Starting in electronics after becoming disabled

Ron - electronics is a ocean, depends where you want to swim. The tides can be swift, the ocean deep and cold. Start in the baby pool , warm water, with basic electricity... lots of free courses. Once feeling comfortable with Volts, Amps, ohms, AC & DC, milli henries, micro farads, picos, micros, kilos, megas,  After that can start into solid state devices , transistors - bipolars, MOSFETS, etc.. Can move into Arduinos, Raspberry Pis and programmable devices. Dive into Internet connectivity and digital communications. Reading is good, but real learning happens with building and experimenting - without doing bodily damage to yourself. 

Hi Ron,

I became disabled in 2001, which soon forced me to retire.

Since then I have continued to dabble in electronics, though I can no longer write software.

If you do some searches there is a wealth of information freely accessible on the internet to learn electronics.

If you get an Arduino and a small sensors kit, you can learn a lot for a small investment. 

Sorry to hear about your health problem.

My advise is to start with Microchip PIC 8 bit MCU if you are interested in MCU embedded electronics.

1. PIC 8 bit is everywhere in our daily life electronics.
2. They are simpler and easier to learn.
3. They are very cheap.
4. They are industrial grade.
5. Microchip provides a complete and free of charge C compiler and IDE.
6. Microchip also provides free of charge documents and video courses for learning their hardware.

Try this cheap official board, US$43.

https://www.microchip.com/en-us/development-tool/DM164136

Hey Chaim,

udemy often have free or discounted courses.

At present there's an EMC Engineering Basics course available for free: https://www.udemy.com/course/emc-engineering-basics/

Hope this helps

Have you had a look at Tinkercad Circuits ?

Free online virtual breadboard that might help you get onto that first rung of the ladder on zero budget as long as you have access to a web browser.

I'm going to start TC's electronics PCB course. I know nothing about it, but TC seems pretty good for other projects I'm doing so.

There are a couple of good introductions to PCB design using KiCad here on e14 by members  shabaz  and mayermakes  

I suggest two avenue for learning electronics Arduino's and/or Raspberry Pi's.

The hardware is inexpensive but the knowledge that can be gained is immense. Using the hardware tackle simple projects. Turning a LED on an off for example. building the circuit and then having a intelligence device (microcontroller or microcomputer) operate the circuit only adds to the learning.

Arduino & Raspberry Pi projects as a tool for learning electronics, I have used for after school programs to teach school students.

Your local library is a fantastic resource for learning materials.  Some community colleges allow locals to audit classes for free. I find you tube somewhat helpful.  If you look up Ben Eater on you tube, he builds a computer on bread boards.  Depending on your current knowledge, you may not understand a lot of what he is saying, but I have found that listening to him tends to put the questions in my mind to ask.  I kind of hate to say it, but sometimes I find AI (I use googles gemini) to be helpful.  Especially for identifying components in devices I have taken apart.  I have a friend who is a computer support person that has gotten me a couple of old, not functioning printers, a scanner, etc.