Electronics blog for beginners

FredBlais · 2013-01-23 18:31

Hi everyone,

I just finished my electrical engineering degree last month and got a job in industrial automation. Where I live, electronics jobs are hard to find. I won't give up electronics though, so I bought a lot of equipments and tools (university lab is far away).

I really like to teach, and I also want to practice my english writing skills so I decided to create a little blog : http://electronicsbyexamples.blogspot.ca/

Tell me what you think guys! But don't be too hard with me

Fred

NWCCTV · 2013-01-23 18:47

Not bad. Kind of ironic. I just today asked for permission to link Parallax to a new page on my current site. Mine will be more about technology though, but similar to this in that it will help educate some. I have an engineering friend that also teaches and his class is currently gearing up for this years FIRST competition. I am hoping to get him and several others to chime in with projects and just good ol' advice. My ultimate goal is to steer people towards Parallax products and their AWESOME support that IMO, as of yet is unmatched. Good luck with the site.

FredBlais · 2013-01-23 18:52

Thanks. Be sure that I will add a little Parallax touch in the mix (probably some projects with the propeller). Send us a link when you're done with your site. In the meanwhile, I'll try the post new things everyday for the next days.

NWCCTV · 2013-01-23 18:58

FredBlais wrote: »

Send us a link when you're done with your site. .

I will do that. Although right now it is on the LONG To Do list! It seems every time I get going good on a project something always seems to come up. Once I do have it on line I will place a link to your site also. It's good to know there are so many out there that are willing to take the time to do things like this.

MacTuxLin · 2013-01-23 20:36

Looks like a good start. Admire the motivation. Maybe, IMHO, you can also share how to use some of your equipments like oscilloscope & stuffs.And, like what he said, showing projects is one of the best ways to educate the principles of electronics too.

FredBlais · 2013-01-24 05:23

MacTuxLin wrote: »

Looks like a good start. Admire the motivation. Maybe, IMHO, you can also share how to use some of your equipments like oscilloscope & stuffs.And, like what he said, showing projects is one of the best ways to educate the principles of electronics too.

Thanks!

I suppose it's you there?

I will share how to use the equipment (seems basic but is great for a beginner). The oscilloscope as a big beast, I'll try to cover as much functionality as I can. Later, I plan to make a post about soldering best practices, tips and tricks for SMT. Do not hesitate to give me ideas.

Fred

prof_braino · 2013-01-24 07:49

That's pretty cool. Your English is just fine.

One thing you might consider: The title is "for beginners" but one of the first things you mention is an oscilloscope. This was always daunting for me, as these are very hard to obtain and difficult to use for a beginner. In fact, only this year did I finally obtain one and finally was able to use it correctly during testing for the first time a few weeks ago. (I'm usually software, not so much hardware).

Also, "variable power supply". These are easier to get, but still a bit past "beginner". Before I found one I could afford, my variable power supply was changing the number of batteries in the pack.

I am looking forward to you instructions how to use test equipment. I never did get proper training on hardware.

RDL2004 · 2013-01-24 08:15

I don't know, I think today the three basic items an electronic hobbyist must have are a multimeter, a decent power supply, and an oscilloscope. None of them have to be high priced, exotic versions when just getting started. A $50 multimeter, a cheap, under $100 USB scope and $50-75 for a power supply is not unreasonable and makes for a good start.

FredBlais · 2013-01-24 08:34

Thanks, for your feedback prof_braino and RDL2004. You are right, an oscilloscope as a bit advanced and some of the intruments I have are maybe a bit pricier than the cheapest model. The goal of this was more like an overview of things you might need to work with electronics, to get an idea.

Mark_T · 2013-01-24 08:35

Nice presentation, a good start I think.

Regarding oscilloscopes perhaps look to provide alternative, cheaper, suggestions (for instance
the Seeedstudios miniature DSO's, or even this little wonder:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=Q22tB7C-bMg )

I sense you are pitching it at the same sort of level as college electronics courses (but without the homework
assignments?). There are a lot of pretty unstructured resources out there for hobbyists and beginners, I find,
so navigating through these is probably bewildering for many. Good luck with it all.

FredBlais · 2013-01-24 08:50

Mark_T wrote: »

Nice presentation, a good start I think.

Regarding oscilloscopes perhaps look to provide alternative, cheaper, suggestions (for instance
the Seeedstudios miniature DSO's, or even this little wonder:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=Q22tB7C-bMg )

I sense you are pitching it at the same sort of level as college electronics courses (but without the homework
assignments?). There are a lot of pretty unstructured resources out there for hobbyists and beginners, I find,
so navigating through these is probably bewildering for many. Good luck with it all.

What I will do is teaching a bit of theory and explain some beginner and interesting circuits. I think I should provide a kind of grocery list (maybe a newark part list) of basics tools and instruments.

Without any doubts, there is a lot of resources on the internet and what I will post is probably already explained hundreds of times. But I do this for fun, and it is my vision and experience on the subject (I think it never hurts to learn something from multiple point of view).

Fred

FredBlais · 2013-01-25 18:49

@Mark_T

I added your youtube video on a new post. You are right, this oscilloscope is a little wonder

Maybe I will have the chance to get my hands on one of those someday!

Fred

ElectricAye · 2013-01-25 20:04

Looks good except for one thing: your workspace is too clean. Normal people won't recognize that as a place to get anything done. You need scorch marks. You need smoke patterns blackening the walls. You need indications of things melted, sizzled, branded into your table top.

FredBlais · 2013-01-28 06:50

ElectricAye wrote: »

Looks good except for one thing: your workspace is too clean. Normal people won't recognize that as a place to get anything done. You need scorch marks. You need smoke patterns blackening the walls. You need indications of things melted, sizzled, branded into your table top.

Don't worry, I'll take care of that!

FredBlais · 2013-01-29 20:59

I updated the blog with a little bit of theory. This will give you an idea of what my future tutorials will be like.

FredBlais · 2013-03-24 12:01

It's been a little while since my last post here... I added a few articles to my blog (see link in my signature). I plan in the future adding some tutorials on SPIN programming, but there is so much tutorials on it out there, I will try to make that as simple as possible.

Does some of you have request for a subject I could take about in my next articles? I'm open to suggestion!

Thanks,
Fred

NWCCTV · 2013-03-24 12:05

Does some of you have request for a subject I could take about in my next articles?

Sure, I'd like to learn how to build a Nuke so I can counter N. Korea when they try to hit WA. State with theirs!!!!!

FredBlais · 2013-03-24 12:11

Haha, yeah I heard a bit about that here in Canada, I hope that nothing bad is going to happen!

Electronics blog for beginners

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