Help on How to learn

Forrest Mimms,getting started with electronics. Old book,out of print, but still has the basics. I have other books but still refer to this when I get mixed up. if I just had one book,that would be it.

LINK

Dale H

Other than basic electronics books and the like, I believe the best way to learn is to simply start by attempting some simple projects.  For many people, and I'm on that list, jumping in to the pool is one of the best ways to learn.  The bonus is you have a feeling of satisfaction when your project functions.  You can also ask here and in many other venues when you get stuck on an issue.

David, gunrunnerjohn has a good point.  Just get started.  Kits are very helpful.

My website has some good basic information for starters.  See the left column under Technical Info.  This MTH Mel's Drive-In Diner (#30-9105) repair evolved after reading about bad solder joints on this forum.  All of us have basic circuits available when you need them.

Forrest Mimms also has four other books about different components and circuits that you can use them in. They are smaller in physical size, maybe like 5"x9" or so. Radio Shack used to have these books in including the one mentioned above by Dale H.

I'm also still learning and have all these books. Started buying them a few years ago and just finished off the last 2 books of the 4 book set from the close out sales this spring. The one Dale H posted would give you an idea of what to start tinkering with and also some parts to start accumulating for experimenting with. You could look into the 4 book set after that. I agree with the others that experimenting is the best way to learn, but I needed the books first, to help learn what to experiment with and how to do some of the experiments.

Radio Shack used to have a Make: Electronics Discovery book (or something close to that). They had also put together a kit for it. The kit had all the parts for the experiments in the book, but was rather pricey. I don't know if they will still be carrying these or not? I think I saw then on closeout when most of the stores around here closed down.

Jameco Electronics is another good place for learning tools, parts and kits. They have some good info there and may have some beginner kits as well. SparkFun Electronics is another one. They also have a lot of Arduino related items, robotics and many other things. There are others, but I think these are a good starting point.

Here's a link that shows the five Forrest Mimms books 

I learned what little I know with this book and several of the old Radio Shack electronic how to booklets.

Jerry

To the original poster

I suggest you read the Mimms book suggested. Then if you have any questions,you can post it here.Maybe some EEs here will explain.  DC current,rectifiers,diodes and capacitors can all be explained fairly easily. It is not really complicated,especially if you wired a house and understand circuitry. 

Unless you want to repair PC boards,you don't need a whole lot more.2 or 3 formulas,fuses,resistors and wire size tutorials and you are pretty much set to learn and make train circuits and wire a layout,making things happen electrically,whatever you desire to do,even museum quality automation if desired.

There are a number of circuits,train related, on my blog,a lot focuses on relays used with diodes,capacitors and DC current and external timer modules.Time is probably the least modeled thing in model railroading and easily done with simple components.  Take AC voltage,run it though a bridge rectifier and you have pulsed DC voltage. Add a capacitor and you have steady DC voltage,like what comes off a battery.  With the above knowledge as complicated as the circuits may seem, all would be understandable with the basic knowledge mentioned.. 

LINK

Dale H

Here are a couple of youtube channels that may be of assistance as well. Forgot about these earlier.

EEVblog and mjlorton

These might be a little advanced for the most part, but there is also some good learning info at each channel. Anyway, I think they are worth a look even if you decide not to pursue them further.

Thanks to all of you for your suggestions.  The Mimms book is available on Amazon, so an order will go out tonight.  I learn by doing pretty well, but need just some of the basics to get started.   

I feel your pain David. Electronics are kind of a two level discipline. The first level is fairly basic, understanding the components and being able to follow a schematic to assemble a given circuit. Show me one, and I can make 1000.

My intimidation comes in circuit design. I'm not sure if any amount of experimentation is going to help with that. That takes the basic knowledge and mixes it with math.

 Electronics themselves are mostly DC modifiers to achieve an end result. Knowing the basic function of each component is the key.

  The rest is a puzzle of what's available, and how that limits/guides you.

 Assembly of designs is sort of done uniquely each time.

My general mindset is to think of electricity as if it were water attempting to flow.

A resistor is a narrow pipe, a diode is a one way check valve, transistor a relay, etc. 

Kits are great and experience cannot be learned in books. 

Assembling a few different LED modules will give you a way to see the variations possible in even a simple circuit like that.

  But your limiting yourself only building it. Study what's there till you think you understand it. Swap in a component of close value and note the change. Did you foresee the outcome correctly? Either way, now you've learned more than how to solder faster .

 At a coin or twos price for each its not like your burning the bank even if you make some other things smoke.      

One point to remember.  You typically learn a lot more from your failures than your successes.  Try some stuff, fail a few times, and you'll remember the lessons.  Most of the electronic components you would be using are cheap, so it's not expensive to have a few failures.  I've been doing electrical engineering for longer than I care to remember, and I still occasionally release the magic smoke.

Thanks to all of you for your encouragement to just dive in.

The Mimms book arrived Sunday, and i read about half of it.  Lots of my electronics memory from 40 years seemed to come back quickly.

Tonight on way home from work, stopped by RS and picked up a few parts.  Converted an Mth ATFS caboose from two incandescent bulbs to 3 strip LEDs with bridge rectifier, capacitor, and resistor.  Added a micro on off switch (for grins) by using the Dremmel to cut a hole in the floor.  Then did the same thing for an older Lionel UP smoking caboose that no longer smoked, but at one point seemed to like to get hot enough to melt the shell (Older model bought off the bay, think it liked 14 volts).    The  cabese? now have lighting which is much more natural (less bright) and no flickering. Lost the smoke function on the UP caboose, but like how it turned out.   

Looking forward to my next projects.

Good going, all the fears were unfounded.

If you are running command insert a 3 amp diode in series to the smoke unit on an older caboose. 18 volts is too much. . Dropping voltage with diodes is discussed in the Mimms book and also here.

LINK

Dale H

Except the one about the side of the caboose melting from the smoke unit.

(Which it might have done. Yes, there are threads about that too David)

This is a good place to start learning:

http://www.allaboutcircuits.com/textbook/

A blast from the past, I picked this up when I was still in the US Navy.   Surprisingly, a lot of still useful information in it.

Kalmbach has many toy train electrical books you can buy. If you go to E-Bay you should find many books at a cheap price(used).

yes I have one of the old 555 timer chips books that were used widely in the older electronics circuits, they are very usually for almost any applications.

Alan