Gaining experience

Although a little simple for me, I have found a really good starting YouTube channel that could help get started with understanding. Very basic and the parts are readily available. https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCIxuIgWdckUz5_Yhca8gSfg

I think the op-amp is a more general entry-point to electronics than the logic gate.

This was something I came across that is an excellent started for anyone in electronics, it has been around a while, it is published to you can go get it on amazon etc if you want but you can also legally download it for free from here

http://www.analog.com/library/analogDialogue/archives/43-09/linear_circuit_design_handbook.html

Covers OP Amps, Caps, Inductors, and all sorts of other cool things

definitely worth a read for new and old in the field alike

I'ma gonna read that baby cover-to-cover, Peter, thanks.  Then I'ma gonna re-read their 'Non-Linear Circuits Handbook' to get my groove back and return to my general state of confusion.  AD pubs are greatly informative, and written in good English, not that I ever let their Boston asses know that if I don't have to.  Actually, AD guys have always been friendly, informed, modern and helpful in the thirty-five years I have intersected with them.  They have helped define for me what good sportsmanship is over the years.  Learned alot about 'tronics from them over that period.  Don't pass up one of their seminars if you get invited.

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.

Oh, sure.  I'm sure I put great emphasis on logic due to its tractability when I was a beginner.  Problem I had was when I encountered analog functionality, such as one-shots, realized with gates.

I think it's all valid, as long as the laws of physics and thermodynamics and information theory are being attended.  I have low optimism around our hover-board fans, but would be delighted to be corrected.

The man-with-a-Swiss-army-knife feeling that attends the beginnings of mastery of op-amps is unique.  Nothing is as general.  Nobody knows what I plan to do with my op-amps, muahaha!

I agree with you, I'm just tryin' to invite more people to Analog place.  It benefits them while making me less lonely.

LOL... Agreed a good mix is what is needed ...Best advice is to start something you are actually interested in I feel unless you do not have the staying power to finish . It's not up to us to choose a project but merely to guide him with some ideas!

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.