wanna practice hands on out of school for practice

Hey guys, with the weekend here i really wanna put some time into learning electronics and getting ahead in school so i can pick up more during the class then worring about the simple stuff. i was wondering if or what you guys use for practice, wether it be work sheets or a software program or a book.

In my class we have a lab book that i can use with any of the above mentioned out of class which i would like to start doing so i dont waste my lab time in school on stuff that is easy i can do on my own but would rather use that valuable time talking with the teacher on the stuff i couldnt figure out on my own.

So far i have the program workbench or what i believe is now called multism version9. its basically a lab but software instead of physical parts. i find it great for building circuits for practice and using the meters instead of burning out the real ones lol. I also, found out you can download predrawn circuits and use those to mess with. just wondering if that is enough to use own my own or if maybe something better is out there, please let me know.

also, does anyone have any web sites or know where to get any good work packets or work sheets on some of this stuff. like maybe worksheets for practicing symbols or formulas? i try searching goole and find some stuff but instead of wasting the whole day on that maybe someone has links they wouldnt mind sharing.

i might even go to the radioshack and buy a electrical lab they have there. thanks

Then brush up on your troubleshooting skills. Don't bother with worksheets and paper garbage. The paper stuff will just seem like pure work and you will learn it eventually in school and then forget it. IIf you learn it now, you'll probably forget it by the time you run into it. Personally, I also found most lab manuals very strangely worded and hard to follow without actually being around the equipment.

The stuff that will really tie you up, that you don't necessarily learn, and end up learning when you need it most (trial-by-fire, do-or-die, no practice runs) is troubleshooting. If you do learn troubleshooting in school, it will during times when your success matters the most (kind of like learning math by writing the final exam). That also means building by hand where you can encounter loose wires and bad connections and wrong connections that look exactly like correct connections.

I don't practice for school sakes though. Too boring. I build my own projects and stuff. You are just starting university? If you don't have a specific project you want to build and want one really applicable to a lab, get a breadboard and mess around building transistor-based amplifiers (including differential amplifiers) and filters. I personally found those to be among the hardest to do in the lab, short of any RF circuits which can't be done without more background. But analog is my weakness- others may differ.

All About Circuits : Free Electric Circuits Textbooks

I don't practice for school sakes though. Too boring. I build my own projects and stuff. You are just starting university? If you don't have a specific project you want to build and want one really applicable to a lab

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Dk, the poster is attending a vocational school not a University. I doubt they will have lab projects as they do in a Uni. I think the poster is looking for additional resources to suppliment what he is learning.

also, does anyone have any web sites or know where to get any good work packets or work sheets on some of this stuff. like maybe worksheets for practicing symbols or formulas?

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The best way I have found for memorizing things like symbol identification is to make flash cards. Just get a pack of 3x5 cards. Draw symbol on one side and definition on the other side. I would have never made it through Anatomy class without flash cards.
As for additional worksheets, take a trip to your Barnes and Noble book store. They have a section for exam study, they have study workbooks for various subjects.

I think they have this book at Barnes and Noble.
**broken link removed**

start making projects

start with simple timer oscilator circuits first on a bred board then soldering on a print board

let leds flash or make simple detection circuits

the more you progress the complicater the circuits gona be

as dknguyen said experiance loose wires or some shody welding work and you will learn the importance of working neat and you will learn trouble shooting

2 very important skills to master if you want to put yourself up for sucses

Robert-Jan

rjvh said:

start making projects

start with simple timer oscilator circuits first on a bred board then soldering on a print board

let leds flash or make simple detection circuits

the more you progress the complicater the circuits gona be

as dknguyen said experiance loose wires or some shody welding work and you will learn the importance of working neat and you will learn trouble shooting

2 very important skills to master if you want to put yourself up for sucses

Robert-Jan

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I absolutely agree, R-J.

A dollar's worth of components and a five-dollar multimeter can provide many hours of entertainment and education. Learning the very basic circuits, and understanding why they work, gives one the building blocks for all other projects.

For example, with just two resistors, a transistor, a battery and an LED, one can build a circuit that will, coupled with some "how'd that work" questioning, unlock many electronic mysteries.

An oscilliscope and complete workbench is not necessary for good learning.

Let's not get ahead of ourselves here. Before we start breaking out the DVM and breadboards, some basics are needed. At this point he has not even learned what a semiconductor is yet, let alone how to wire one up.

At this point stick to the book work, learn how to tell the difference between a diode and a hole in the ground, then start making circuits.

Mikebits said:

Let's not get ahead of ourselves here. Before we start breaking out the DVM and breadboards, some basics are needed. At this point he has not even learned what a semiconductor is yet, let alone how to wire one up.

At this point stick to the book work, learn how to tell the difference between a diode and a hole in the ground, then start making circuits.

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If he is learning to be a technician, then praxis is much more important than theory, and trouble shooting is the most important tool he can develop. If Tony has only been introduced to diodes, then learning how to ID them, and ascertain their condition with a DMM is paramount.

More elementary, and more important, even, is breadboarding simple series parallel circuits and measuring them to find out how they operate, and how they fail. There is more to be learned from calculating the voltage at certain points in a cct, and the currents through the cct, then bread boarding it to see if your calculations are correct. Try to imagine what effect on a resistor going O/C or S/C will have on these voltages and currents, then test it by replacing the resistor with one of a much larger, or much smaller value, then do the measurements to see if you were correct.

There is a lot to be learned with just a few resistors, a cheap bread board, and a DMM, and it is the kind of learning which cannot be gained from a book.

dknguyen said:

Then brush up on your troubleshooting skills. Don't bother with worksheets and paper garbage. The paper stuff will just seem like pure work and you will learn it eventually in school and then forget it. IIf you learn it now, you'll probably forget it by the time you run into it. Personally, I also found most lab manuals very strangely worded and hard to follow without actually being around the equipment.

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I think this is good advice, well worth listening to.

All About Circuits have an experiment section.

Well, guys i really need to discipline myself into devoting more time into my studies... i do this every weekend and now i am kicking myself... I have school monday, tuesdays, and thursdays from 6:00 p.m. to 10:30 p.m. and i am home by 11:45p.m. that all on top of a regular 8:00 to 5:00 job 5 days a week not to mention two small little girls that want all the time i have as well and believe me seeing these two little smiles when you get home on non school days when you say before you get off the train, i am studying all night derails the whole study idea lol...
As for this weekend i told myself studying the whole weekend, lol yeah right turns out my oldest of 5yrs had recieved a bladder infection and was at the hospital on friday so of course i was concerned all day and couldnt wait to get home to see if she was okay.

Anyways i did managed to study for about 3 hours on saturday i reread my chapter 13 which is on relays and i was able to answer all the review questions so i feel i am good with the chapter and moving onto the 14th chapter which we will start tonight in class which is circuit protection.

Oh i was going through some of the post since friday and i do wanna mention to the comment someone said about the vocational school i am attending by not having lab, we actually do have lab, its just a board with alot of components with snap on wires and what not, almost like a radioschack electronics kit but 20x larger lol
i also, bought this good book a few weeks ago for a research project for school and actually love this book. its called, Basic electricity revised edition complete course. this book is awesome, easy to read much easier then my school book, not as technical, what i do is if i see the school book boring and i fall asleep every chapter i then go over that chapter in my new book and then i can get through it without sleeping lol.

Also, guys i had a brain storm this weekend and not sure if i have mentioned it but wanna know your guys feed back. Okay, i would love to go to school full time and think i have found a way to do this. My house is killing me without it i could stop working and go to school and do intermship only. which to me would be the best bang for me, right?

Well, my brother in law finally moved out of the inlaws. i know for a fact they would not mind me and the wife and kids to move in and just help them out a bit. not only will this give me the oppurtunity to go to school full time and do internship but the only way i feel to really do this the way i want to.
The only problem is getting rid of the crap house i have. i would just wanna make it out even thats all, pretty much sell as is. my wife would still work plus, she is in the process of getting a new job with more money so she wouldnt mind me not working but some people i have mentioned this too say not a good idea. i do not see how this could not be a good idea any one else?

tony8404 said:

snip... i do this every weekend and now i am kicking myself... snip...
As for this weekend i told myself studying the whole weekend, lol yeah right ...snip

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This sounds about right for any one I've ever known. It is hardly ever the school work itself; life usually gets in the way! If it was easy, it wouldn't be worthwhile....

tony8404 said:

Anyways i did managed to study for about 3 hours on saturday i reread my chapter 13 which is on relays and i was able to answer all the review questions so i feel i am good with the chapter and moving onto the 14th chapter which we will start tonight in class which is circuit protection.

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Sounds like good study habits to me. The most important is to pre read the chapters so you can get involved with what is talked about in class. Take an active role in the discussions.

tony8404 said:

i also, bought this good book a few weeks ago for a research project for school and actually love this book. its called, Basic electricity revised edition complete course. this book is awesome, easy to read much easier then my school book, not as technical, what i do is if i see the school book boring and i fall asleep every chapter i then go over that chapter in my new book and then i can get through it without sleeping lol.

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I think your experience here is typical. You should try reading Art History; best sleeping pill I ever took. lol
Using multiple sources is most often a good idea, but ultimately it is your instructor who will decide your mark, and his or her views are the most important, so when your second source disagrees with theirs, use your instructor's view point.

The whole thing about school is that many times you may feel like you want to give up - don't. Just keep going, even if the going is tough. Finishing is the most important part!

edit:
If you can go to school full time, you will have more focus, and probably more time to spend with your kids and wife as well. It all comes down to finances.