Ways of learning

[Mobile]

For a couple of years I have dabbled with electronics but have never really found a good "solid" way of learning. I found the Forrest M. Mims book somewhat unexplained and confusing, but I just have trouble making it very far through some other documentations.

How did you guys learn? Any suggestions? Good books?
I found this website and I don't know whether it's good or not. It may be a bit simplified and it seems to lack many specific circuits and mathematical calculations; it may be hard to turn around and apply the concepts, idk.

 

[stevez]

A formal education that includes or is followed by actual practice works best for many people. A "formal education" could be via university but it also could be a trade school, technical institute or by other means. The "formal" part suggests something well thought out and organized - usually by people who might be regarded as experts in their field. The programs usually contain coursework that is often thought to be not relevant to the task at hand - yet they are the very things that become the foundation - those things that would enable "solid" learning.

It seems natural to want to pick up a book or do something and come away from it knowing all you need to know. Unfortunately electronics (and most other fields) is just too large and broad - you need to take things a small bite at a time. A given course has a clear beginning/end and allows for focused effort. In and of itself it might be regarded as useless but is often necessary to allow learning at advanced levels.

A simple view of learning might be like crossing a stream - the other side of the stream represents the end - the "end" being whatever you or others intend. The side you are on represents your position at the start of the journey - your interests, IQ, past education and experience, etc. Some streams are narrow enough that you simply step across. Most often they are not - the courses and experience are like stepping stones hopefully organized so that the distance between the stepping stones can be managed by you. Most of us would like to cross the stream quickly as we are anxious - for many things it takes a lot of time and effort.

A formal education is not the only way to learn. Some people are able to make their way across the "streams" described in the previous paragraphs. The Forrest Mims book that you describe can be a place to start and for some it's more than sufficient for their needs. He does touch on basic Physics but it's no substitute for a focused course in the physics relevant to electronics - that would be a rather large book all by itself and would require complimentary mathematics courses to get thru it all.

How did I learn - as a kid I took apart and fixed old televisions and radios. Latin, Math, Science and Industrial Arts were my high school majors - followed by a Mechanical Engineering degree making it part way to an MBA - then 30 years on the job at a huge technical company with lots of formal training. Electronics and amateur radio are my hobbies - my background helps me move up the learning curve a bit faster than I might otherwise.

My advice is to take things one step or bite at a time. Without knowing more about you it's hard to make recommendations. If you are young and you'd like this to be your career then I'd encourage that you seek out the more formal paths - but don't ignore the opportunities to learn on your own. Find an area of interest and go for it. You might be forced to copy the work of others so you can actually accomplish things to keep it fun and interesting - nothing wrong with that. As you do these things you can look back and try to understand why and how it works - a good approach and possibly very efficient for you.

Books - I rather like Paul Scherz "Practical Electronics for Inventors". ARRL Handbooks are good as radio amateurs tend to be people with varied and non-electronic backgrounds.

Good luck.

 

[RadioRon]

stevez has put it quite well. I wanted to add another mention that electronics is indeed a large and complex study. In college it is broken up into the study of mathematics, physics, logic, programming, communications principles, modulation and noise theory as well as courses about devices and circuits. So, there is much to study and it may be a lifelong study. So, please do not be discouraged by it all, but rather try and take it bit by bit.

Many years ago I considered trying to pass the local professional engineers exams through self study. I decided that going to school is a lot easier than trying to do it on your own. You have instructors, who have designed a structured and gradual way to teach you, plus you have classmates who are struggling too and can be a useful community. So, consider going to school somehow.

 

[Mobile]

Wow, awesome advice stevez!

I'm 18 and will be attending college next year where I could try to start some formal education right away. I guess i'll just do whatever I can in between now and then.

I have a pretty in depth book that covers basics of dc, basics of ac, inductance, capacitors, and a few other mini-topics. It does not just try to cover the whole field at once so perhaps it is somewhat of a "stepping stone".

 

[quixotron]

A formal education that includes or is followed by actual practice works best for many people. A "formal education" could be via university but it also could be a trade school, technical institute or by other means. The "formal" part suggests something well thought out and organized - usually by people who might be regarded as experts in their field. The programs usually contain coursework that is often thought to be not relevant to the task at hand - yet they are the very things that become the foundation - those things that would enable "solid" learning.

It seems natural to want to pick up a book or do something and come away from it knowing all you need to know. Unfortunately electronics (and most other fields) is just too large and broad - you need to take things a small bite at a time. A given course has a clear beginning/end and allows for focused effort. In and of itself it might be regarded as useless but is often necessary to allow learning at advanced levels.

A simple view of learning might be like crossing a stream - the other side of the stream represents the end - the "end" being whatever you or others intend. The side you are on represents your position at the start of the journey - your interests, IQ, past education and experience, etc. Some streams are narrow enough that you simply step across. Most often they are not - the courses and experience are like stepping stones hopefully organized so that the distance between the stepping stones can be managed by you. Most of us would like to cross the stream quickly as we are anxious - for many things it takes a lot of time and effort.

A formal education is not the only way to learn. Some people are able to make their way across the "streams" described in the previous paragraphs. The Forrest Mims book that you describe can be a place to start and for some it's more than sufficient for their needs. He does touch on basic Physics but it's no substitute for a focused course in the physics relevant to electronics - that would be a rather large book all by itself and would require complimentary mathematics courses to get thru it all.

How did I learn - as a kid I took apart and fixed old televisions and radios. Latin, Math, Science and Industrial Arts were my high school majors - followed by a Mechanical Engineering degree making it part way to an MBA - then 30 years on the job at a huge technical company with lots of formal training. Electronics and amateur radio are my hobbies - my background helps me move up the learning curve a bit faster than I might otherwise.

My advice is to take things one step or bite at a time. Without knowing more about you it's hard to make recommendations. If you are young and you'd like this to be your career then I'd encourage that you seek out the more formal paths - but don't ignore the opportunities to learn on your own. Find an area of interest and go for it. You might be forced to copy the work of others so you can actually accomplish things to keep it fun and interesting - nothing wrong with that. As you do these things you can look back and try to understand why and how it works - a good approach and possibly very efficient for you.

Books - I rather like Paul Scherz "Practical Electronics for Inventors". ARRL Handbooks are good as radio amateurs tend to be people with varied and non-electronic backgrounds.

Good luck.

Sound advice. But you will find electromagnetics involves vector calculus, matrix algebra and tons of electromagnetic physics. It will be quite difficult to sit out and derive field equations using green functions, henkel functions, bessel functions and whatnot.

on top of that, you need to understand it, and implement it in such a fashion that someone could use it.

I hadn't realized when I was working in Ball Aerospace Compact Antenna ranges or IBM's EMC labs, that electromagnetics is a very abstract, complex discipline. You can't quite take a measurement of an electric field as taking the voltage across a resistor in a simple curcuit with an oscilloscope. You can sample its magnitude with field probes. But the nature and properties of waves in media is mind blowing. diecltrics are everywhere and can seriously load antennas and detune it. or a small cable can leak radiation thus having your device fail FCC certifications. Field patterns and antenna gain change with surroundings.

you're not gonna be a successful RF engineer w/o spectrum analyzers, network analyzers, anechoic test chambers, antenna ranges, em simulator software and thorough background knowledge. schools usually have these equipment in one manner. they are all very very expensive to procure and maintain. very unlikely for a garage-grown, handy electronics man to have this stuff.

you can probably pull it off, its not impossible. but it is much more difficult and time consuming. i'm there but I can't describe to you the times I made my life miserable trying to be a decent RF engineer. its physically and mentally draining. just about everyone i talk to say how they're glad they stood out of this area.

in this case, a university degree is required or very strongly suggested.

either way,good luck.