Gaining experience

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

I see a few folk here saying that Digial isn't electronics or more to the point Analog is more so.

To be honest I agree but the problem here is that if you are trying to encourage a person to get some where in the overall field the best way is get some success early on. Digital is easy for the most part and things work with a very large latitude for mistakes and component values etc. Something fun can be built and expected to work  more quickly with less knowledge than with analog devices.

As long as the learner is willing to carry further down the Electronics rabbit hole then I think that  fun with digital stuff is perfectly valid way into electronics.

John Alexander wrote:

 

I see a few folk here saying that Digital isn't electronics or more to the point Analog is more so.

Digital logic uses electronic circuits as a lower layer.  If you do the circuits layer properly -- e.g., clean power supplies and clean clocks -- and meet timing requirements, you can then treat the logic layer and computer software as mathematics, which is an exact science.  Electronic circuits are physics, which is an inexact science especially since your components have inexact values.

Which is "easier" depends on the designer.  If you like to think about complex logic problems, digital is easier.  If you like to think about currents and voltages and magnetic fields, analog is easier.  The legendary Bob Pease had no patience whatsoever for computers -- he liked to throw a circuit together intuitively and then play with values to get it working.  I once hear him say "I don't hate computers.  Computers hate me.  I loathe computers."

Most of his videos are still available on YouTube, he is/was pretty awesome and I have watched most of his content, there are some great ones on probe loading, measuring small currents and voltages etc. A definite / required viewing for people learning electronics for sure

here is a taste of some of his work

Enjoy

http://electronicdesign.com/author/bob-pease

Kurt Godel, and others, did not share your optimism about mathematics.  It is possible to utilize computers to aid in analog design, but I get your point.  I happened to be a real natural with computer, average, in abilities, with analog.  Forcing myself to learn analog made me a better programmer than, I feel, more direct studies of computing would have.  I have a better top-down notion of what it is all about.  There are branches of mathematics, such as difference calculus, that abut analog and digital and speak to the errors we can anticipate with both.

At the very least, now, I have a wider range of choices when implementing a solution.

Lets be honest you can get something like the $15 grab bag for the 100/200 transistor circuits  website and  be away for a ton of "fun"

http://www.talkingelectronics.com/projects/200TrCcts/200TrCcts.html

Lets be honest you can get something like the $15 grab bag for the 100/200 transistor circuits  website and  be away for a ton of "fun"

http://www.talkingelectronics.com/projects/200TrCcts/200TrCcts.html