point where you can step up to self-learning.

if you don't have the grasp of the linear part, and can't resolve a circuit, you'll be able to copy other designs, but designing will always be tough - because that base is needed.

edit: ahumm  

It's a "Statement of Accomplishment" because I didn't pay for the controlled path. But I took the same course and exam.

You look a lot prettier than when I last saw a photo of you!

The most part I like in electronics is the embedded part as u said, i love robotics so much.

Thanks so much for your advice