Do you want to learn electronics to be able to create their own devices?
There are plenty of resources for the study of electronics. But where to start?
And what do you out of this mass of information do you need?
And in what order?
As a result, if you do not know what you need to learn, you can easily spend a lot of time studying unnecessary things.
And if you miss a few simple, but important first steps, you will be a long struggle, even with the basic circuits.
If your goal is to create your own projects electronically, then this checklist of steps for you!
Start by reading all the steps up to the end to get a general idea.
Next, decide what educational material you will use to address each step.
STEP 1: Review the concept of "closed loop"
If you do not know what it takes to run the scheme, you can create a schema?
The first thing to learn is the concept of "closed loop".
Electric current - a flow of electrons in a wire. Electrons flow when you have a "closed loop" - the path from the negative to the positive terminal of the battery.
For example, if you connect small light bulb to the positive and negative pole of the battery, you will get a closed circuit through which electrons can flow and make the lamp illuminate.
After completing this step, you must know how to do some simple circuit. And you should be able to fix one of the most common mistakes in a chain - there is no connection.
Step 2: Get the basic knowledge of voltage, current and resistance
Current flows, the resistance resists voltage annoying :)))))) What do something like that happens, you might think. But not quite.
they all affect each other.
It is important to know, to study electronics properly.
Understand how they work in the chain, and that follow this step.
To help you, I wrote an excellent article:
How to use Ohm's Law: Instructions for beginners with examples
After completing this step, you'll be able to look at a very simple circuit and understand how it is flowing current and the voltage is distributed between electronic components.
Step 3: Examine the electronics, building a circuit from schematics
No more waiting - you have to start developing the scheme now. Not only because it's fun, but because it's what you want to learn to do well.
If you want to learn how to swim, you have to practice swimming. Same with electronics. Do not be afraid to make mistakes!
After completing this step, you need to know how the concepts work and how to use the development board to build their real chains.
Excellent article to help you:
- TOP 5 simple circuits for beginners
Step 4: Get a basic understanding of these components
The most common components that you will see at the beginning of the study of electronics:
- Resistor
- Light-emitting diode
- Capacitor
- Transistor
You can get a basic understanding of each of them quickly if you have a good learning materials.
- Top 5 major electronic components used in electrical circuits
After this step you need to know how these components work and what they do on the circuit.
You should be able to look at a simple circuit diagram and think:
"Yeah, this scheme makes it!".
Step 5: Get the experience of using a transistor as a switch
The transistor is the most important component in electronics.
In the previous step N4 got an idea of how a transistor works. Now it's time to use it in practice.
Construct several different circuits, wherein the transistor acts as a switch.
After completing this step, you must know how to control motors, buzzers or lights using the transistor.
Step 6: Learn to solder
Prototypes built on the layout easily and quickly created. But they do not look good, and communication can easily fall / disconnected.
If you want to create projects that look good and work for a long time, you need to learn how to solder.
Soldering is fun, and it's really easy to learn!
After this step you need to know how to make a good solder joint.
On his website, I wrote a detailed article that will help you go through this step:
- How to solder soldering iron: preparation, soldering technology
Step 7: Learn how diodes and capacitors behave in the chain
At this stage, you should already be a good base in the head, and you should already be able to create simple circuits.
But your knowledge of electronics must not stand still.
Now it's time to learn how to work more complicated schemes.
After this step - if you see a schematic diagram of a resistor, capacitor and diode, connected in any way - you can see what happens to the voltages and currents when connected battery. And in a toga you have to understand what makes a circuit.
Articles that I have written on the channel Zen:
- What is an LED and how does it work?
- 6 main types of diodes and how they work
Step 8: Construction of circuits using IC
So far you separate the components used to create a fun and simple circuits. But you are still limited to the most basic functions.
How can you add to your projects cool features, such as sound, memory, intelligence, and more?
In this case, you need to learn how to use integrated circuits (ICs).
These schemes may seem very complicated, but it is not as difficult as it might seem at first glance. All-just need to learn to work with them. And it will open a new world of possibilities.
Step 9: Create your own printed circuit board
By this step, you should have already built a lot of circuits.
And you can be a bit limited, because some circuits that you want to require a large number of compounds.
Therefore, now is the time to learn how to create your own circuit boards!
You can start with a simple program such as Fritzing. If this is not enough for your needs, learn more advanced software for designing printed circuit boards, such as the Eagle or KiCad.
After this step you need to know how to design a printed circuit board on the computer and how to book cheap prototypes PCB design your online over the Internet.
Check out my article on the subject:
- How to build a working card from scratch in 6 steps
Step 10: Learn how to use microcontrollers in their projects
Thanks to chip and PCB own project, you can do a lot.
But, nevertheless, if you really want the freedom to create what you want, you need to learn how to use microcontrollers. It really will bring your projects to the next level.
Learn how to use a microcontroller, and you can create enhanced functionality with just a few lines of code instead of using a huge set of components for the same purpose.
Some of the most popular microcontrollers now - this AVR, ARM. For example, in the popular line of Arduino devices used microcontrollers Atmel AVR.
Here are a few of my projects on the Arduino with which you can read:
- Weather Station Arduino with your own hands
- How to make a tilt sensor based on the Arduino with your own hands
- Moving the vehicle speed detector for Arduino