learn electronics

I studied both digital and analog electronics in college as apart of my physics program.

Electronics is the antecedent to computers (which is my profession) and between one and the other they seem to make the world run on time (at least mostly). I guess I’d like to be be able to understand and eventually manipulate some of the everyday technology around me.

But I’ve completed my “past learning”. Haha!

Anyways, I received an electronics lab from Radio Shack when I was 12 or so at Christmas Time(I don’t remember asking for it so I suppose it was my computer technician of a father who hatched the idea) and I liked building the projects using the digestible drawings and watching it come alive. Of course, I had no understanding of pretty much anything at the time…

So that’s what I’m trying to do now. I come from a programming background(During my teenage years and during the first few years of college: I’m now a junior in college) and I’m now intensely interested in electronics as I want to be completely enabled to design robots from every possible angle imaginable(so that angle doesn’t become a future hindrance), so I’m seeking to acquire the foundational knowledge. I’ve been using MIT’s OpenCourseWare at http://ocw.mit.edu/OcwWeb/Electrical-Engineering-and-Computer-Science/index.htm and have been slodging through the coursework and videos, and I’m using the book at http://www.ibiblio.org/kuphaldt/electricCircuits/, and I’m also using Tina’s circuit simulator to build the circuits and watching them act! I’m more interested in digital circuitry but I’m trying to not allow analog circuits become an Achilles heel. So far, I’ve built a Binary counter that runs off a 555 Timer IC and displayed the counting on my own digital logic gates to output to an LED number display(I later replaced that with a binary-to-LCD display IC since my simulator seems to choke on all the computation necessary for simulation) and now I’m trying to master memory elements so I could implement a finite state machine of my own design. After that, I’m hoping to master the electronics of radio control and wireless communication to a degree that’d enable me to implement wireless communication interfaces on my bots. Anyways, I can do some pretty cool things and I can hard-wire “memory” using digital logic gates(without feedback that enables real “memory” elements), but it wouldn’t be programmable or changeable… haha. After that, ARMS, PICs(or whatever micrcontrollers) are the next step(Well, possibly before or during the radio) and I’ll be re-entering the familiar world of programming which will hopefully tie everything together.

Got the electronics learning lab kit (ages 10 and up) from Radio Shack, and I’m working through it in my spare time. Next up: capacitors.

As the title says, but still it was a hell of a job. I finally learned and passed my electronics exam. I can finally get on with life! Yeaaaah!

Sorry, still feeling a bit euphoric.

i want to be a technician

I have applied for a course that i can do part time at the local TAFE college. I find out if i have been accepted on July the 5th. crosses fingers Wish me luck!

There is this art gallery thingie near here that offers an “electronics for artists” class. They start the next one this weekend, which I cannot do because I have to advance to candidacy next week, but I really hope they offer it again either late this summer or during next Fall. I want to do it so badly…

This should really be “learn more electronics” because I know a bit already, but this goal is close enough. And I’d rather consolidate goals than spawn another close variant! :-)

I wanna be able to build and MOD guitar pedals. That would be nuts. I am going to electronic school next year, can’t wait!