How to get Started with Electronics (and Arduino)

so if you want to get started in electronics the first thing you should ask yourself is how deep is your interest in electronics is it just a hobby that you want to do inside or would you like to make a career out of it maybe go make some money and so if you're interested in working in the electronics field you'll likely need college especially if you want to be an electrical engineer like I am or at least some technical school now taking up Electronics as a hobby is actually a great way to figure this out if you're not sure yet and it'll also get you acclimated to electronics and that's involved in the discipline now I want to talk about a few basic things you'll need to get started so believe it or not you don't have to run out and buy a $1,000 oscilloscope or a bunch of fancy equipment to get started here in fact I'd recommend that you not dump a ton of money into this kind of stuff until you know for sure if you like the hobby so let's start with a few basic things you'll need a good workspace this is perhaps the most important thing you'll need you can go out and buy a new one or if you want to save some money shop garage sales in your area or hop on Craigslist to see if there's anything out there a desktop or laptop PC now I know they just aren't as hip as they used to be thanks to phones and tablets but you may want to dust off your PC and use it for things like simulations writing code programming microcontrollers researching on the internet more why well traditional PCS are way more powerful and easier to use with your keyboards and mice than any phone and most tablets and there's a bonus here you probably already have one lying around a digital multimeter now these allow you to measure things like resistance voltage current and more depending on the model now you don't need a top-of-the line meter to get started and eBay or Amazon are good places to shop for all kinds of equipment if you're budget conscious so here's what I recommend as far as a meters builtin functions you want at a minimum one that measures resistance voltage currents both AC and DC now this shouldn't be too much of a problem because most meters do all these things having one that also measures capacitance can be helpful having one that measures transistor HF or beta is also helpful measuring frequency and hertz can also come in handy the Lenco m1700 does all these things it can be found for less than $50 on eBay especially if you're shopping for it use now here is a picture of the Lenco m700 this is the meter I use I've had it for like 16 years it lasts it works I'm not getting kickbacks from the company for recommending it it's just the one I'm familiar with and it has a lot of functions now you'll also need a small variety of hand tools like a Phillips and flat blade screwdriver magnetic tips really come in handy so look for uh screwdrivers that have magnetic tips you'll want to have a set of Dueler screwdrivers those are the tiny smaller versions of above for working with small screws a driver with interchangeable bits for torque square and other odd shapes can come in handy too you'll want wire cutters needle-nose pliers wire strippers and a tool like The Helping Hands or some sort of small bench bi can really come in handy optional an anti-static wrist wrap for working with circuits that are sensitive to static discharge or working inside of computers and other static sensitive um devices and Equipment now let's talk about soldering iron soldering takes some practice but it's really not that hard learn by buying a couple small kits that require assembly and um soldering and that way you can get some practice I recommend the Weller wes51 soldering station it's inexpensive yet versatile this is the one I use guys um it's a good station I've had it for about seven years but it is a good soldering iron to start with breadboarding use it to assemble and test circuits before soldering them together here's a picture of a typical breadboard here again these aren't that expensive here's a picture picture of a circuit that's been breadboarded so you can kind of get the idea of what it's for now power supplies there are a few ways to supply power to your projects here most likely all of your projects will need a DC voltage at some point in the design even if you're working on something that you intend to plug into your wall now here's a cheap easy way to do it is to get some batteries and a battery holder and wire it up to your breadboard that way the cons are about this is that it's harder to get the exact voltage and the batteries die you'll have to change them you'll go through batteries a better way to do it buy a PC power supply with a digital readout you can get one for under $100 like the mzc Hy 305d or similar now this is not the power supply I use mine is a mzc but it actually has more outputs it's more expensive it's like20 something dollar I don't recommend spending that much money at least in the beginning on one of these but you can see that this is um easy to adjust easy to read so that's why I'm recommending it or for a fund first project you could build your own DC power supply there's tons of designs and books and on the internet this is a great way to get acclimated to electronics again learning the solder and learning some basic Theory you can also take the power supply from an old desktop PC and use it this can give you plusus 5 12 volts and also 3.3 volts depending on the one you use so what about oscilloscope waveform generators and other fancy equipment first make sure you enjoy electronics and plan on continuing like we talked about in the beginning of this eBay is a great place to buy used equipment just make sure you read the description and there's a lot of other surplus stores and websites out there where you can probably find this stuff used at a decent price well that wraps it up for now subscribe to my YouTube channel below I'll be making more of these Electronics related videos here there's my Twitter handle there again follow me for news tips and other resources related to electronics and thank you very much

Channel: Circuit Crush

Views: 663

Keywords:

Id: Onvre9wS1as

Length: 6min 16sec (376 seconds)

Published: Wed Jan 31 2024