Any electrical gadget / arduino / raspberry pi hobbyists here?

[fuzzybabybunny]

How did you get into the hobby? What did you use to learn how to design and create circuits from scratch, how to solder, how to work with circuits and components in a practical sense, etc?

I have a really hard time wrapping my head around how circuits work, how to design them, and what's physically happening to the electricity.

So I'm looking for some really good resources and tips that don't delve into too much complicated theoretical stuff.

Do I buy a kit from Radio Shack (if they existed) and follow the directions to create a circuit that blinks every 5 seconds or something? Should I shun too much book-learning and just throw myself into hands-on application?

I'm not looking for electrical engineering textbooks because those tend to jump immediately into too much theoretical stuff and calculus when what I really want is to just know what's physically going on and how to apply everything in a very practical manner.

 

[sdifox]

Just grab one of the myriads of circuit emulators and start from there.

 

[dullard]

I would say that you need to start with a fundamental idea of what the components do. You don't need to know why or how they do it (yet), which is the problem with most textbooks. But if you don't know what a battery, resistor, capacitor, etc does then you'll probably go nowhere.

Soldering a kit doesn't help much in my mind. Sure it shows that you can solder and possibly follow directions. But you learn next to nothing. I would instead start with a breadboard: https://www.google.com/search?q=bre...=_CWEVcjFIoGEsAX4uIPIDw&sqi=2&ved=0CAcQ_AUoAg
and a solid wire kit: http://www.summitsource.com/images/products/ACBBJW.jpg
Just be sure to check that the solid wire diameter works with your breadboard (too large and you can't stick the wires in, too small and they keep falling out or worse look like they are connected but aren't physically touching metal on metal). You'll need a meter with the ability to measure voltage and resistance at a minimum. And finally a small pack of electrical components.

A breadboard lets you plug in a bunch of components and try things out quickly. I don't think you can learn any faster than that. The breadboard has strips of metal underneath rows of holes. Thus, for example, if you plug three components in, each with one leg in that row, then all three are now electrically connected instantly with no mess, fuss, or frustration of soldering (and no need to make a circuit board). You just need to be sure which of the holes are electrically connected.

When you want to get into soldering, whatever you do, do NOT buy a soldering pencil like this: http://www.summitsource.com/images/products/TOSI60.jpg
You'll hate the day you were born with those. Instead get a soldering station: https://www.google.com/search?q=sol...a=X&ei=3iaEVeSrGIbYsAXTwoPwCQ&ved=0CAcQ_AUoAg
Search around and you should be able to get a cheap temperature controllable station for $60ish.

Then just ask questions. Ask here, ask at Arduino forums, or anywhere else.

Finally, you'll have to learn to read component datasheets. In ~90% of the cases, they tell you exactly what circuit they recommend to put near that component. Does it need resistors, capacitors, specific voltages, etc? And if so, where? The datasheet will almost always tell you that.

 

[fuzzybabybunny]

I see, thanks!

Why are soldering pencils so bad?

What's a good-sized breadboard to buy? I'm literally living out of a backpack so I'd like everything to be as small and light as possible. I want to learn while I'm traveling and living out of hostels and stuff.

 

[dullard]

Soldering pencils in general aren't temperature controlled (meaning you either kill components with too much heat or can never the the solder to stick because you don't have enough heat for a big component / big copper area) and the tips aren't the right shape (too big for small components and too small for big components / desoldering).

Beginner breadboards should be about the size of a checkbook.

 

[fuzzybabybunny]

Soldering pencils in general aren't temperature controlled (meaning you either kill components with too much heat or can never the the solder to stick because you don't have enough heat for a big component / big copper area) and the tips aren't the right shape (too big for small components and too small for big components / desoldering).

Beginner breadboards should be about the size of a checkbook.

There has got to be soldering pencils that are temp controller, no? I wouldn't think a boxy soldering station would be required just to control the temperature of a soldering pencil...

 

[dullard]

There has got to be soldering pencils that are temp controller, no? I wouldn't think a boxy soldering station would be required just to control the temperature of a soldering pencil...

I never looked before. Seems like there are some:
http://www.sears.com/koval-inc-60w-...-SPM7659848128?prdNo=3&blockNo=3&blockType=G3

I can't vouch for their effectiveness. I can say that the standard pencils that I've seen are utterly useless. Well, not completely, I have grudingly used a soldering pencil at times to shrink heat-shrink material if I can't find a hot air gun handy. But a flame lighter works better if I am in that pinch.

 

[William Gaatjes]

I learned it at school when i was young. But i had it also as a hobby, so i was eager to learn.
I started out with a breadboard and a multimeter and a supply of components, that has grown over time. Best purchase was a little Russian made oscilloscope when i was a teenager. Was a small Russian one, a C1-94. Had to put all my savings in it but it helped me visualize what was happening in my circuits i build on my breadboard and i understood what was explained at school. And so grew my understanding.

But you do need a basic understanding of the basic components. Transistors, inductors, resistors and capacitors.

 

[William Gaatjes]

I should mention, i still make mistakes. Today i measured a +100MHz signal with a 500MHz agilent DSO oscilloscope. But it was too large and distorted. As it turns out, my 3 inch ground wire of my oscilloscope probe was acting as an inductor and together with the probe capacitance it worked as a resonance circuit, increasing the signal i tried to measure. Only when i used a very short ground connection for my probe of about 10 mm in length i got a more proper signal on the oscilloscope.

 

[Red Squirrel]

I sorta got into Arduino when I was trying to figure out the best way to monitor battery voltage of a custom UPS, then I discovered Arduino. I set it up real quick and got it to do what I wanted and kinda grew from there to monitor other stuff around the house like mouse traps in the attic. Then I kinda got interested in the whole idea and been doing lot of reading and video watching since. Recently bought a bunch of components from digikey and also got a USB AVR programmer from Amazon so I can learn how to program micro controllers directly without needing to use something like Arduino. I ended up cheating a little and still using the arduino bootloader and code because there's so much documentation on it, but eventually I'll play with coding them directly.

I have a raspberry Pi I want to play around with too but did not play much with it yet. I have one I use strictly as a computer for movies though but there's lot of fun stuff you can do with the GPIO pins that I have not touched yet.

 

[CountZero]

A bread board is definitely the way to go.

I learned a bit about electronics from a series of beginner's books I got at Radio Shack, that was 20+ years ago though, I'm sure there are online resources that do the same.

Arduino and Raspberry Pi also target different levels of project. See this link for some of the differences and why you'd choose one vs the other:
http://readwrite.com/2014/05/07/arduino-vs-raspberry-pi-projects-diy-platform

The best way to learn is to either come up with a project you want to do or find some already done projects, copy them and then modify them to see what happens.

If you come up with your own project break it down until you get some very basic pieces. For example if you want to build a stop watch:

-Stop Watch
-Display (5 8-segment displays)
- One 8-segment display
- One LED
-Timer
-Timer chip or timer interface if arduino has one
...

Starting from knowing nothing this gives you something to build to. First you control a single LED, then a single 8-segment, then a group of them. Then you learn about timers, then you figure out how to combine what you know about timers and the displays and so on. The key is to break it down it to small things you can more or less completely understand. You might find that your original breakdown is wrong but that's all part of the learning.

 

[fuzzybabybunny]

Are there any cool projects people recommend where I could actually build something I would continue to use on a day-to-day basis?

I think this would escalate quickly into a raspberry-like project though. I'm thinking like a R-Pi with a 3G/4G shield and a movement sensor - I could place the thing on the top of my laptop at a Starbucks and it would text me when it detects it has been moved.

Or something along that line.

Or maybe building something that you could buy but don't use often.

Things like stopwatches and stuff can be done on a smartphone with an app. I would feel a bit sad spending all that time building something so common only to immediately take it apart since it serves no purpose other than a learning project.

 

[sdifox]

Are there any cool projects people recommend where I could actually build something I would continue to use on a day-to-day basis?

I think this would escalate quickly into a raspberry-like project though. I'm thinking like a R-Pi with a 3G/4G shield and a movement sensor - I could place the thing on the top of my laptop at a Starbucks and it would text me when it detects it has been moved.

Or something along that line.

Or maybe building something that you could buy but don't use often.

Things like stopwatches and stuff can be done on a smartphone with an app. I would feel a bit sad spending all that time building something so common only to immediately take it apart since it serves no purpose other than a learning project.

rpi is not a good place to start. It's a computer.

 

[Red Squirrel]

My first project was a thermostat system, though it was before I knew about arduino and I used a board that had the sensor ports and relays built in, and just wrote the code for it, so not sure if that even counts other than soldering the sensors and connecting them. I later on got an arduino for some input sensors for other stuff like battery voltage for my backup system. Again, more on the code side than actual electronics.

If you truly want to get into electronics and not just micro controllers, a good place to start is building a bench power supply. That's on my list of things to do. Maybe add a micro controller to it too for voltage control and display and so on.

 

[William Gaatjes]

Here is an idea :
I remember just now i got a 100 circuits book. Originally from one of those do it your self electronic kits with springs.
For example :

But i did not got the kit itself, just the book. Since an electronic shop opened up near my parents house, i bought some components there and plugged them on the breadboard (i bought after getting the book) and build according to the schematics in the 100 circuits book. In the beginning i did not understand much of it. But that happened along the way.

I remember i build an amplifier with 5 transistors and made a circuit ( a 5 stage darlington) that would turn on a lamp when i put my hand close to the wire connected to the base of the first transistor. That was quite an achievement for me at that time.

Indeed, those radioshack booklets , i had a few of them too, about a 4017, a 555 and the 741/ 1458 opamp.

 

[mikeford]

Wait a few days until a new silly idea comes up.

 

[fuzzybabybunny]

Hey, sorry for resurrecting this thread but I wanted to ask:

Would software "simulators" be a good substitute for learning about circuits? I was talking to a friend about designing circuits and he said most of it's done with software nowadays.

It makes sense. A piece of software could have a near-infinite "shelf" of electrical "parts" that could be used to put together custom circuits and provide instant feedback on the inputs and outputs.

Would this be a good substitute for working with physical items and learning?

Are there any good circuit software recommendations?

 

[William Gaatjes]

Hey, sorry for resurrecting this thread but I wanted to ask:

Would software "simulators" be a good substitute for learning about circuits? I was talking to a friend about designing circuits and he said most of it's done with software nowadays.

It makes sense. A piece of software could have a near-infinite "shelf" of electrical "parts" that could be used to put together custom circuits and provide instant feedback on the inputs and outputs.

Would this be a good substitute for working with physical items and learning?

Are there any good circuit software recommendations?

Linear Technology has a free simulator called LTspice.
You can do the basic stuff here as well. Build circuits
You can measure with a probe on the circuit as if it was an oscilloscope. You can do DC analysis, AC analysis, frequency sweeps and more. It comes with a detailed manual. It calculates the efficiency of your circuit when you make a switch mode power supply.


http://www.linear.com/designtools/software/

 

[disappoint]

One thing you can't do on a simulator though....build a crystal set radio. I used to love those when I was a kid.

 

[Fritzo]

I started with a Raspberry Pi for a Kodi box, and started modding it.

 

[ultimatebob]

Are there any cool projects people recommend where I could actually build something I would continue to use on a day-to-day basis?

I think this would escalate quickly into a raspberry-like project though. I'm thinking like a R-Pi with a 3G/4G shield and a movement sensor - I could place the thing on the top of my laptop at a Starbucks and it would text me when it detects it has been moved.

Or something along that line.

Or maybe building something that you could buy but don't use often.

Things like stopwatches and stuff can be done on a smartphone with an app. I would feel a bit sad spending all that time building something so common only to immediately take it apart since it serves no purpose other than a learning project.

If your laptop is fairly new, it probably already has a motion sensor for the hard drive fall protection system. I'll bet that there is a way to use the output of that sensor to do what you're trying without getting additional hardware.

A Raspberry Pi seems like overkill for this. I have mine running a Wordpress server

 

[TheVrolok]

One of my Pi's I use as a media display device built into a memory box. Another I use as a portable game and media box (kodi/emulationstation/dosbox). A third I use for home monitoring and automation.

 

[klod]

I'd like to try this

http://www.howtogeek.com/220969/turn-a-raspberry-pi-into-a-steam-machine-with-moonlight/

 

[TheVrolok]

I'd like to try this

http://www.howtogeek.com/220969/turn-a-raspberry-pi-into-a-steam-machine-with-moonlight/

That's next for my aforementioned media Pi2.

Edit: Seemed pretty straightforward, but won't pair correctly with my gaming PC. Hmm, will have to play with it later.

 

[twinrider1]

Are there any cool projects people recommend where I could actually build something I would continue to use on a day-to-day basis?

This is what stopped me. I like electronics, working with my hands, etc. But I haven't thought of something to I'd want to do with them.