hey,
advice? I dunno, obsessive problem solving always spurred me on
That and an unholy love of all things 'electronic', always wanted to know exactly how things worked, down to the finest detail. I've blown loads of transistors and IC's (whats Vss and Vdd again?
), its all a learning curve. But, as with most subjects, theory and practicality are two different things....experience counts for a lot. My way of learning was to set myself almost impossible tasks...like building guitar effects pedals when i started, took ages of research and tinkering, but I got there in the end. I imagine most would get put of by this though, best to set reachable goals.
One little tip, its probably obvious, but with both hardware AND software, start of with a basic idea, brainstorming. Then break things down into block diagrams (or flow charts for software). You can then go into even more detail, breaking up each block into more blocks...then design a circuit for each one. Once you have all the 'blocks' done, you add them together, then check it over to see if it all works, and THEN comes the practical part, then debugging, then redesign....you'll get better at it. Plus you build up a library of useful software snippets, or little circuits (like a power supply circuit...or LED display driver etc..) which can be used again and again.
An example would be something like a digital voltmeter, pretty pointless but educational. You have your input, protection circuit, voltage buffer, ADC, then some intelligence (a micro?) then your LED display. You can design each part seperately. The whole 'input -> process -> output' thing is everywhere. Thinking in a modular way has stood me in good stead
http://www.discovercircuits.com has LOADS of schematics, many with detailed explainations...if you see something you dont' know about...open up another browser and google you heart out, if you wonder how something works...books and the internet are wonderful tools. Finding an interesting project thats both 'doable' AND useful can sometimes be difficult, you'll probably get bored knocking up a circuit that makes a few LED's flash in pretty colours (still seems to do it for me though...). So, if you have a hobby that uses electronics (music, computer modding, modding cars etc..) try to come up with an application, then worry about design.
Anyway, probably doesn't help at all, but hey, its late, and I just wanted to stick my oar in.
The forever-geek:
Blueteeth.