You could start with any good book of electronics, then maybe a book on logic. that would be where I would start..

I had electronics shop in HS with tubes...:) and RTL logic, the logic didn't change but the types did TTL, ECL, CMOS, etc.  you need the electronics and our freind Ohms Law, to figure out fan in or fan out. or why do we use a 330 ohm resister on a LED when powered from 5v?

oh well enjoy

Cris H.

Thank you again for your advice cris

You could try BERNARD BABANI A beginners guide to TTL Digital ICs, there used to be a whole set of these books, with simple projects and circuits but they seem to be going out of fashion.

http://uk.farnell.com/bernard-babani/isbn-0859343324/book-beginners-ttl-digital-ic/dp/884042

Also some of the books for things like the Arduino have some nice simple circuits with things like transistors, motors, switches and sensors.

http://uk.farnell.com/arduino?ref=lookahead#books

Look at evening classes at your local college.

See if there's an electronics club anywhere near you.

Here's a good web site on basic electronics: http://www.kpsec.freeuk.com/

Another thing to try is YOUTUBE. but get a good book on electronics

Electronic Circuits - Fundamentals & Applications, Third Edition [Paperback]

by mike tooley.

is a good one but not all of the problems were edited correctly.

what i mean here is it will tell you to take a value from a different problem but the number they use is left field but if you use the right number the problem reads correctly.

Hope this helps

MAKE: Electronics was a good practical starter for me.

http://www.makershed.com/Make_Electronics_book_by_Charles_Platt_p/9780596153748.htm

You may want to try the ARRL Handbook.

http://www.arrl.org/shop/ARRL-Handbook-2013-Softcover-Edition/?page=1

From there, you probably want to pick a domain to focus on based on what you are interested in:

Power, Digital, Analog, etc.

The best advise I can give you is: No matter what you do, practice, practice, practice!

As well as all the previous advice, I would suggest getting involved with your local Amateur Radio Club. Although it's a bit of a niche hobby these days, Radio does attract some very clever people and, because of the social and communication aspects of the hobby, they are normally more than willing to give you a hand. You could also do the Foundation Radio Licence which is a two hour basic electronics course and will give you access to transmit on certian radio bands, opening up the way to even more assistance.

Have a look at: http://www.rsgb.org/ and click on 'Find out about Amateur Radio'

Also: http://www.southgatearc.org/ for news about the Amateur Radio world.

Regards,

Steve G0TDJ

I don't believe there is a better board for learning about electronics. I think the best way to learn is by making projectssss (as much as you can +1). I start myself without any theory and I just try learning by realising schematic I could find online. Most of the time, there were faulty parts and that's the way I learn (by debugging). So if I would have to recommend you a board, it would be a breadboard. And it's practically magical how ideas come around and just make you want to create more stuff.

But I start before all these boards were available and I know that lot of low-cost boards are very attractive for learners (Arduino) , and for owning some of them, they are pretty cool! So I guess you could really learn with an arduino if you would prefer to start with programmation. The biggest advantage of the Arduino,is its community. In facts, there are lots of projects that other made that you could learn from. There is also a lot of tutorials on it.

Because the only way to learn this science is practice. But more important than practice is failure. If when you power up your project, every thing work fine, you're lucky but didn't learn as much, and if it doesn't, you are luckier! Just don't give up because nothing work, we all wanted at some point to throw a board on a wall (and sometimes did). But this is electronics. It's not easy, and if it was, I wouldn't be into electronics!

Good luck,

Julien

Well I expect you have already started by now, but if not I would take any number of the cheap Arduino clones on Ebay + one of those Kits that allows you to do everything in http://arduino.cc/ go through it all bit by bit  and learn some of the digital electronics. Price around £35  and you can reuse it all when you have finished. As with many other subjects the only way to learn is to do it so  this is a cheap reliable well known frame work to allow you to do this...Again Good luck John A

My background is in civil engineering but I always wanted to be a computer engineer. I learned programming by googling. Even outside school there were friends and friends of friends who had electronics or hardware interfacing projects. I helped them and collaborated on things I understand. With it I learned about a few stuff and I'm still learning till now. I don't know how to design circuits yet but I will get there if I won't stop learning and helping others. The above comments are all true.

My first electronic board was an arduino clone I bought from china. From there I got a few stuff every time I have a spare. I'm from the Philippines and much of the boards should be ordered online and it'll cost you much on custom tax. But it's an investment.