The gateway to electronics???

[icebreaka]

Lols with the topic..

I’m just wondering how all you people learnt about electronics .. transistors, resistors, fets whatever.. all that stuff. and soldering .. and so on and so on..

Cos i am a total newbie.. I don’t wanna be stuck forever with a stock electronics mini-z.. and i hate all my bit-charg’s that get broken when i try to change the antenna.. lols.. (bad @ soldering) …

So yeh.. jus wanna learn the “gateway” into being an electronics professional.. 😉 hehe.. i plan to do electrical engineering or telecommunications engineering in uni next year.. maybe that will help! 😉 ..

But at the moment.. I suck at soldering.. i don’t know all the electronics mumbo jumbo.. and my hands are too shaky..

Thus.. can i get tips PLEASE!!! 😉 .. hehe.. i saw a $10 electronics learning magazine in jaycar maybe that will help?? hehe u reckon? ehehe.. please give me a method of learning electronics!

thnx guys… ( inspire me 😉 )

[betty.k]

the first kits i got was a fm microphone and a multi meter. any of the kits from dick smith or jaycar are worth buying as they have little booklets explaining the basics of the components and soldering tips. there’s lots to choose from so you’ll find something you’ll like:8ball:

[PandaBear]

If anybody wants the full trilogy #1/#2/#3 of Dick Smith’s FUNWAY project books in mint condition pls let me know… $10 postage and they’re yours. 🙂

Electronics is 90% common sense and 9% theory, 1% pure luck. You can do it “hard knocks” style and read basic primers like the FUNWAY etc, then Silicon Chip (SC) magazine or back issues of Electronics Australia (EA) — with these mags, the older the better as imho current issues don’t teach you much ‘basics’.

btw MOSFETs and stuff like that come into “power” & “signal” electronics, then you need “communications” for the RF & coding side of things. These are only 2 parts of elec eng… about 10%.

Eng is a fun career if you’re the right type for it. A strong maths background, patience & logic thinking are good prerequisites.

[Admin]

I was lucky I guess that my Dad was interested in electronics, so I was butchering kits at an early age… 12 or 13 or so. By about 18 I was able to build most things, and then I turned down Electrical Engineering at Uni and TAFE to work for Telstra full-time. I also did some TAFE part-time to work on some more electronics.

Now I’m in my 30’s, I’m confident to work on pretty much any small kit, except for surface-mount stuff. Have built my own ESC, rebuilt and rewired radio gear, all that sort of thing.

What would I suggest for you? Maybe try “Talking Electronics”, they were always a good magazine for building kits, and thus learning about electronics… http://www.talkingelectronics.com/ … or you could try the FunWay series of books from Dick Smith, they start fairly basic and work their way up. Oh, and practice practice practice! Buy a kit or two, and make sure you have a nice small bit for your soldering iron. Then practice some more 😉

Good luck mate!

Alex

[jamiekulhanek]

My tips:

Buy a GOOD, expensive iron, such as a weller soldering station. I have had a decent amount of experience with a weller soldering station (cant recall what model it is, will look when i get home) and a cheap dick smith iron.

The dick smith iron had me on the verge of tears all the time, i hate it so bad, that its going in the bin….no wait…..i’ll find a use for it!

The good irons operate on 12-24v, for sensitive components (they have their own transformer), usually have silicone insulated wire (this makes work about 5x easier, as with a cheap iron you are constantly fighting the stiff cable, as it never wants to bend the way you want!)

Also they are usually temperature controlled, or adjustable. And the tips are TOP quality.

NEVER buy a cheap crap iron, an expensive one will last for a very long time and is a joy to use!!

Right, buy yourself a couple of kits and practice, also practice stripping and tinning wire, generally you will do alot of this.

Soldering is really easy, SMD soldering is a degree harder, as everything is miniscule, i do a bit of SMD, and it’s still challenging, especially with a big conical tip!

[PandaBear]

Soldering -like welding- is an Art not a Science.

It takes patience and lots of practice. Which means the average woman can probably master it better than a guy… if she can be bothered trying.

[icebreaka]

So those 3 funway books for $10? If so.. yeh i’ll take em asap!? .. what are they btw.. lols.. but yeh im interested..

lols about my solder.. i have a $6 40w from clints crazy bargains.. lols.. 😀

hmm… so i guess its time to start buying kits aye.. i didnt think kits were used to learn electornics..

[merc-blue]

get a 30W or a 15W casue any electronics on 1:64 – 1:24 is gonna be smallish stuff so needs smaller soldering iron

[betty.k]

i think if you already have a soldering iron, just make do. i’ve only got a $30 tandy special and it’s never been a problem. if the tip is too fat you can always file it to a finer point. what jamie says is true, quality tools help produce quality work, but it aint the rule. ph2t has a worse iron than me and can do a better job than i can.
and yes, kits are an invaluable source of learning. you don’t even need to understand electronics to build one simply following the assembly instructions is enough to get it working. they’re fairly cheap and once you’ve done a couple you will have enough skills to work on more complicated kits like amplifiers or whatever’s out there. and the best part is after your lesson and practice session you have a cool electronic gizmo, battery tester, digital multimeter, theremin, whatever!:8ball:

[oldtamiyaphile]

I too only have a cheap iron (one game in a free tool set), the biggest problem with cheap irons is that the tips get eaten by solder flux. I think Bunnings wants $30 for Weller tips, so you should see what I’ve been using lately!

I would love a proper set up, but theres always another car, boat or plane that needs Lipos, an ESC or more micro servos…

[Admin]

Guess I was lucky… my iron came ex my previous employment…. interchangeable tips (I mostly use the micro tip for fine work), 240v, nice power, plus a bonus roll of fine solder… oh yeah, and all my ex tools 😉

Got to get around to swapping to my largest tip and trying battery pack building/maintenance… or just ‘borrow’ the old man’s “Big as your arm” super iron… man, that thing is almost as old as I am!!! Almost as big too 😉

Alex

[kevsta]

My soldering iron is one of those dick smith specials which is about 15 years old now but thats because the elect eng course required you to get one of them.

[Author]

Posts